I'm sure this was discussed before-so,please ignore it if you feel like it.....the M14 magnetic exploder was designed to explode the 'fish' [ the many, many hours of night-reading Pac Sub actions is coming back to me ] under the ship to break the keel...we all know the story....my question, did any other countries try this concept??..why or why not? was it even feasible at that time?? much thanks to any and all replies or views
The torpedo was the Mark 14, the detonator/exploder was the Mark 6. The America, Britain, and Germany all had duplex detonators for their torpedoes. The American and German torpedo troubles are well known and documented, but I don't know to much about the British ones. Japan, I believe, dabbled in the field, but did not make much progress, instead focused on making a fairly reliable contact detonator. Not sure about France or Italy. A magnetic detonator was certainly feasible, but the conditions had to be just right. It did not help matters that the Americans and German torpedoes both had other serious troubles that had to be solved first. Namely, running deeper than than set for, makes the magnetic detonator useless.
yes, good call...I meant M14 T...sorry....good point on depth problems..but , just to me, seems like they didn't have the right technology/experience/information/etc for it to work, [ in the late 30s, early 40s ]..so, by duplex, you mean 2 exploders, with one exploding without contact?? [has there been a thread recently on failed weaponry?? ]
I think I read that the British figured out that their magnetic detonators were problematic before the shooting started in earnest. Lots of information on this at: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/index_weapons.htm Looking at http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WTBR_Notes.htm apparently I got it at least partially wrong above.