Relialiability of German torpedoes throughout WW2

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timotheus1
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Joined: 09 Mar 2014, 01:53

Relialiability of German torpedoes throughout WW2

#1

Post by timotheus1 » 10 Mar 2014, 00:19

Hullo.

I was always intrigued by the fact that at the beginning of WW2 German torpedoes were... bad. Many of them failed to explode even when target was hit, many were basically defective.

I know that the Germans of course did their utmost to fix these problems once they recognized that there WERE problems - which was not easy due to typical German bureaucratic obstinacy in WW2 Germany.

I was wondering, when did the Germans reach the 100% reliability rate for their torps (or as close as 100% reliable as humanly possible)?

flakbait
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Re: Relialiability of German torpedoes throughout WW2

#2

Post by flakbait » 10 Mar 2014, 07:43

Am not certain when the problems were completely `fixed`, but seems the magnetic detonator firing pistols were at fault mainly. Most major navies, Germany included were certain that actually detonating a torpedo UNDER the hull of the target (especially armored warships ) was a much more desired tactic, causing catastrophic damage to the bottom of the target`s hull which of course was unarmored at all. Ironically, the Brit`s briefly suffered the same problem, the Americans suffered from a large percentage of duds particularly with the submarine Mark 14- look up USS TINOSA`s two almost identical 1943 episodes. Only the Japanese at the beginning of her entry into WW2 had VERY dependable DEADLY torpedoes, and their Type 93 came as a very devastating long range shock to the US Navy...Part of this was due to the Imperial Navy`s prewar emphasis on both night time and bad weather training, especially with torpedoes. The Allied nations prewar considered torpedoes almost too expensive to actually even train with them in peace time, where as the Japanese insisted on frequent live launches, figuring losing ships was more expensive than losing torpedoes. Guess who did better when the fighting started?


SnakeDoc
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Location: Warsaw, Poland
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Re: Relialiability of German torpedoes throughout WW2

#3

Post by SnakeDoc » 10 Mar 2014, 08:14

There were three problems with German torpedoes - faulty contact pistols, faulty magnetic pistols and faulty depth-keeping gear.
As I remember, all of these problems were finally solved after Drumbeat campaign, that is around mid-1943.
See this document:
http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.e ... ontext=etd

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Regards
Maciek

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