“I do not believe that ever in the history of war, men have been sent against the enemy with such a useless weapon” - Karl Donitz
"[I] could hardly be expected to fight with a dummy rifle”. - - Gunther Prien - - German WW2 U-boat ace.
Do not think, however, that it was strictly American submariners that had trouble with their magnetically armed torpedoes during the Second World War [WW2]!
So did the German!!
Again, the magnetically detonated torpedo that the German submariner had such high hopes for! NOT only hole an enemy vessel well below the water line, but possibly damage the keel of the enemy ship and "break the back", so to speak. A kill shot for which no damage control would be possible!!
The German too, surprisingly, at the start of World War Two [WW2] experienced a LOT of trouble with their torpedoes.
"World War 2 torpedoes were quite fickle. They had to be pulled from their tubes and serviced every two or three days."
"When war broke out in September 1939, Germany was poised to strike at the western powers with new weapons and technologies. For the U-boat Force, it was their new submarines and the newly developed torpedoes . . . the results of the new torpedo was disappointing. Many commanders began to relate accounts of torpedo failures."
"[during the Norwegian campaign - - 1940] Every day and every hour, U-boats were attacking warships or were being attacked themselves. Day in, day out, night after night, the U-boats fired their torpedoes one after another, relentlessly against their targets. Not one of them exploded"
The magnetically armed torpedoes were found to be deficient. Drastically so, and for a variety of reasons, to include:
* "contact detonator" [faulty]
* "magnetic detonator" [faulty]
* "depth keeping ability" [faulty]
[so similar to the American experience in the Pacific theatre, is it not??!!]
"As a result of the torpedo scandal, several top officials of the Torpedo Directorate were court martial-ed for negligence in duties."
The German - - not like the American - - did not hesitate to punish THEIR ordnance personnel that performed in a less than adequate manner!! Court martial-ed and punished!
coolbert.
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1 comment:
The British had also problems with magnetic fuzes, at last for aerial torpedoes. See the Bismarck story.
They were extremely lucky that the malfunctioning torpedoes were used (in error) against a British cruiser that shadowed the Bismarck.
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