Best Torpedoes

[elmilitaro]

Ok guys, what country do ya'll think had the best torpedoes?


Japan in my opinion.

[Gnomey]

Agreed, Japan. The Long Lance was fairly comfortably in my opinion the best torpedo of the war, especially in the early years.

[Glider]

For surface hips that was certainly the case all through the war. Unfortunately for the Japanese, it couldn't be used in a submarine.

For Submarine use my vote would have to be for the Germans from around 1941 on. They had all sorts, ones with magnetic pistols, ones that homed onto the sound of a ships engines, ones that went a distance and then circled so if you aimed it at a ship in convoy and missed it would circle and have a chance of hitting another.

Strangely enough, if you asked for the worst I would say Germany up till 1940 they were awful, maybe even worse than the early American torpedo's.

[Glider]

or even surface ships, to much rum

[trackend]

The 24inch Long Lance was ( in my opinion ) the best it had a teriffic range, around 10 miles at getting towards 50 knots, very good guidance, topped off with 1000 lb warhead, if it had sported the British Duplex trigger it would have been even better.

[elmilitaro]

I agree, how many people improvised their torpedoes to hit ships in shallow water.

[Soren]

Germany for sure, with their acoustic homing G7es T5-11 torpedo's "Zaunkönig's" (Or "GNAT's" as the Allies called them), and the pattern running G7e FAT or LUT torpedo's.

The G7es T5 "Zaunkönig I" was an improvement on the already successful G7es T4 "Falke". The "Falke" worked much like a normal straight running torpedo for the first 400m of its run, then its acoustic sensors became active and searched for a target. (The Zaunkönig torpedo activated its acoustic sensors after only 250m)

The introduction of the "Falke" in 42, meant that German U-boats could now remain more deeply submerged and fire at convoys with nothing to give away their position but the noise of their screws. And rather than aiming with a periscope, the torpedo could be roughly aimed at a sound contact as detected by a U-boat's hydrophones, and the homing device could be trusted to find the target without the need for precise aiming.

However the allies were on to the Germans:
The allies had a great deal of intelligence about the Zaunkonig – even before it had entered service. Thus as soon as they had confirmation that an acoustic torpedo was being used, they introduced the Foxer, an anti-acoustic torpedo device. This noise maker was towed behind warships to decoy the acoustic sensors of the torpedo. While designed to lure the acoustic torpedo away, it made such a loud noise that it broadcasted the convoy’s location for miles away, attracting U-boats which would have otherwise not have heard the convoy. In addition, it also interfered with the escort’s sensors and sonar, making it of dubious value in its role.

However this wouldn't help the allies much, as realizing what was happening, the Germans introduced the second generation of acoustic torpedoes which were more accurately tuned to a ship’s propeller noise.(The Zaunkönig II)

The G7es T11 also called "Zaunkönig II" had an improved range and sensitivity, enabling targets moving at 9 knots to be tracked. The Zaunkonig II could also be launched from up to depths of 50 meters (164 feet), compared to 15 meters (49 feet) for the Zaunkönig I.

These German acoustical torpedo's were so advanced that there wouldn't be any Allied equal before more than a year after WW2.

[syscom3]

The USN had a fairly successfull acoustic torpedo nicknamed "cuties".

They were to be used against anyi sub ships. It had a very small warhead, but since it was going to aim at and explode on or near the screws and rudder of its target, it would disable its prey.

[Soren]

However these USN acoustic torpedo's didn't have the tracking abilities of the Zaunkönig's, and as you mentioned yourself their small explosive charge wasnt really up to snuff.

IIRC the USN Mark.24-33 torpedo warhead's consisted of no more than 92 lbs of explosives, compared to the 607 lbs warhead of the Zaunkönig. (A big difference !)

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I am having trouble deciding between the Japanese, British, and Germans. I think these 3 countries made the best torps of the war.

[Glider]

British ones tended to be simple but effective. It should be noted that we used a WW2 Mk 8 to sink the Belgrano in the Falklands

[syscom3]

Heres an interesting chart of the Japanese torpedo's.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/torps.htm

[Gnomey]

That is a good site syscom, I use it a fair bit, good charts as well showing how much superior the Long Lance was than the comparable torpedo's of the day.

[syscom3]

The whole site is fantastic.

[Gnomey]

Originally Posted by syscom3

The whole site is fantastic.

Yes it is, a great source of information.