parsifal
Colonel
Ive seen claims here that the 18" (British) air launched topedo was inneffctive, at best lucky in being able to damage warships. History demonstrates very clearly this is not the case. There were many actions that the 18in demostrated its effectiveness. In the med, we of course have the attack at taranto, a night attack wjeree I thnink a number of single hits caused battleships to settle to the ocean bottom (ie sink), others wee hit by two or three with similar results. At Matapan there was of course a singlr hit on the Veneto, which alsmost caused her loss. many consider the armouring scheme in the Veneto to be as extensive as that of the best german warships. There were one or two other raids, one off Sardinia early on that i particularly remember where a hit was scored, and forced the italians to withdraw.
Then of course we have the attack on the Bismarck lucky, maybe, but deadly just the same. without that single hit, she would have got away .
There were no hits on the tirpitz, because she was so heavily protected by torpedo nets and terrain. There were several hits on the two battlecruisers whilst they were couppded up in Brest, each of them causing or contributing considerably to the amount of damage they sufferfed. The BCs were anything but invulnerable to British airborne torpedoes. Not too sure what happened at Kiel, but that torpedo hit, coupled with the mine hits, cou0pled with the unrelaistic refit plans, meant that she nbever sailed in anger again. of course her final demise might also have something to do with Hitlers insistence on scrapping the "useless" surface fleet. a totally misguided decision, but influenced by the need to provide such heavy levels of protection for the heavy ships,, against, you guessed it, these "inneffective" british torpedoes. In a way then the British "inneffective" torpedo ordinance brought about the decommissioning of most of the German gunline surface fleet
Then of course we have the attack on the Bismarck lucky, maybe, but deadly just the same. without that single hit, she would have got away .
There were no hits on the tirpitz, because she was so heavily protected by torpedo nets and terrain. There were several hits on the two battlecruisers whilst they were couppded up in Brest, each of them causing or contributing considerably to the amount of damage they sufferfed. The BCs were anything but invulnerable to British airborne torpedoes. Not too sure what happened at Kiel, but that torpedo hit, coupled with the mine hits, cou0pled with the unrelaistic refit plans, meant that she nbever sailed in anger again. of course her final demise might also have something to do with Hitlers insistence on scrapping the "useless" surface fleet. a totally misguided decision, but influenced by the need to provide such heavy levels of protection for the heavy ships,, against, you guessed it, these "inneffective" british torpedoes. In a way then the British "inneffective" torpedo ordinance brought about the decommissioning of most of the German gunline surface fleet