Midway! An Exciting Painting About A Great Day.

[MIflyer]

 

[Crimea_River]

What's the story behind that one?

 

[buffnut453]

It was one of the B-26Bs launched from Midway Island to conduct torpedo attacks against the Japanese fleet. Maybe this link will help:

The US Army leaves an unwelcome calling card with Admiral Nagumo.

 

[pinehilljoe]

I've wondered if skip bombing tactics had been developed in early '42 if the B-26s would have been more effective using conventional bombs.

 

[MIflyer]

I have wondered the same thing. Aside from the B-26 crews not being trained to use torpedoes they were equipped with the lousy products of the USN's Rhode Island Torpedo Factory. I do not think that any of the very few USN-made torpedoes that hit their targets at Midway actually detonated. That included the torpedoes launched by the USS Nautilus at the derelict IJN carrier Akagi. At least one of the torpedoes that hit had its undetonated warhead break off and sink, leaving the remains of the torpedo to be used as a flotation device by IJN crewmen.

But in the Solomans they did not use skip bombing, as in skipping the bombs off the water like a rock on a pond, but instead used low altitude bombing. Just think - if that B-26 had been carrying even half a dozen 100 pounders and slung them into the carrier's stern during that attack, that probably would have changed everything. As it was, they had already launched their torpedo and turned toward the IJN carrier only because there was less AAA coming from that direction.

 

[Gnomey]

Cool!

 

[BiffF15]

Yes, great shot! The crewmen below deck could hear the B-26 crews big brass ba-ls clanking down the deck...

 

[wrenchedmyspanner]

I have wondered the same thing. Aside from the B-26 crews not being trained to use torpedoes they were equipped with the lousy products of the USN's Rhode Island Torpedo Factory. I do not think that any of the very few USN-made torpedoes that hit their targets at Midway actually detonated. That included the torpedoes launched by the USS Nautilus at the derelict IJN carrier Akagi. At least one of the torpedoes that hit had its undetonated warhead break off and sink, leaving the remains of the torpedo to be used as a flotation device by IJN crewmen.

But in the Solomans they did not use skip bombing, as in skipping the bombs off the water like a rock on a pond, but instead used low altitude bombing. Just think - if that B-26 had been carrying even half a dozen 100 pounders and slung them into the carrier's stern during that attack, that probably would have changed everything. As it was, they had already launched their torpedo and turned toward the IJN carrier only because there was less AAA coming from that direction.

This is probably a dumb question but knowing how poorly those torpedoes performed, would it have stood a better chance of exploding with a VERY late release where the torpedo might (hopefully) slam into the side of the intended floating target? A foolish idea I'm sure since I have not an inkling of how dangerous that would be to the aircrew. Just a what if question.

By the way, I apologize if this post is out of place or even appears to be hijacking this thread. Not my intention.

 

[Barf]

What's the story behind that one?

Try to find a copy of "The B-26 Goes to War" by Stan Walsh-Marauder Historical Scociety. It has the full story as well as lots of other fascinating info. ISBN 978-1-5462-2166-1 (sc) or 978-1-5462-2165-4 (e)

 

[MIflyer]

One of the main problems with the torpedoes produced by the RI factory was that the contact exploders had been redesigned to work through a 90 degree angle. In other words, rather than having something similar to a firing pin hitting a primer on a round of ammo, there was a right angle in the way. And the material used for the pin was not strong enough to be able to transmit that force through that right angle. The net result was that if the torpedo made a direct hit on the target at a right angle, the torpedo usually would not explode. A glancing blow kind of a hit was more likely to work. Aside from that, in order to save money so that more civilians could be hired, the testing done was totally inadequate and did not include actual live warheads or even a lump of concrete designed to simulate a real war head. So, with that extra weight of a real warhead the torps did exactly what you would expect - ran deeper. A torp set for a certain depth needed to hit the side of the ship actually would run deeper, and go under the ship.

The torps also used magnetic exploders designed to exploded when the torp ran under the ship, breaking its back. Once again testing was grossly inadequate and the magnetic exploders either did not work or caused the trop to explode right after it was fired from the sub, or anywhere else it decided to go off. Everyone else in the world tried magnetic exploders and gave up on them but the USN insisted they be used.

 

[buffnut453]

Try to find a copy of "The B-26 Goes to War" by Stan Walsh-Marauder Historical Scociety. It has the full story as well as lots of other fascinating info. ISBN 978-1-5462-2166-1 (sc) or 978-1-5462-2165-4 (e)

Well thanks a BUNCH!!! That's ANOTHER book I need to add to my library. Sheesh...I thought we were here to help each other, not feed each other's addictions!!!!

 

[Wayne Little]

Most interesting...

 

[MIflyer]

Well, here is another book to oppress you. "Hellions of the Deep" about USN WWII torpedoes.

 

[pinehilljoe]

Also, a fictional account of the B-26's at Midway is included in Martin Caidin's Whip. Funny I read this book in High School, and just looked for it on Amazon, its called a vintage paperback.

 

[MIflyer]

Aviation History Magazine had an excellent article on the B-26's at Midway and they illustrated it with that painting/ I'll have to see if I have the magazine somewhere. I recall that after the mission they took the engines off the B-26, which they said were made by Ford, and sent them back to the factory for examination. They found that despite having been run at War Emergency Power far longer than was supposed to be Okay, the engines still looked fine inside.

 

[wrenchedmyspanner]

Aviation History Magazine had an excellent article on the B-26's at Midway and they illustrated it with that painting/ I'll have to see if I have the magazine somewhere. I recall that after the mission they took the engines off the B-26, which they said were made by Ford, and sent them back to the factory for examination. They found that despite having been run at War Emergency Power far longer than was supposed to be Okay, the engines still looked fine inside.

Thanks MIflyer, you're a veritable font of information! If my memory is correct, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the US Navy actually limit testing to only two torpedoes? One was a dud but the other exploded normally; a 50-50 result. So the Navy purchased torpedoes knowing that at least half of them might be duds. I know it's impossible to know exactly how many were duds (US submarines were lost in combat after all) before they were finally replaced?

 

[SaparotRob]

I have wondered the same thing. Aside from the B-26 crews not being trained to use torpedoes they were equipped with the lousy products of the USN's Rhode Island Torpedo Factory. I do not think that any of the very few USN-made torpedoes that hit their targets at Midway actually detonated. That included the torpedoes launched by the USS Nautilus at the derelict IJN carrier Akagi. At least one of the torpedoes that hit had its undetonated warhead break off and sink, leaving the remains of the torpedo to be used as a flotation device by IJN crewmen.

But in the Solomans they did not use skip bombing, as in skipping the bombs off the water like a rock on a pond, but instead used low altitude bombing. Just think - if that B-26 had been carrying even half a dozen 100 pounders and slung them into the carrier's stern during that attack, that probably would have changed everything. As it was, they had already launched their torpedo and turned toward the IJN carrier only because there was less AAA coming from that direction.

There was only one successful torpedo attack by US forces at the Battle of Midway.
A PBY Catalina torpedoed the Akebono(?) Maru.

 

[SaparotRob]

..of course being a Mark 13, only minor damage inflicted.

 

[MIflyer]

Hellions of the Deep may discuss the testing in detail; I do not recall. But there is no doubt testing was far too limited. For the magnetic exploder the tests were done around the equator and at the time it was not known that the Earth's magnetic field varies quite a bit by location.

The acoustic homing torpedo, developed not by the USN's RI clown circus but instead by a completely independent team of academia and industry, killed a U-Boat on its very first combat use and was a great success. Later in the war they got the air launched torps working so well that they replaced the ones previously mounted on Patrol Torpedo boats and did away with the tubes, just dropping them over the side.

When some German electric torpedoes were captured the RI factory was told to copy them but just could not get the job done. The job was turned over to Westinghouse, and was done successfully.

After the war the USN torpedo people were embarrassed to learn that the IJN Long Lance torpedo's miraculous performance was based on using pure O2 in the air flask rather than just the compressed air the US torps used.