CD Baumann
Airman
- 19
- Aug 2, 2024
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I don't know the answer to your question, but I read part of and skimmed most of an outstanding book on torpedo technology "Iron Men and Tin Fish" which covers all the torpedoes used or made by the US Navy from the Civil War on. The book spent a lot of time covering why the magnetic exploders sucked (new technology that was not fully tested and was therefore unreliable). But the exploder itself wasn't the only problem and it overshadowed other serious issues with the USN's torpedo program.The Mk 23 torpedo. It sucked. At least at first. As I'm sure most of us are aware it struggled in combat till 1944 when they got the bugs worked out. What I'd like to know is in that two year period was the USN able to use some workarounds, like with the mk 14 submarine variant, to get her functioning?
For example: sub commanders were told to subtract 10 feet from any depth estimates because the mk14 ran too low. They also had to switch from the magnetic fuze to a contact fuze. The latter needed to have her during pistol beefed up as she fired a projectile that was to light to explode the warhead.
So to reiterate, did they have any workarounds for the mk13 aerial version like this?
I don't know the answer to your question, but I read part of and skimmed most of an outstanding book on torpedo technology "Iron Men and Tin Fish" which covers all the torpedoes used or made by the US Navy from the Civil War on. The book spent a lot of time covering why the magnetic exploders sucked (new technology that was not fully tested and was therefore unreliable). But the exploder itself wasn't the only problem and it overshadowed other serious issues with the USN's torpedo program.
The main issue was that the navy had refused to do adequate testing on all of its torpedoes because of money constraints. So the Mk. 23 wasn't the only bad torpedo. All US torpedoes were riddled with issues that even basic testing would have revealed. These things didn't even run straight most of the time. Although the Mk. 13 was regarded as having the same issues as the Mark 23 as they both used contact exploders. I don't remember anything in the book dealing with field mods. The field mods that I'm aware of were applied to the Mk. 14 and other magnetic exploder-equipped torpedoes. They simply removed the magnetic exploder and replaced it with a gun exploder, as you mentioned.
IIRC, the Mark 13 had issues with workmanship and poor quality materials. .It also lacked a "drag ring" and a "shroud ring" (meaning it wasn't hydrodynamically stable and wasn't reinforced enough to always survive contact with water at speed). But the book didn't mention much about how engineers jury-rigged field modifications for the Mark 13. IIRC, the book said that they just dealt with crappy torpedoes up until at least 1943. I should reread it as I didn't go through it as thoroughly as I should have.
I have a vague memory of the USN reverse engineering the Japanese box tails that allowed for their torpedoes to run correctly when dropped at high speed and low altitude. It's probable that they did field testing of that modification.
What was the name of guy who ran BuOrd? The "Mark 14 torpedo is just fine" guy?I strongly recommend reading "Wolves without Teeth," which is about the Germans' attempts to deal with the failures of the fuses in their torpedoes. It's almost always portrayed as, "They had problems in Norway, but then the fixed everything." That is entirely untrue.
High level officers were court martialed for dereliction of duty.
Although it is remotely possible that he was not aware of the German torpedo problems, until shown otherwise I would assume he left it out to prevent comparison with - and distraction from - his subject.Clay Blair's enormous 2 volume set "Silent Victory" goes into detail on the US torpedo failures. I do not recall anything about German torp failures in his his enormous 2 volume set "Hitler's U-Boat War."
No, Adm Lockwood was one the good guys. I think Adm Christie gets the blame. I just rewatched the Drachinifel episode.Was it ADM Lockwood? The USN rotated their most promising officers through the Newport station and they all KNEW they had done an exceptional job. The problem HAD to be
incompetent captains. By the way, the Newport Station, with its workforce of unfireable civilian craftsmen, could, by really working hard, produce 50 torpedoes a month. THE ACTUAL WARTIME REQUIREMENT WAS 1500 A MONTH!
Clay Blair's enormous 2 volume set "Silent Victory" goes into detail on the US torpedo failures. I do not recall anything about German torp failures in his his enormous 2 volume set "Hitler's U-Boat War."