MK-14 Torpedo

[Wolfar]

Well they modeled it well in the game!

Last Mission I fired at 2 ships before I remembered the story of the MK-14.

I thought odd that thing still had a ways to go before detonation.

Next ship was a large one so I fired 4 torpedo's, 2 detonated prematurely.

Then the light in my brain came on and I remembered the Magnetic influence exploder malfunctioning story I read in history.

I went back the Wiki page and it never really said if or when they fixed it.

Just that Admiral Nimitz ordered all the Magnetic influence exploders to be deactivated!

I have since turn mine to contact only.

I will give the game kudos for putting real history in the game!

[propbeanie]

The game does an OK job of it, but really doesn't do it as often as happened in real life, which is scary. Imagine wiggling your way into an escorted convoy, shooting 4-6 torpedoes, and getting nothing in return for your efforts, other than a nerve-wracking depth charging... lather rinse repeat, with no do-overs... scary. There are several good write-ups on the subject, but several of them are now behind a pay wall at USNI, and I was not able to find several others I know are out there (thanks Google AI). Fire One - Fire Ten seems an OK replacement. Wikipedia changed their article, and removed quite a bit of detail they used to have. I don't know why, but is probably related to the recent spate of un-intelligent "AI" that wants to "help" us all by re-writing "history"... sigh

Anyway, the gist of the matter is that the USN BuOrd did not want to waste taxpayer's money by testing their infallible product, so they never actually attempted to blow-up a ship, or to even strike a ship with their new Mark 14 torpedo. The submariners were the guinea pigs, and when their reports from the field came in, they were ignored, and/or the crews called incompetent. By mid-1943, it was determined not only that the depth-keeping was borked, but that the magnetic pistol also did not function correctly, which is why Nimitz had them disabled in the CenPac areas. Christie in Fremantle, having been a gun-clubber who had helped develop the beast, did not order them disabled on his SoWesPac boats until much later. Disabling the magnetic pistol then brought to light the issue with the impact pistol, in which the pin would deform, and its track often break from the warhead's impact with a ship. The Pearl shops hand-manufactured a temporary solution, and testing on that began shortly after, near the fall of 1943. You can see an immediate sharp rise in sinkings after the "fix" went into the field.

[Wolfar]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

The game does an OK job of it, but really doesn't do it as often as happened in real life, which is scary. Imagine wiggling your way into an escorted convoy, shooting 4-6 torpedoes, and getting nothing in return for your efforts, other than a nerve-wracking depth charging... lather rinse repeat, with no do-overs... scary. There are several good write-ups on the subject, but several of them are now behind a pay wall at USNI, and I was not able to find several others I know are out there (thanks Google AI). Fire One - Fire Ten seems an OK replacement. Wikipedia changed their article, and removed quite a bit of detail they used to have. I don't know why, but is probably related to the recent spate of un-intelligent "AI" that wants to "help" us all by re-writing "history"... sigh

Anyway, the gist of the matter is that the USN BuOrd did not want to waste taxpayer's money by testing their infallible product, so they never actually attempted to blow-up a ship, or to even strike a ship with their new Mark 14 torpedo. The submariners were the guinea pigs, and when their reports from the field came in, they were ignored, and/or the crews called incompetent. By mid-1943, it was determined not only that the depth-keeping was borked, but that the magnetic pistol also did not function correctly, which is why Nimitz had them disabled in the CenPac areas. Christie in Fremantle, having been a gun-clubber who had helped develop the beast, did not order them disabled on his SoWesPac boats until much later. Disabling the magnetic pistol then brought to light the issue with the impact pistol, in which the pin would deform, and its track often break from the warhead's impact with a ship. The Pearl shops hand-manufactured a temporary solution, and testing on that began shortly after, near the fall of 1943. You can see an immediate sharp rise in sinkings after the "fix" went into the field.

Indeed, there seemed to be incompetence and a lot of hiding the truth!

They denied it even happened for almost a YEAR!

[propbeanie]

This is a fellow's grad study paper, but the Germans had the same issue: Wolves Without Teeth

The really amazing thing, is that the British captured a German electric torpedo. Shared it with the US, who then copied the torpedo (Mark 19) verbatim, errors and all, and unleashed its fury on the US submariners... Tang, anyone??... USS Tang (SS-306) Naval History and Heritage Command, as an example. Others also experienced similar, and there are several boats lost without know cause, that may well have suffered the same fate.

[Wolfar]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

This is a fellow's grad study paper, but the Germans had the same issue: Wolves Without Teeth

The really amazing thing, is that the British captured a German electric torpedo. Shared it with the US, who then copied the torpedo (Mark 19) verbatim, errors and all, and unleashed its fury on the US submariners... Tang, anyone??... USS Tang (SS-306) Naval History and Heritage Command, as an example. Others also experienced similar, and there are several boats lost without know cause, that may well have suffered the same fate.

I just read what happened to USS Tang.

Wow!

[propbeanie]

You need to read "Clear the Bridge" by Richard O'Kane then... lol

[1Patriotofmany]

We also had problems with the impact pistol IIRC, it took a while before one of the big guys(Lockwood I think) ordered tests by dropping the torpedos sans explosives to find that issue.