Question about G7e Torpedo

[Huno41]

I was reading on wikipedia about the G7e Torpedo and by the Norwegian Campaign the T2 flaws were corrected and the range increased from 5000m to 7500m, does this happens on SH3 as well? it also says the T3 range was 7500m but in game it's only 5000m ??

[Kapitän]

To my knowledge, the torpedo failures were never really fixed with the standard early war (actually, pre-war) air and electric torpedoes.

To remedy the pistol (Pi-G36) malfunctions, the German Navy actually, adapted the pistols according to the torpedo pistols of the captured British submarine HMS Seal, with the result, that only the contact fuse could be used (Pi-G7H).

This lasted until Nov.1942, when the new pistol Pi39H and the new electric torpedo T-3 was introduced. As of this point, also the magnetic fuse was available again for both, the G7a (T-1) and the G7e (T-3), and the G7a was also, available with the FAT steering head.

So, actuallly, the German Uboats were fighting the main part of the Uboat war with contact pistols only!

The actual running distance of any electric torpedo was very much dependent upon the condition, charging and maintenance of the torpedo batteries and I believe the Sh3 torpedo distances simulate an average distance.

[Leoz]

Also, going by memory, don't have the document in front of me.

Around the first half of '42, the G7e had some kind of safety issue with the battery heaters where they could not be used. Giving the unheated battery range of the G7e at 28 knots and 3000m.

The "just follow orders" add-on addresses this.

[UKönig]

German torpedoes of the WWII era, at least before 1942, really were hit or miss, more often, miss, in conditions where it should have been impossible to do so.
They were never tested fully and properly between the wars, so the makes and models they went to sea with, weren't much better than at the end of 1918.
The contact pistols could be unreliable if striking the target at angles greater than 45°
The magnetic influence detonator was overly complex and prone to many malfunctions, such as detonating too early, or not at all. Seems that the MID had its own battery. Which caused its own maintenance problems, which was corrected in later production torpedoes by having the detonator draw power from the torpedo battery itself.
So if you fire a torpedo on magnetic, and the MID battery is dead, then you will have essentially a contact pistol, which will not explode, because it was not set at a depth to physically strike the hull.
They also had trouble keeping depth, not so much because of bad trimming or loose mechanics, but because the hydrostatic valve that controlled depth, was inside the mass balance chamber at the rear of the torpedo, which was not airtight or pressure proof. This problem was discovered by Otto Ites of the U94, in Jan of 1942, and was the last major defect to be fixed. Up until then, it was advisable to remove about 2m off every shot in depth, before launching.
Still have a few more variables to consider when lining up a shot, but that should explain things a little.

[Terragon]

Ask the Americans in the Pacific as well how reliable their torpedoes were.

...


(They weren't)