Impact or Magnetic.....

[Slick Rick]

I have to admit....I play single missions mostly but this question applies to both......Recently I was playing and I had no less than three torpedoes bounce off a destroyer to no avail.....the first one was set to magnetic.....so the next two I changed to impact with no change...this was the teflon destroyer.....are these just bum torps or am I doing something wrong....all three shots were within a 1000 mtrs.....

[Slick Rick]

And I might add the AOB was almost ninety degrees.....

[irish1958]

Early in the war the torpedos were all poor. I remember reading the report of an American Sub CMDR who reported all his torpedos mal-functioned. There was quite a blow up at the navel ordinance about this. I don't think it was fixed until late 1942 or early 1943.
irish1958

[davidaspy]

Magnetic Torps should be set to explode under the (setting the torpedo depth 0.5 meters below the ships hull works well) so bouncing off shouldnt be an issue for them.

Personally I use magnetic almost all the time. Only if a ship is half sunk and I cant figure out the right running depth do i play it safe and use impact.

[gallycadet]

Stupid question, but what exactly is it about blowing a torpedo up right under a hall that makes it better? wouldn't that make it worse since not all the explosive power is focused at the ship?

[Camaero]

It is the water that creates the extra force. The explosion pushes up the water around the hull and creates a powerful boom!

[Sailor Steve]

Water doesn't compress, so the force remains quite strong in all directions. Having a torpedo explode against the side of the hull makes a big hole, which is good. Exploding underneath the bottom gives it a good chance of cracking the keel, thus breaking the ship in two, which is much better.

[Ducimus]

Magnetic or impact depends on the state of the sea's and the draft of your target.

Ideally in a perfect world, you'd go magnetic. As getting a hit under the keel of a vessle does more to sink it then a hit alongside the hull.

However its not a perfect world.

If the seas are too rough, the extra water movement, like a crossing a ships wake, is liable to make the magnetic detonator explode prematurely.

Also if the seas are too rough, the draft of your target is going to vary too much for any reliablity on getting that fish under its keel. The ship goes up.. and down... up and down..... torpedo does too i think. Not very reliable.

In these situationis i set my torpedo depth to 0 meters and use a contact pistol.

However the exception here is shallow draft ships which can a PITA to hit in rough weather. Ive learned that if you hit just above the keel where the hull starts to curve the torpedo will not detonate. With shallow draft, ships, with 0 depth and contact.. tahts where it tends to hit in rough weather.

That near keel hull curvature is just like shooting at a real bad gyro angle. So with shallow draft ships, id attempt magnetic, or let them go, your chances to sink them in rough weather isnt very good.

[SmokinTep]

Depends on the sea state and AOB. I prefer the magnetic.

[Dowly]

I like impact fuses. I like to blow holes. :)

[Ducimus]

Depends on the sea state and AOB. I prefer the magnetic.

I forgot all about AOB. I think of it always, but its a subconcious thought. If the angle is too great, then i automatically switch to magnetic without a second thought, or not shoot at all if the seas are too rough.

[TwistedFemur]

Stupid question, but what exactly is it about blowing a torpedo up right under a hall that makes it better? wouldn't that make it worse since not all the explosive power is focused at the ship?

http://www.geocities.com/rsist33/UnderKeel.jpg
This is what magnetic does
Sorry about the size dont have a proggie that can resize

[Krupp]

Amazing pictures :up:

Do you know what kind of torpedo warhead there was? If even near to ww2 loads, I'll be tweaking my torpedoes faster than light.

[Gizzmoe]

This is what magnetic does
Sorry about the size dont have a proggie that can resize

I have removed the image tags from your post. Please do not post overdimensioned pictures, it makes the thread very difficult to read! Irfanview (www.irfanview.com) is good to resize images.

[Krupp]

Answer to my own question above: MK-48 torpedo. And it has a 290 Kg warhead. THat is pretty much the same as is in german ww2 torpedoes (280Kg).

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-48.htm

[Hartmann]

It depends

Magnetic for lone ships or convoy identified ships, in calm water, high aob angles

Impact for attack convoys at night, running at surface, (when you can´t identify well the target and you don´t know the keel depth), or for finish damaged ships

[eweber]

I set pistol at 3.5m (2.5m for small ships) for early part of war until '43.

Kill C2's 99% of the time with one shot aimed right where forward bridge-house meets deck (where fuel and engine room bulkhead is).

Trouble with magnetic is you have to know depth of target. I'm not sure how to calc this. I.E., if cargo ship ID manual shows 4.7m depth, do I set it at that depth or 1m lower?


;) ew

[Coolhand01]

4.7 keel depth...set torp to run at 5.7-6.2 (or as close to that as you can get)...CH

[wetwarev7]

Water doesn't compress, so the force remains quite strong in all directions. Having a torpedo explode against the side of the hull makes a big hole, which is good. Exploding underneath the bottom gives it a good chance of cracking the keel, thus breaking the ship in two, which is much better.

I would think that the large vacuum bubble at the point of explosion would do alot of damage as well by allowing the ship to flex back down under it's own weight before the water rushes back in.

Or would the water fill that void before the ship came back down?

[TwistedFemur]

Water doesn't compress, so the force remains quite strong in all directions. Having a torpedo explode against the side of the hull makes a big hole, which is good. Exploding underneath the bottom gives it a good chance of cracking the keel, thus breaking the ship in two, which is much better.

I would think that the large vacuum bubble at the point of explosion would do alot of damage as well by allowing the ship to flex back down under it's own weight before the water rushes back in.

Or would the water fill that void before the ship came back down?





When a warhead is detonated at close range beneath a ship, the steam void initially lifts the ship upwards from the middle. This tends to weaken the ship's keel. After the steam void has reached its maximum volume the surrounding water pressure will collapse it. The ship then falls into the void, still supported on its ends. The keel will then break under the ship's own weight. The compression of the steam void will raise the temperature and the bubble will oscillate a few times. The ship may be destroyed during the subsequent oscillations if it manages to survive the first.