Magnetic counter-measures
 

Hey, I usually use impact myself unless I have no chance of a 90 degree attack but i was reading at http://www.comandosupremo.com/Submarines.html that Allied merchant ships recieved magnetic counter measures which were developed by the italians.

Did merchant ships really have an effective way of rendering magnetic pistols into duds by the end of 43? Or was it a case of only a few merchants actually having them. Also is it in the later part of the game?

The technique is called degausing and it reduces the magnetic field of a ship. I don't think it worked that well. Probably a bit of searching in wikibedia and such or a more knoweldgeable Kaleun will produce a more reliable answer. :D

Don't know about merchants of that vintage. USN Warships of that vintage had both on-board de-gaussing field generators and were sent through a static de-guass field in a shallow bay.

We went through a day of de-gauss in the PI before heading north for the Haiphong Harbor raid in May of '72. That was for the mine fields but the principle is the same.

Bob Chase

Hi!

Some warships, such as HMS Hood, had degaussing equipment to help evade magnetic influence mines laid in estuaries and harbor approaches. AFAIK it was not designed to immunize the ship against attack by magnetically-armed torpedo warheads. That would have been pretty tough given the pre-war secrecy that surrounded the magnetic detonators used by both Germany and the U.S.

I'm not aware of merchant ships using degaussing equipment to counter torpedoes using magnetic firing pistols. I'm not sure it would have been worth it given the relatively small number of ships lost to U-boats by 1944-45.

AFAIK it is not modeled in the game, except to the extent that there is a random probability that any torpedo will be a dud.

Pablo

ok, i figured since it was a pro-italian type of site that it would give exaggerated credit to the italian war effort. Just wanted to make sure :)

Degausing was more designed to avoid mines than enemy torpedoes as far as I am aware. I do remember seeing video footage of merchant ships having an electified loop of cable dragged over them to degauss them.

Actually I read somewhere that the degaussing coils on HMS Belfast are still visible today...