[merc4ulfate]

Originally Posted by swdw

From doing RFB it always amazes me how many people are surprised to learn how bad our torpedoes actually were.

Wish I still had all the files when I researched this, but if someone has some historical questions, I'd be glad to answer.

So people know, a target angle of 90 degrees (perpendicular) had a <10% chance of detonating when run at high speed. As the angle changed, the chance of detonation increased. If I remember right (been a while so these may be off) it was 70% at 45 degrees and 90% with an angle of 20 degrees or less. There was little change in the dud rate until an angle of 70-75 degrees was reached. There were other numbers I found, but those are the ones I remember.

Going to slow speed didn't double the chances of detonation, but did increase them.

My understanding is someone came along after I turned over the RFB project and changed the numbers, getting them wrong. Too bad. But man did I catch hell for the torpedo changes and had to post the story of the Tinosa and a couple others for people to back off.

Note: this doesn't even take into account the depth problem or the magnetic exploder issue

Yes the dud rate was horrendous during WW2 for the USN. Good thing they had all those IJN propellers to retrofit the firing pin or they would have never sank a thing.