Quote:
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Originally Posted by joea
Quote:
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Originally Posted by hyperion2206
Just out of curiosity: Were the torpedoes used by US surface ships as faulty as the torpedoes used by the sub force?
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Yup.  |
The problem extended even to aerial torpedoes. The Mk 13 aerial torpedo dated from the early 1930s. It was stubby. It's warhead originally carried 400 pounds of TNT, later 600 pounds of Torpex, that made it nose-heavy. Fleet squadrons limited drops to 50 feet at no more than 110 knots from a range of approximately 800 yards. Performance was so bad (until improved in 1944) as to make American torpedo-plane attacks well nigh futile. Luckily, we had good dive-bombers.
Depression era economics were to blame. Torpedoes were seen as too expensive to test by actually detonating. Seems incredible now.