Quote:
|
Originally Posted by tater
Yes, the contact pistol broke at 90 degree impacts, only grazing angles were unlikely to break the contact exploder. They never live fired any mk14s to test them, they didn't want to waste the money, lol.
The faster torpedo speed smashed the pin. On slow speed, they should actually be OK.
For a while there was a standing order to set up shots so the fish would impact at an angle.
|
Ironically, when they discovered that they needed a different metal to make the firing pins out of, they had right there at Pearl Harbor. They used the propellers from the Japanese aircraft that had been shot down as it was a strong alloy.
Prematures: One of the big reasons magnetic pistols prematured was because the torpedo moving at 46 knots created it's own magnetic field. If a skipper was lucky and in the right area, all the factors cancelled each other out and he sank ships. But that was by far the exception...
Also--if it's possible to model--the submarines opertating out of Pearl were the first to deactivate the magnetic exploder. Adm Christie in Australia refused to do so. Why? He had helped develope the Mark VI Exploder.
