[peabody]

Originally Posted by ridgewayranger

Hi,
I note with interest your comments on the hedgehog, because I am probably one of the few left that actually trained on and fired H/H, on Castle class corvettes, developed from the Flower class,not during the war, I hasten to add!
To add to what you already know, the spacing in the ellipse, the H/H pattern in the water, was such that if one detonated, they all did, adding to the destructive force. They obviously would detonate on hitting the seabed unless it was soft ooze. The weapon had a fixed firing range of about 230 yards and fired in pairs in a ripple, with each spigot displaced from the centreline to give the pattern. It was in effect a bunch of 24 spigot mortars. Needless to say, reloading was not easy, each bomb being carried to the mounting and gently (very!) lowered onto it's spigot. Each weighed about 35lbs, not a lot, but in heavy weather needing care.
The mounting was also used on M/Ls, and ships with limited deckspace by splitting it down the middle, so that it could be fitted either side of a gun mounting, for instance.
There is a recorded instance of a H/H being fired in harbour, much to the surprise of everyone, especially the local inhabitants, faulty electrics during a circuit test. Fortunately the built in safety prevented detonation.
H/H was superceded by Squid and Mortar Mk 10 (Limbo). If anyone is interested I will explain them another time.
RR

Thanks for the additional info, I didn't know they all exploded. Was it from the force of the first explosion that made them explode?

Peabody