Question - Torpedos - REALISTIC?

[Grayson02sept1980]

Originally Posted by Voyd

Technically, they didn't have to be heated. They could be launched, but would loose more than half of their range when running 'cold'.

now I wouldn't dare to say that .. about the distance... you never know how long the torp would really go when the battery is cold cause you have to keep in mind that the water around the torpedo was very cold most times.
So just to make sure the torp would reach its target I would not have fired a cold torpedo

From the (very few, alas) pictures and diagrams I've seen, changing pistols was an involved process. A torpedo could be set up with either a contact pistol, a magnetic one, or both.

See here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...980#post819980) for both some images and descriptions.

[finchOU]

ah...love the realism theads....it is this kind of in depth stuff I want to HAVE to think about when trying to attack a ship.

[Uncle Goose]

I believe I read in Dönitz Memoirs that the crew was not supposed to handle the pistols while on sea. The crew of a certain U-boat disassembled a pistol to see what was wrong with the pistols (this was early in the war when they had serious troubles with the pistols), Dönitz noted that this was not a habit. So it seems that the pistols were set in harbor and weren't easily changed aboard.

[kurtz]

I've just been reading Hoyt's book on American submarines, these were plagued by unreliable magnetic pistols. Apparently some skippers disabled the magnetic pistols whilst they were on patrol, from this I surmise that this was not an easy switch job, yeah I know different torpedoes.

[trongey]

Originally Posted by kurtz

I've just been reading Hoyt's book on American submarines, these were plagued by unreliable magnetic pistols. Apparently some skippers disabled the magnetic pistols whilst they were on patrol, from this I surmise that this was not an easy switch job, yeah I know different torpedoes.

Yeah, when I played SH1 some guys dug up a lot of detail about the US fish. It's a wonder they ever blew anything up:
1) Torps ran about 2m deeper than they were set for.
2) Impact pistols deformed and failed if contact was made near 90deg at high speed (oh, you mean the preferred shot setup?).
3) Magnetic pistols were basically non-functional near they equator ( like, the heart of the Pacific Theatre, doh!).
4) Torps had a weird habit of turning 180deg if they breached in rough seas. At least one confirmed self-sinking.

Tony

[kurtz]

Originally Posted by trongey

4) Torps had a weird habit of turning 180deg if they breached in rough seas. At least one confirmed self-sinking.

Tony

Hoyt mentioned this too apparantly there was an anti circular running device in the torpedoes, but it was disabled as top brass thought it would be good to shoot hunting destroyers with as the then official US shooting method was to shoot from depth using sonar/guessing.

As you say a wonder they ever bagged anything.