Japanese destroyer captain

[Leandros]

Here is a question concerning som real history - I think:

Captain Hara in his book Japanese Destroyer Captain mentions Japanese homing torpedoes. According to him his ship Yahagi carried such weapons on its last mission, accompanying Yamato to Okinawa in April 1945. Anyone here having any info on such Japanese torpedoes actually in service.

I have the US post-war investigation paper on the Japanese torpedoes (several hundred pages). Therein is described development work on homing topedoes but they were seemingly never put in production.

Fred

[Sailor Steve]

"Homing gear based oon the comparison of sound intensity was also developed for the electric Type 92 torpedo, but here again it is not known if there were any successes. It appears that the Type 92 torpedo was itself too noisy."
-John Campbell, Naval Weapons of World War Two

It sounds like they were put into service.

[Dread Knot]

Even if the Yahagi shipped such a torpedo, the chance to use it in a classic surface action in 1945 was becoming vanishingly small. I wonder if it wouldn't be a bit of liability as well. A submarine could rely on it's quiet electric motors and it's ability to dive to evade it's own torpedo if it didn't lock on a target. But in a confused surface action with "friendlies" around such a weapon on the loose could be as dangerous to one's own squadron as it is to the enemy. I'm assuming these torpedoes were developed for surface work, not ASW.

[TorpX]

I always skeptical about these advanced, super-weapons.

From what I've read these homing torpedoes had serious problems due to being deafened by their own noise. It's hard to believe the Japanese were able to easily solve these problems.

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by TorpX

I always skeptical about these advanced, super-weapons.

I've become skeptical of postwar autobiographies myself. Be it Churchill or some lowly lieutenant. A good example being that of Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the air attack on Pearl harbor. As more Japanese source works were translated to English, the veracity of Fuchida's statement, quoted in At Dawn We Slept, of having demanded a third-wave Attack on Pearl Harbor's fuel tanks, and his later account of the timing of the American counter-attack in the Battle of Midway have been hotly disputed by historians Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully in their book, Shattered Sword. His claim of being at the surrender ceremony on the deck of the Missouri has been determined to be completely false.

The famed Zero pilot Saburo Sakai's biography Samurai also contains a lot of myths and errors mixed in with good information.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

The famed Zero pilot Saburo Sakai's biography Samurai also contains a lot of myths and errors mixed in with good information.

Uggg, another one! (I'm told IRON COFFINS almost qualifies as fiction.) I have that book, Samurai. This is very disappointing.



As far as weapons, in general, are concerned, if any belligerent has some great weapon, whatever it happens to be, and it is not much mentioned in the histories, I think we are entitled to ask why. If it was not used, maybe there was a good reason for that. If it was used, maybe it was not much better than the standard item it was supposed to replace.

[nikimcbee]

I wonder if they picked up the plans from the Germans, but never had time (ability) to develop them?

[nikimcbee]

I'll just add, I own the Japanese Destroyer Captain book (need to finish), plus the "I-Boat Captain."

http://www.amazon.com/I-Boat-Captain...i+boat+captain

It's a great book, but the thing that struck me the most was just how delusional these guys were. The title says it all; " How Japan's Submarines Almost Defeated the U.S. Navy in the Pacific." wait for it....

That statement couldn't be further from the truth. It is a good read though.

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

I'll just add, I own the Japanese Destroyer Captain book (need to finish), plus the "I-Boat Captain."

http://www.amazon.com/I-Boat-Captain...i+boat+captain

It's a great book, but the thing that struck me the most was just how delusional these guys were. The title says it all; " How Japan's Submarines Almost Defeated the U.S. Navy in the Pacific." wait for it....

That statement couldn't be further from the truth. It is a good read though.

That kind of reminds me of the paperback version of Hitler's Naval War. The blurb on the back breathlessly promises the untold story of how Hitler's warships almost turned the tide of WW2. The cover art on the front shows a battleship with a swastika on the bow ignominiously doing the deep six. Kind of a disconnect there.

[TorpX]

Yeah, Paperback books often have those silly, wildly exaggerated stuff on the cover to get attention. Like newspaper headlines.