[ARC5] PT-658

[Mike Everette]

It took until late 1943 for the US Navy to figure out that our torpedoes -- sub launched, boat launched, destroyer-launched, air-launched -- were pretty much junk.  Had the Navy actually tested the torpedoes prior to WW2, and fixed the problems -- which were legion -- the war could possibly have been shortened by at close to a year.  But during the 30s, the conventional wisdumb was that torpedoes cost too much money to expend in tests (!!).

And the air launched torpedoes available at the opening of the war were a definite liability.  They had to be released from a precise height at no more than 90 mph, or they would break up when they hit the water.  Also, the very first time many of the torpedo-bomber crews had ever taken off with a torpedo loaded on the aircraft was June 4, 1942... the opening of the Battle of Midway.  We lost a great many TBD Devastators that day, one entire squadron (VT-8) from USS Hornet, out of which only one man, Ensign George Gay, survived; and darn near all of VT-6 from USS Enterprise.

Someone has a web site devoted to the TBD, on which he lists every aircraft which can be identified from the 1940 film "Dive Bomber" starring Fred MacMurray... the guy analyzed the film frame-by-frame, reading BuNo's.  Following this is a list of those numbers, and by all too many of them the notation:  "Destroyed, 6-4-42."

Chilling.

And, out of those two squadrons at Midway... NO ONE got a hit on a Jap ship.

But it is alleged, probably more correctly than not, that the TBDs kept the Japs' attention focused down low... until it was too late, when the SBD's came down!!!

73

Mike
W4DSE

--- On Mon, 7/1/13, Robert  Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Robert  Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [ARC5] PT-658
> To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Monday, July 1, 2013, 9:30 AM
> Note the torpedoes used on
> PT-658.  
> 
> I wondered for years why some PT's had torpedoes in tubes
> and others just out on the deck.  I recently read a
> great book on the development of US torpedoes in WWII,
> "Hellions of the Deep."  
> 
> Turns out that initially PT's used torpedoes made by the
> Govt Torpedo Factory in Rhode Island, manned by govt
> civilians which turned out pretty much junk, and not nearly
> enough of it to boot.  The USN then turned to academia
> and industry to build torpedoes and they designed both
> totally new ones and also fixed some of the older designs as
> well.  
> 
> After they built new air launched torpedoes those were put
> on PT boats, since they were both lighter and more
> effective.  And since they were designed for air launch
> they did not need torpedo tubes.
> 
> The USN closed the Rhode Island factory after the end of
> WWII.
> 
> Wayne     
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>