[ARC5] PT-658

[Dennis Monticelli]

Quite a study in contrasts.  I remember reading about the torpedo issues as
well.  Not only were we unprepared at war's outbreak, it took far too long
to correct the many problems.  In the meantime Japanese ships escaped harm
and we lost brave men and boats.   The Japanese invested heavily and
secretly in torpedo development prior to Pearl Harbor.  They saw it as a
way to counter superior US Navy numbers.  The propellant in the Japanese
torpedo was very dangerous when mixed so it was stored separately on the
surface ships.  Torpedoes were fueled as needed.  Meanwhile, having that
volatile mix on the ship was a big worry to the captain.

Dennis AE6C


On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 10:30 AM, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com
> wrote:

> According to MY reading, the torpedo fiasco was a complete scandal.
>
> I remember reading an old book on submarine warfare about this.
> Apparently, one or more of the sub crews took it upon themselves, with
> approval from some "higher ups" at Pearl Harbor, to actually run some tests
> using nets strung across the firing-path. They discovered that all the
> torpedos were porpoising horribly.
>
> In addition to the fact that the contact detonators were so poorly built
> that
> they would distort and fail on impact with a target.
>
> I remember reading that the machinist mates made replacement parts for the
> contact detonators out of shot-down Japanese Zero aluminum which did not
> fail.
>
> I was pretty disgusted by what I read.
>
> The Japanese "Long Lance" torpedo was a technological wonder. I read
> yesterday that one U.S. warship was hit by one from such a long distance
> away that they never could figure from where it came.
>
> Ken W7EKB
>
>
> On 1 Jul 2013 at 20:26, Mike Everette wrote:
>
> > 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 (!!).
>
> Kenneth G. Gordon W7EKB
>
> "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."--- John   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
>