Torpedo Dropping Parameters

[Borg]

What are the parameters for a successful torpedo drop?  Sometimes I see my torps pass right under a ship with no explosion. This happens from both the TBM and the PT boat

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Regards,
Tom Bigelow , Borg

Rogue Gryffons

My Page: http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/borg999/aviation-1.html

[Hans]

300mph, 800 feet altitude.

Hans.

[TheWobble]

WOW, Really?  I though it was 200mph and 200feet..wow that make thing much easyer dont it.

[Jigster]

best way to make successful hits that I've found is to come in scraping the water, broad side to the fleet. fly right up to either of the destroyers on the port or starboard side closet to the cruiser, and point halfway between the cruiser and carrier, release just as you get near the destroyer. Never missed that way and survive about 33% of the time (which is better then most torp runs)

you can also use drop about 3k from the carrier (about twice the distance between the destoryer and the carrier) releasing with the nose of the TBM just ahead of the cruiser. That generally hits the stern of the carrier but it's easy to miss if the timings off. The only way to survive the 40mm and 20mm ack is to keep low and not get to close.

[Hans]

I come in from dead ahead, and when I see the first tracer, I drop.

Pyro posted about the torpedo drop parameters awhile back on the main board.  He even posted two pages out of one of his reference books with a scanner.

Actually, in real life you can drop Mk 13 torpedos from a much higher altitude.  Some were dropped from over 5000-7000 feet (ditiching thier load to run from Japanese fighters), and they were seen to run normally when they hit the water.

However, the official release parameters were more or less 300 knots, 800 feet.

The early war torpedos had a lot of problems.  Alot wouldn't work after they entered the water.  A simple change was adding a blunt-nose plywood "barrel" over the nose that broke off when it hit the water.  It changes the areodynamics and makes the torpedo go nose down and enter the water staight, instead of belly flopping and breaking or bending the propeller.  Another modification was a square wood frame around the propellers helped keep the torpedo straight after it entered the water, instead of turning and broaching back up to the surface.  The torpedos instantly became nearly flawless after those two "interim" modifications that never were replaced by a "final fix".

Without the wood contraptions, they only work when dropped at 160 knots, at an altitude of 60 feet.  This is why the Torpedo squadrons at Midway got wasted so bad.

Hans.

[This message has been edited by Hans (edited 01-09-2001).]