Japanese Navy Was Paralyzed When American Navy Used Mark 14 Torpedo to Destroy Japanese Navy in WW2
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- #america #history #ww2stories #audiobook #japanesenavy
Lieutenant Dan Daspit, the captain of the US submarine Tinosa, was shocked to find the Japanese ship Tonan Maru dead in the water during her second war patrol. Despite firing four Mark 14 torpedoes, the tanker accelerated and failed to detonate. Daspit fired more torpedoes, but none of them exploded. The Tonan Maru had a distress alert, and Tinosa had to leave as soon as possible. Rear Admiral Charles Lockwood, the new Commander, Submarines, Pacific (COMSUBPAC), greeted Daspit and explained the situation to him. However, the single torpedo Tinosa had returned to Pearl Harbor was found to be in perfect working order. This incident highlighted a growing problem within the US submarine force, with only three ships sinking from 97 torpedoes fired during the conflict.
Torpedoes were the first guided missiles to operate independently, with the Mark 14 being the most sophisticated model. Designed by engineers from the Navy Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd), the Mark 14s were bulky, costly weapons with dimensions of over three thousand pounds. The Mark 6 exploder was crucial for the torpedo to function, and it was the most important component. However, due to financial constraints, only one test was conducted on the Mark 6 in 1926. By mid-1942, over 800 torpedoes had been used in the Pacific War, with 90% failing. Rear Admiral Charles Lockwood conducted an unofficial test in June 1942, revealing gaps in the net and irregular depths. BuOrd ignored the results, arguing that the problems were with poor maintenance and incorrect approaches. Lockwood asked for permission to disconnect the magnetic exploders, but BuOrd denied it. The Sub Base torpedo shop was instructed to paint tiny dots on the screws to prevent unlawful tampering.
In 1943, the US Navy faced increasing malfunctions and premature explosions on its torpedoes, leading to Lockwood's decision to take independent action. Commander Charles B. Momsen, a submarine engineer, was brought in to investigate the problem. Momsen found that the contact exploder was too tough and delicate, and that the ideal angle for firing was any angle other than dead on. Albert Einstein of Princeton University suggested a "void" between the firing mechanism and the outer shell to address the problem. Lockwood demanded that all new exploders be perfect before allowing them to be placed into torpedoes and loaded into his submarines. The Sub Base's machine shops worked on the revised designs, but the threat of underruns persisted. Torpedoes fired through evenly spaced nets showed that the Mark 14s alternated between being deep and shallow, which could be explained by Lockwood's skippers. The variable depth settings may have been explained by Lockwood's skippers.
The first reliable torpedoes were fired in 1943, resulting in the sinking of twenty American submarines. Captain Momsen played a significant role in ensuring all US submarines carried reliable torpedoes, resulting in the sinking of 1,178 Japanese merchant ships.
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US Mark 14 Torpedoes were one of the BIG FAILURES for America going into WW2. As a Yank engineer I am appalled at the poor engineering and lack of quality assurance testing during the Depression years. This was all avoidable.
This AI generated audio is a real turn off.
Really. World War eye eye eye
The first two exploded, neither did the third one. ????????
This is useless. Why is a story about submarine torpedoes and the photo is ANZAC soldiers boarding a ship?
... ('AI') ... 😂
AI bullshit.
Who writes your video titles? The Japanese navy was thankful for the American Mark 14. It was a failure for the first 2 years of the war. Thumbs down and I blocked your channel.
WWI or as the narrator said World War "eye"
What’s up with the picture? Isn’t this about torpedoes? Hire a decent narrator.