Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "USS Seawolf (S-197) - Guide 321" video.

  1. It should be remembered why the torpedoes were so bad. The problem - was that it wasn't just one problem. 1) The Torpedoes ran deeper than set. 2) The contact exploder would break if hitting the target at a 90 degree angle instead of detonating the warhead. If the torpedo hit at an angle - then it ... might go off. 3) Torpedoes with Magnetic Influence exploders were designed to pass under the target and detonate there - doing the most damage. The problem here was the Earths Magnetic Field was inconsistent so that sometimes it would set the torpedo off before it reached the target and sometimes it wouldn't set it off at all. With the Torpedoes depth set for them to run under the ship for the Magnetic Influence Torpedo to do it's work - if the Magnetic Exploder didn't set it of - it was already set deep enough that it was intentionally passing under the target and the contact detonator wouldn't get a chance to work. Because of all these different problems - they were getting inconsistent results and had trouble recognizing what was happening. Also - at one point in time - the Officer Commanding the Submarines in one area - had been the Officer who had supervised the Torpedo Program that developed these Torpedoes - and refused to hear anything bad said against them. The crews of the subs were forbidden to modify the torpedoes but would do it anyway. One common trick was to disable the Magnetic Influence Exploders. There was a mark painted on the screws sealing the innards of the torpedo - but - the crews would repaint the ones they hadn't used when they came back to port. The problem here - was that the Torpedoes were still running deeper than set. This was determined by placing a harbor gate net out - and firing torpedoes through it. The holes made by the torpedoes showed how deep they were really running. Here - the crews would just set the torpedoes to run shallower - to get them to run at the proper depth. The faulty contact exploders were determined by winching torpedoes up with a crane - and then dropping them nose first onto steel or concrete (without of course any explosives). This showed that the contact exploders were breaking. These Torpedoes - because of budgets and lack of suitable targets - were only tested twice - and - one of those two torpedoes ran right under the old submarine that was the target. So the Americans entered WWII with a Torpedo that during testing had a 50% failure rate. The magnetic exploders had been repeatedly tested but without explosives so the torpedoes could be recovered, examined and used again. All these tests had been done at a part of the Earth where the Magnetic Field in the testing area was the same as that where they had been calibrated. The British and the Germans both tried to use Magnetic Exploders as well and neither of them could make them work either. One U Boat Captain fired multiple torpedoes at the Warspite as it was entering the Fjord to Narvik and they all exploded to soon. He then repeated the same thing as the Warspite left with the same results. My understanding - is that this Captain was literally pounding his fist on someone's desk when he got back and adamantly refusing to ever use Magnetic Influence Exploders ever again. Fortunately for the Germans and the British - their contact exploders worked and their torpedoes ran at the depth they were set at ..
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