Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Type 93 Long Lance Torpedo - Long Range Hole Poking Device" video.

  1. What really turned the Bureau onto torpedo failure was a freak recovery of a Nazi torpedo on a Florida beach presented to the USN courtesy of an American citizen and the FBI. You see, the German detonation logic was virtually identical to that of the USN. You'd swear there was a leak. Both had running-depth issues. The particular torpedo recovered had exhausted its batteries -- making it quite inert for the USN experts to re-verse engineer it. Finding flaws in the OTHER GUY'S mechanism proved to be politically acceptable. So it was done. The number one flaw in BOTH the German and American torpedoes was running depth. BOTH were designed to detonate under the keel of a target. By doing so, all welded on bulges so common for the 30's era would be taken out of the picture. Further, an explosion under the keel of any ship is utterly lethal. The sea would contain the blast on all sides except that facing the targeted steel belly. The US design had the additional failure mode of not working upon contact. This happened as the USN sub commanders had their crews re-calibrate the running depth to ZERO -- or near enough. ( This gambit was forbidden by ComSubPac, but, hey, a guy has to do what works. ) By running that shallow, the target's sailors were certain to see the US torpedo coming their way, electric or otherwise. At such a setting, the torpedo could easily leap from wave to wave. (!) [ This latter tic was one of the key reasons that both the KM and USN wanted deeper running torpedoes. Then even pretty rough seas would not ever expose their fish. The German failure was as staggering as the USN's. There was one U-boat that could've sunk the RN up in Norway -- Big Time. Instead, all fish embedded themselves into the fjord's far side. Being so close to the North Pole screwed up its logic two-ways: the water was too brackish (melting ice thinned the sea) and the influence of the North Pole itself messed up the "Q" of the magnetic influence loop. ( Such loops are found in all modern traffic controlled intersections. They are that loop you see in the pavement -- typically cut in with a diamond saw -- that has a branch leading off to the edge of the roadway. Within that loop there are conductors that establish a feeble magnetic field shooting above and below the roadway. When your car passes through or occupies that zone, the current of the loop is disturbed and picked up electronically. This tells the brain that you're waiting to turn left, or... whatever. If you were a ship, the asphalt would explode. This influence circuit needs to be re-tuned for use in extreme waters. The German fiasco saved RN capital ships and their escorts. They were at zero knots when the fish were launched. Being electric torpedoes, the RN never knew that fate had spared them -- until after the war was over.
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