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Torpedo design issues of WWII
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The Torpedoes
The pre-war issue torpedo had the disadvantage of leaving a visible trail of bubbles on the surface on its way to the target.
The standard torpedo of the war suffered from early problems with its internal depth-keeping equipment, and its firing pistol, but these were solved after the Norwegian Campaign. In mid 1942 an improved version was introduced with an increased battery capacity. The increased battery capacity increased the range 50%.
Falke, the first homing torpedo, was fitted with a passive acoustic homing device. It was introduced in March, 1943 and used by U-603,U-758, and U-221 against convoys HX-229 and SC-122. Few were used, as it was replace by the T5, which was faster, had a greater range and could be used with either magnetic or contact detonators.
The Zaunköning (Gnat) came into service during the autumn of 1943. Intended to be an escort-killer, it achieved some early minor success only to be countered by the allied Foxer noise-making decoy. It was scoring hits against escort and merchants to the end of the war though.
The weapon was designed to lock onto the loudest noise after a run of 400m from its launch. This often proved to be the U-boat itself and standard issue-orders were to dive immediately to depth of 60m after launch from a bow tube while a stern shot was to be followed by a complete silence in the boat. Two U-boats were almost certainly lost when hit by one of their own T5 torpedoes, U-972 in Dec 1943 and U-377 in Jan 1944.
Variants
All the German U-boat torpedoes were 53.3cm (21 inch) in diameter and had a warhead of 280kg. (The T5 had two important pattern-running devices, which could be applied to various torpedo types.
The American Turtle was ready for her initial mission on September 6, 1776, just after midnight in the New York Harbor. The operator, Ezra Lee, failed in his attempt to sink the HMS Eagle because he failed to secure the screw of the gunpowder magazine to the ship. The Turtle made two more attempts to sink enemy ships but they both failed. The end of the American Turtle is unknown. Some think she was accidentally sunk, dismantled, or destroyed. The Turtle was the very first submarine to be used in the...
The USS Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser. She did not have heavy armor which made her vulnerable to torpedo attacks. She had been ordered to sail on July 16, 1945, to deliver a bomb that would end the war. Unfortunately, it sank before it arrived.
In today’s world, the use of airplanes in wars or in everyday life has become a part of how we live as human beings. Removing the air forces of the world is like taking a step back in time when wars were only fought on land or sea. WWI began only eleven short years after the Wright brothers achieved powered flight in 19031 and yet aircrafts were being used for surveillance and eventually combat purposes. It is understood that these aircrafts were primitive, but they laid down the foundation for what we know today as fighter jets. The Fokker Eindecker “revolutionized air combat by successfully employing a synchronized forward -firing machine gun mounted on the engine cowling”2. Because this airplane became the first to successfully use a synchronized machine gun, it allowed its pilots to become the first aerial combat tactitions3.
Throughout the years submarine technology has advanced throughout the years from the original military submarine the turtle to the German u boats during WWII modern nuclear power submarines that we have today. These developments have required a lot of technological improvements. To make the u boats work the Germans need better battery and electrical motor technologies and the nuclear submarine obviously needed nuclear technology. Submarines have always been an innovative way to win the navel war.
On an ordinary day, October 12, 2000, in the port of Aden, Yemen, a small boat pulled aside the USS Cole. The unimportant boat looked unthreatening until a suicide attack occurred. The bombing was devastating, leaving a gigantic hole in the ship, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39. The attackers were known enemies from Al- Qaeda, which had committed attacks against other countries. The attack on the USS Cole was one of the events that triggered the war on terror, which is still going on today. The U.S. had not concerned itself with Al-Qaeda until this vicious attack. The attack on the USS Cole began a war between terrorists and the U.S; the U.S now knows how dangerous Al-Qaeda is especially after the attack of 9/11. The Cole attack woke the United States and made it aware of Al-Qaeda as a real threat.
We believe we were hit by two torpedoes, one around frame 8 or 10, because the bow was blown off forward around ten. Another one [torpedo] around frame fifty. We believe that they were large torpedoes, that they were running close to the surface, because none of us believe the magazines blew up, that is the only way we can account for the flashes of flame through the ship.
The movie On the Waterfront begins with a long shot and the surroundings on the edge of a waterfront. There is a dark lighting like sunset is about to hit, and we are able to see a giant cruise liner in the harbor. The giant boat stands out in the light, and the much of the water is dark. There are many horizontal lines that define the giant boat, and a few vertical lines are able to get distinguished by the small boat with the mast on it as well as the shed on the side. The music has rapidity and suspense that leads you to think that something bad is about to happen. The camera has a long shot that moves to medium. The long shot is balancing with the rapid music because since there is a long short is not as suspense with the hurried music and you feel more comfortable. The Men come out of the small shed by the dock. They walk in a linear form, one behind the other, wearing long dark coats with a mysterious look on their faces. Most of them are wearing the long coats that fall to their knees, and one of them is wearing a square pattern shirt with his right hand in his jacket , his and expressions unhappy.
...hich wooden ships were beginning to be unable to handle. 18 and 24-pounder guns were replaced with 32-pounder guns, and because of the power of the stem-propelled ironclads, 68-pounders were made use of.
...ilities of the tanks being penetrated were slim. Also there was an addition of an anti-craft gun which made it even more powerful and unstoppable (Slayton 103).
"Radar during World War II." - GHN: IEEE Global History Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. .
By 10.10, all her secondary guns had been destroyed and the Bismarck sat in the water like a sitting duck. At 10.15, Tovey ordered the Dorsetshire to finally sink the Bismarck with its torpedoes. Three of the torpedoes were fired at the Bismarck, causing massive amounts of damage. She sank into the ocean at 10.40. Out of a crew of 2,200, there were only 110 survivors and 4 were officers.
When the British went to war with Germany on August 4, 1914, they fully anticipated that the skies over England would soon be a swarm with the giant Zeppelin bombers. The Germans used the Zeppelins as a great advantage over England. By 1914, six Zeppelins and one Schütte-Lanz had been placed in key positions along the borders of Germany (The Giant Airships, 2). “The thing itself is not very safe”, said Navy Minister, Admiral Alfred von Tripiz (The Giant Airships, 3). The most successful raid by Zeppelin was the one on London on September 8, 1915 killing 22 people and causing one and a half million pounds of property damage. This done by the L 13 commanded by 32 year old airship ace, Lieutenant Heinrich Mathy. This one raid eventually accounted for almost two thirds of all of the Zeppelin damage inflicted upon Britain during Germany’s short lived air campaign. Mathy was later killed in the war when his Zeppelin was taken out of the sky by a British fighter (WorldWar1.com, 1). The L-30 appeared in 1916 and raided London and other cities in England as well as targets on the Eastern Front. Six hundred and forty-nine feet in length, seventy-eight feet in diameter and ninety feet high was the L-30. Able to carry five tons of bombs, packing ten machine guns for defense and cruising at 60 miles per hour made the L-30 a great airship for the Germans in World War I (American Aviation, 1)
Hackmann, Willem Dirk. “SONAR.” Encyclopedia of World War II. Vol. 2. New York: Facts on File, 2007. Modern World History Online. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. .
...e V2 rocket. Many modified versions were not only used for warfare, but also for high altitude research. NASA abandoned the idea of the V2 rocket in the early 1950s for space exploration, but without it we certainly would not have some research we have collected today.