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Post by The Herald Erjen on Nov 28, 2019 8:32:00 GMT
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Post by Winter_King on Nov 28, 2019 9:58:10 GMT
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Post by Sulla on Nov 29, 2019 9:08:03 GMT
I saw one of those in the Imperial War Museum in London. It's Italian but a different version from the one in your link. I think the idea was to jump off at the last minute and hope you survive.
You may recall the movie, The Eagle Has Landed. Steiner and his men were sent to a penal unit in Alderney. Their job was to ride those torpedoes and attack shipping in the English Channel. They were dying off two at a time. I don't recall the movie showing a torpedo, though.
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Post by koskiewicz on Nov 29, 2019 16:13:17 GMT
I was amazed to learn that the Japanese used manned Kamikaze torpedoes when they sunk the USS Indianapolis. A very sad episode in the WWII history of the US Navy.
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Nov 29, 2019 23:03:39 GMT
I saw one of those in the Imperial War Museum in London. It's Italian but a different version from the one in your link. I think the idea was to jump off at the last minute and hope you survive.
You may recall the movie, The Eagle Has Landed. Steiner and his men were sent to a penal unit in Alderney. Their job was to ride those torpedoes and attack shipping in the English Channel. They were dying off two at a time. I don't recall the movie showing a torpedo, though.
The one in the picture you posted is the improved Maile. AFAIK they were only used once, after Italy threw in the towel, in a joint operation with British human torpedoes. They sank three Italian cruisers which had been commandeered by the Germans. Only the Japanese ones were intended that the pilot should die. The British ones were outright copies of those which the Italians were using against them in the Med, and I think the same type shown in "The Eagle Has Landed." The operators would ride these things into an enemy harbor and attach limpet mines to the hulls of their victims. Not designed to be suicidal, but very dangerous and capture for the men who did it was the best they could expect. The British called theirs Chariots and tried to use them to sink the Tirpitz, but the Norwegian water was too cold. I don't remember seeing the torpedoes when I saw "The Eagle Has Landed" in the theater but on TV I noticed them. They are shown so briefly that you have to look fast. The Germans did however have a semisubmersible one-man torpedo (and later one that could fully submerge) and it carried a full-sized torpedo underneath. They used them against the Allies in the English Channel but with very little success. Japan and Italy also used a one-man speedboat with a warhead in which the pilot could jump overboard just before it hit the target, but it was also near-suicidal. Midget submarines seem to have had better survivability and more probability of success than the boats or the manned torpedoes, but there was still an element of risk.
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Nov 29, 2019 23:11:42 GMT
I was amazed to learn that the Japanese used manned Kamikaze torpedoes when they sunk the USS Indianapolis. A very sad episode in the WWII history of the US Navy. Indeed it was. According to the movie "Mission of the Shark" the submarine carried two such torpedoes and two kamikaze pilots, but the USS Indianapolis was in such a position that the they were not needed. What I've never figured out is why the Indianapolis wasn't escorted by a pair of destroyers. Even if they couldn't have prevented the attack they still could have rescued the survivors. Such was the case when a British sub torpedoed Argentina's cruiser in the Falklands War.
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Post by SuperDevilDoctor on Nov 29, 2019 23:39:42 GMT
I saw one of those in the Imperial War Museum in London. It's Italian but a different version from the one in your link. I think the idea was to jump off at the last minute and hope you survive.
The Italian method was completely different (it did not involve "jumping off at the last minute")...
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Post by Sulla on Nov 29, 2019 23:46:11 GMT
I saw one of those in the Imperial War Museum in London. It's Italian but a different version from the one in your link. I think the idea was to jump off at the last minute and hope you survive.
You may recall the movie, The Eagle Has Landed. Steiner and his men were sent to a penal unit in Alderney. Their job was to ride those torpedoes and attack shipping in the English Channel. They were dying off two at a time. I don't recall the movie showing a torpedo, though.
The one in the picture you posted is the improved Maile. AFAIK they were only used once, after Italy threw in the towel, in a joint operation with British human torpedoes. They sank three Italian cruisers which had been commandeered by the Germans. Only the Japanese ones were intended that the pilot should die. The British ones were outright copies of those which the Italians were using against them in the Med, and I think the same type shown in "The Eagle Has Landed." The operators would ride these things into an enemy harbor and attach limpet mines to the hulls of their victims. Not designed to be suicidal, but very dangerous and capture for the men who did it was the best they could expect. The British called theirs Chariots and tried to use them to sink the Tirpitz, but the Norwegian water was too cold. I don't remember seeing the torpedoes when I saw "The Eagle Has Landed" in the theater but on TV I noticed them. They are shown so briefly that you have to look fast. The Germans did however have a semisubmersible one-man torpedo (and later one that could fully submerge) and it carried a full-sized torpedo underneath. They used them against the Allies in the English Channel but with very little success. Japan and Italy also used a one-man speedboat with a warhead in which the pilot could jump overboard just before it hit the target, but it was also near-suicidal. Midget submarines seem to have had better survivability and more probability of success than the boats or the manned torpedoes, but there was still an element of risk. Leave it to the Japanese to make some intended to be suicidal.
So the Maile sunk three cruisers. Not bad. The next time I watch The Eagle Has Landed I'm going to look closely for the torpedoes. Thanks for the info.
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Post by SuperDevilDoctor on Nov 30, 2019 8:48:34 GMT
Use of German "Human Torpedoes" off the Normandy coast, summer 1944...
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