Quote:
Originally Posted by Ithekro
While the Long Lance torpedo was intended a great equalizer against the more numberous Allied ships for night battles, the oxygen torpedoes probably sunk or heavly damaged more Japanese ships than Allied ships. This includes ships that had their torpedoes explode in the tubes due to fires (and possibly scuttling other ships).
The planned tactic would be to use the Long Lance at long range, outside the normal American visual range (at night) as the Japanese had excellent optics and night training. Then they might open fire with flashless powder to not give away their position to the enemy. This sort of worked, save several captains and crews did not follow procedure. There were several instances of the use of spotlights, which tended to get the ship using them blown out of the water by all the Allied ships, as it was the only clear target. Plus by the time the American radar fire control systems became more reliable, the Japanese could expect the Americans to fire before the Japanese launched torpedoes. The Americans also whiching to flashless powder helped later in the war to counter the Japanese night fighting.
When the Japanese torpedo tactics did work, the American did not know they had been attacked by torpedoes and assumed they had run into a minefield, and acted accordingly.
|
That's selling the Type 93 short.....That weapon, while highly vulnerable to enemy gunfire, was the single deadliest threat possessed by the Imperial Navy's surface force. And it worked on too many occasions to more than justify their short comings (Java Sea, Savo Island, Tassafronga, the Solomons...almost every major surface campaign really)
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoweGear
|
So she's upright? Wouldn't be too surprising since it should be quite deep where she went down no?