Explosive boat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Italian MTM type explosive vessel
Japanese Shin'yō-type explosive device

An explosive boat or explosive ship is a fast, lightweight boat , which, with explosives can be filled, controlled against an up-to water or on the banks aim to make this to be destroyed by its own explosion or damage so that it becomes unusable.

history

Explosive boats were mainly built in Germany , Italy , Japan and Russia . The United States of America and England did not have such boats, although there were efforts to do so. This naval weaponry was used for the first time in World War I by both Italians and Germans. There were no major developments in explosive vessels between the two world wars, as the Versailles Peace Treaty restricted or prohibited such shipbuilding.

During the Second World War , the use of explosive boats by the Axis powers reached its peak. While on the German side the type of explosive vessel used in the lens was not able to meet expectations , explosive vessels from Italy and Japan were more successful. Above all, the Japanese explosives caused the American Pacific Fleet considerable losses. At the end of the Second World War, the explosives were largely forgotten. A few specimens were used as training ships for combat divers in post-war Italy and were retired by the end of the 1940s. Due to technical advances, their successors were the conventional speedboats and motor torpedo boats . No explosive devices are currently in active service.

German explosive devices

Italian explosive devices

Japanese explosive devices

literature

  • Harald Fock, Marine Small Combat Means , Koehler-Mittler Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3930656349
  • Cajus Bekker , lone fighter at sea. The German torpedo riders, frogmen and explosive device pilots in World War II , Stalling-Verlag 1968
  • Helmuth Heye, Naval Small Weapons , Military Knowledge No. 8 1959