Torpedo year 8
| Torpedo year 8 | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Country of origin: | Japan |
| Manufacturer: | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Working time: | 1921 to 1945 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Length: | 8.40 meters |
| Diameter: | 610 millimeters |
| Combat weight: | 2362 kilograms |
| Drive: | water-cooled, steam gas |
| Speed: | 38 knots |
| Range: | 20,000 meters |
| Furnishing | |
| Warhead: | 345 kilograms highly explosive |
| Target location: | no |
| Lists on the subject | |
The year 8 torpedo was a torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy . The designation "year 8" indicates the year of the first development, the year Taishō 8 or 1919 according to the Gregorian calendar.
Development and construction
The drive of the torpedo was based on the torpedo manufactured by Berliner Maschinenbau AG (BMAG; formerly L. Schwartzkopff ) with a diameter of 610 mm, which goes back to the 21 inch (533 mm) diameter torpedo designed by the British engineer Robert Whitehead . The Imperial Navy of Japan bought Schwartzkopff torpedoes in 1884.
The torpedo was designed for use on surface units and should have a long range. Accordingly, a 610 mm diameter was chosen for the torpedo body, which offered more space for the drive. Development work ended shortly after the First World War and production began in 1921.
drive
The weapon was powered by a coupled 4-cylinder steam engine. A petroleum - air mixture served as fuel . The maximum achievable speed was 38 knots , at this speed the range was 10,000 meters. The maximum range of 20,000 meters could only be achieved when the torpedo was running at a speed of 28 knots.
Calls
Originally this torpedo was intended to be used as a weapon on board Japanese battleships . However, during the modernization, in the mid-1930s, all torpedo tubes disappeared from the battleships. The reason for this was the test explosion of several year 8 torpedo warheads, which had been carried out in the torpedo room of the decommissioned battleship Tosa to investigate the dangers of the weapons for the own ship. It had caused such severe damage that torpedo tubes were removed from all Japanese battleships. Only cruisers and destroyers were still armed with torpedoes.
The year 8 torpedo was only available in limited numbers during the Second World War , as its production had already been discontinued in 1932. However, it was used on some older light cruisers and some destroyer types of the Imperial Japanese Navy in this war, while the bulk of Japanese ships were already using the modern Type 93 torpedo .
variants
- Year-8 model 2
- Year-8 model 2 modification 2
- Year-8 Mk.2 modification 1
- Year-8 Mk.2 modification 2
literature
- Reports of the US Naval Technical Mission to Japan 1945-1946, SERIES O: ORDNANCE TARGETS, JM-200-D, Japanese Torpedoes and Tubes-Article 1, Ship and Kaiten Torpedoes. Available online as microfilm copies of the original documents, pdf files, accessed on February 13, 2013.
Web links
- Japanese torpedoes. at: combinedfleet.com
Individual evidence
- ^ David C. Evans: Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press, 2003, ISBN 0-87021-192-7 , p. 37.
- ^ Antony Preston, John Jordan, Stephen Dent: Warship. Conway Maritime Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84486-041-8 , p. 104.