Type 95 torpedo

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Type 95 torpedo


Type 95 torpedo in the Yamato Museum in Kure

General Information
Designation: 九五 式 魚雷
Country of origin: Japan
Manufacturer: Imperial Japanese Navy
Working time: 1938 to 9/1945
Technical specifications
Length: 7.15 meters
Diameter: 533 millimeters
Combat weight: 1,665 kilograms
Drive: Steam gas with oxygen as the compressed gas
Speed: 49 knots
Range: 12,000 meters
Furnishing
Warhead: 405 kilograms highly explosive
Target location: no
Lists on the subject

The Type 95 torpedo ( Japanese 九五 式 魚雷 , kyūgo-shiki gyorai ) was a torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy . The designation Type 95 indicates the year of the first development, the year Kōki 2595 or 1935 according to the Gregorian calendar.

Development and evaluation

It was a further development of the Type 93 torpedo , which had been developed for surface units that were equipped with 610 mm torpedo tubes . The Type 95 was developed for submarines that had 533mm torpedo tubes as standard in the Imperial Japanese Navy. This gave it a smaller warhead (405 kilograms), a shorter range and was optimized for launching from a submerged submarine.

The Type 95 was the most powerful submarine torpedo used in World War II with a range of 9,000 meters at 49 knots (kn) or 13,200 meters at 45 kn. This is roughly three times the range of the American Mark 14 at the same speed. The G7ut torpedo with Walter turbine of the German Navy , only available as a prototype, had a range of 8,000 meters at around 45 knots and carried a 280 kg warhead.

The only disadvantage of the Type 95 torpedo compared to the American and German torpedoes of World War II was the slightly poorer directional stability. The weapon could be ejected from the torpedo tubes by means of compressed air from a depth of up to 40 meters.

Calls

A Type 95 torpedo explodes on the side of the USS O'Brien while the previously struck USS Wasp burns in the background

A well-known use of Type 95 torpedoes took place on September 15, 1942 in the Pacific War . The Japanese submarine I-19 , under the command of Kaigun-Shōsa Kinachi Takaishi, shot down a fan of six Type 95 torpedoes at the aircraft carrier USS Wasp from about 1,000 meters at 14:45 . Three torpedoes hit the carrier, another passed it in front of the bow and hit the destroyer USS O'Brien , which was about 1,000 meters away, on the forecastle. Another torpedo from this fan missed the Wasp aft and ran another five nautical miles before hitting the battleship USS North Carolina , also at the forecastle. The aircraft carrier was so badly damaged by fires and secondary explosions that it had to be abandoned, the destroyer suffered so severe structural damage that it sank some time later when it was transferred to the USA and the battleship had to be in the shipyard for a month Have damage repaired.

Another use of the weapon, not least because of the tragic fate of the survivors, was the sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945. I-58 , under the command of Kaigun-Taisa Mochitsura Hashimoto, shot out About 1,600 meters away, a fan of six Type 95 torpedoes with a depth setting of four meters on the ship, two of which (according to other sources three) hit and damaged the cruiser so badly that it sank within twelve minutes.

variants

  • Type 95 model 2, with a maximum range of only 7,500 meters, but with 550 kg of explosives, weight: 1,730 kg
  • Type 96, only produced in 1942, oxygen content 26%, weight 1,665 kg, 4,500 meters range at 48 knots maximum speed

Sources and Notes

Remarks

  1. ↑ The Japanese rank of Shosa corresponds to the German rank of corvette captain . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a naval officer.
  2. ↑ The Japanese rank Taisa corresponds to the German rank of captain at sea . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a naval officer.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Potter, Rohwer, Nimitz: Seemacht. Munich 1974, ISBN 3-7637-5112-2 , p. 868.
  2. ↑ Tabular operational history of 'I-58' on combinedfleet.com , viewed on June 3, 2010

literature

  • Carl Boyd, Akihiko Yoshida: The Japanese submarine force and World War II. Publisher US Naval Institute Press, 2002, ISBN 1557500150
  • Norman Friedman, United States Naval Institute: The Naval Institute guide to world naval weapons systems. Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0-87021-793-7
  • Anthony Newpower: Iron men and tin fish: the race to build a better torpedo during World War II. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 978-0-275-99032-9
  • 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