Torpedo compartments
Torpedo Compartment is the name given to a tactic used when a ship attacks an enemy ship with multiple torpedoes . A characteristic of this tactic is the aiming of the torpedoes on slightly adjacent spots so that their trajectories literally “fan out” and thus cover a larger target area.
description
Since a torpedo is often shot from a relatively large distance from the target ship, this ship is usually in motion and the technical reliability of torpedoes was limited, especially in earlier decades, there is a certain probability that a single torpedo would or would miss the target would hit but not explode.
In order to increase the likelihood of an explosion, depending on the strategic importance of the target, one likes to shoot several torpedoes at the target ship. The torpedo courses are varied in such a way that they do not all aim at the same point, but rather at slightly offset points, depending on the distance, speed and current course of the target ship. Viewed from above, the traces of the running torpedoes in the water are reminiscent of the bars of a fan , which is why the term torpedo fan has established itself in German for this attack tactic.
A "fan to shoot" is particularly appropriate for simple torpedo types that can only run straight after being fired. In the first years of their development, only such torpedoes were available. Only later were “intelligent” torpedoes developed that were able to search for their target independently.
literature
- Eberhard Rössler : The torpedoes of the German submarines. Development, manufacture and properties of the German naval torpedoes. 2nd Edition. Verlag Mittler, Hamburg et al. 2005, ISBN 3-8132-0842-7 , pp. 79, 87.
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. Verlag Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
- Jochen Brennecke: The turning point in the submarine war. Causes and consequences 1939–1943. Edition supplemented and revised by the author. Verlag Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-03667-0 , p. 134 ( Heyne books 01, 7966).