Manned torpedo
Manned torpedo: British Mk 1 Chariot with divers
A manned torpedo is a weapon of war as well as a small weapon and organizationally assigned to the navy or combat swimmers . Manned torpedoes are based on modified torpedoes, the size of which allows use with divers. In contrast, the crews of micro-submarines do not need personal diving equipment. The divers of manned torpedoes are colloquially called torpedo riders.
Special features and demarcation from micro submarines
Cockpit of an SLC (manned torpedo)
- Due to the limited range, the manned torpedoes are usually brought close to the target by ships , submarines or aircraft . Some of the torpedoes were simply dragged along, heaved over the ship's side, dropped by parachute or ejected underwater through specially built hatches on ships or submarines.
- Special forms of manned torpedoes are used as civilian means of divers' transport (diving, professional diving ) or, in the case of military use, for coastal reconnaissance and means of transport for commando units, frogmen and combat swimmers.
- Similar in use to or used in parallel with the British folding boats and X-Craft boats, the Italian explosive boats and the German small arms. From the Italian side, boats similar to the X-Crafts or the German small submarines were still in operation.
- The small German submarines with two externally suspended torpedoes or the small Japanese submarines with two internal torpedo tubes can be regarded as related to the manned torpedoes, but were fully equipped miniaturized submarines. The British X-Crafts differed in the larger crew, the diver exit and the side mine load. Today's small and high-tech coastal submarines are, however, rather small "large" submarines and therefore no longer comparable in size with the smallest submarines.
- The transition to the fully operational, small coastal submarine can be seen in part as flowing, in some parameters the boats are comparable in individual cases. The German type XXIII electric boat, for example, was armed with two torpedoes housed in internal tubes, comparable to the German, Italian and Japanese small weapons, but had sonar and was superior in range and capabilities. Other specialized boats, such as the American NR-1 , although military, have special diving and work equipment.
Well-known types
- Mignatta : Italian prototype of a manned torpedo developed in 1918
- SLC : Italian type developed in 1935
- Chariot : 1942 developed a British torpedo whose template captured SLC was
- Negro : German manned torpedo developed in 1943
- Marder : German manned torpedo developed in 1943
- Hai : German prototype of a manned torpedo developed in 1945.
- Kaiten : Japanese manned torpedo developed in 1943 for suicide missions
- Błotniak : Polish one-man underwater vehicle developed in 1978 without its own pressurized cabin.
Application examples
- 1918 through Italy: sinking of the Austrian battleship SMS Viribus Unitis in the port of Pola .
- 1941 through Italy in the Mediterranean area: Damage to the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant in the port of Alexandria . Further missions u. a. against Malta and Gibraltar .
- 1942 through Great Britain: sinking of the Italian cruiser Bolzano in the naval port of La Spezia . Further use against the Axis Powers in the Mediterranean, against the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway and on a trial basis in the Far East.
- From the German side in 1944 against targets in the English Channel and later in the Scheldt estuary. At the end of the Second World War largely unsuccessful and with high losses against the allied invasion forces at Anzio and in Normandy .
See also
Web links
Commons : Manned Torpedo - Collection of images, videos and audio files
