(This article is the author's 24th original, reprint please contact, part of the picture from the network, invasion and deletion)
<h1>Some of the previous articles</h1>
Dangerous small talk about "anti-submarine history" - a rare World War II German "anti-escort" torpedo
"Anti-Submarine History" Rabbit vs Eagle - Air Defense Operations of German Submarines in World War II
World War II Ship Midway Chapter: The Last and First Blood - The Japanese "Supreme" class heavy cruiser
<h1>preface</h1>
I remember when I was in chemistry class in junior high school, the teacher put a thin red-hot wire into an empty glass bottle, and the wire immediately burst into a dazzling spark like fireworks, crackling and burning violently, startling the whole class.
This is oxygen—our inseparable necessity, leaving the first deep visual impression on the gold prospectors. However, presumably, the soldiers who fought in the Pacific in World War II will have their own unique impressions and memories.
<h1>Sudden</h1>
"Hit! Hurry up! Reload! Give those pups a few more rounds! The turret commander took his eyes off the rangefinder and urged loudly. Although it was the end of November, Cape Tasafallonga near Guadalcanal was still a bit sweltering, the turret of the heavy cruiser "Minliapolis" of the U.S. fleet was also in full swing, and the sailors were moving the propellant packs with high emotions - the United States took advantage of the night to intercept a Japanese destroyer fleet with a new radar, the distance between the two sides was approaching at high speed in the dark, and with the help of radar, the 4 heavy cruisers and 1 light cruiser of the United States, which had the absolute advantage, opened fire first, and the fire was very fierce. Several destroyers with poor radar performance also frequently fired flares in the direction of the Japanese to help. The Japanese pilot ships were beaten to the point of fire, and it seemed that it was too late to react, and it seemed that a one-way transparent and easy victory was about to arrive!
The using flagship USS Minliapolis is a heavy cruiser
The main gun of the flagship Minliapolis, which fired four salvos in 5 minutes, was preparing for the 5th round of shells – the Japanese ship's radar signal was drowned in the background noise signal of the island, and even the new SG radar had to be carefully distinguished. The Cruiser's rearguard, the Northampton, was equipped with an old-fashioned CXMA radar and was completely unable to distinguish between targets and could only follow the strike point of the forward ship.
Just at this moment, everyone in the turret suddenly heard a loud "boom"! The huge vibrations threw them up and down, and their minds immediately went blank! Several sailors shook their heads and struggled to get up. But before they could stand, there was another loud noise, this time the shaking was not so strong, but it was enough to make them sit back on the deck! A sailor wiped a handful of blood from his nostrils, leaned into the rangefinder's eyepiece and looked out, immediately shouting in horror: "Japanese torpedo!" We have no bows! ”
When the battle was in full swing, the flagship was suddenly blown off the entire bow of the ship!
<h1>Spears of night battles</h1>
The Japanese obsession with torpedoes can be traced back to the Battle of Tsushima, after the day's fighting, from 7:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day, a total of 58 minesweeers (destroyers, torpedo boats combined) took advantage of the night to launch torpedo attacks on the Russian fleet that was licking its wounds, and the torpedoes running across the sea in the dark, the main battleships "Great Sissoy" and "Navarin", and the armored cruisers "Admiral Nasimov" and "Monomacher" were sunk! The Losses of the Japanese side are only 3 torpedo boats, and the combined tonnage is less than any of the above Russian ships!
The Russian capital ship Great Sissoy, which was sunk by a Japanese torpedo in the Battle of Tsushima
Since then, Japan has paid special attention to torpedoes, which can make small boats challenge giant ships, and set up a special mine (Japanese name for torpedo, a mine in different Chinese) teams, which are listed as a key part of the decisive battle. There was even a famous public case because of the mine armor: Hiraga Jean, the design director of the fourth department at the time, resolutely refused to install torpedoes on heavy cruisers that were mainly artillery battles, on the grounds that the maximum range of the 203 mm naval gun was already as far as 30 kilometers, torpedoes were meaningless, and there were no torpedoes on the cruisers of the hypothetical enemy U.S. Navy. But his deputy, Kihisa Fujimoto of kaga domain, secretly added a torpedo tube when Hiraga was traveling to Europe! Hiraga was furious when he returned and resigned. Kikuo Fujimoto seized the opportunity to take control of the Japanese warship design for many years to come.
The torpedo problem has even led to a rotation of old and new designers
Compared with large-caliber naval guns, although the underwater explosion is powerful, the speed and range of the torpedo are hard wounds. At that time, Japan had increased the caliber of torpedoes fired by surface ships by 610 mm, and the maximum range was 15 kilometers. Efforts are also being made to increase speed and range. At that time, the external combustion engine power used by the torpedo was to run underwater, and it also carried an additional oxidant - compressed air, and the amount of compressed air carried was the key to the range! Although the range of the 610 mm Type 90 torpedo has been greatly improved, the gap between the range of the ship's guns is still too large, and the lightning strike ship can only brave the gunfire to charge before reaching the effective range!
When the special destroyer first entered service, it carried the Type 90 torpedo
How can we further increase the range? Naturally, some people have their brains moved to the oxygen mentioned in the preface to this article. In the compressed air carried by ordinary torpedoes, only 21% of the oxygen is truly effective, and the rest is almost inert nitrogen, which does not participate in combustion and will become a large number of bubbles when exhausting to expose the trajectory of the torpedo. If you replace the air with oxygen, you can add more fuel, theoretically increasing the range of the torpedo by 4 times!
<h1>Dangerous exploration</h1>
The principle of oxygen torpedoes is not difficult to understand, but it is difficult to develop them. Japan experimented with oxygen torpedoes during World War I, but was unable to do anything about it. In 1926, after the news that the British were studying oxygen torpedoes and about to be equipped with nelson-class battleships, the Japanese immediately followed up, and the relevant research work was fully rolled out in 1928, but it was immediately re-blocked by the difficulties of 10 years ago - oxygen is too active and too dangerous, just like the chemical test in the preface of this article, even the wire will become fuel in oxygen!
Oxygen gun for steelmaking converters
Gold diggers are heartbroken about oxygen! The average person thinks hydrogen is dangerous, but they don't know that oxygen is actually much more dangerous than hydrogen! High-purity hydrogen is actually safe to transport in the pipeline because there is no oxidizing agent. But pure oxygen, in the transmission pipeline flow rate is faster, there is a danger of explosion! Because pipelines are fuel, too high a flow rate (in the steelmaking industry, pure oxygen can spew out an oxygen gun at a rate of Mach 2) allows the heat generated by oxygen and pipe friction to ignite the pipe into a fire or explosion! So the danger of oxygen is: first, it can make the flash point of many things become very low; second, it can make a stable combustion into a violent explosion.
Pure oxygen flow rates too fast can cause fires!
The thermodynamic engines on the torpedoes are all external combustion engines, that is, after the fuel and oxygen are burned in a special combustion chamber, the gas enters the piston barrel to promote the piston movement. This design is very adaptable to fuel, not as harsh as the internal combustion engine, but despite this, the fuel and pure oxygen mixed into the combustion chamber after a fire immediately exploded, the Japanese trapped for many years still can not think of a solution. It wasn't until 1931 that the oil and gas from the gasoline prepared for the aircraft exploded on the mothership of the Notoru seaplane — and this explosion would occur many more times before it buried the japanese armored aircraft carrier Daiho, which Japan had high hopes for. In the search for measures to prevent oil and gas explosions, gasoline anti-explosion agents work well. This caught the attention of the torpedo research and development department: can we try to use an anti-explosive agent on an oxygen torpedo?
The "Notoru" that had an oil and gas explosion accident
The Ministry of Shipping Administration only approved 7,000 yen of research funds for this purpose, and the minister himself took the lead in collecting another 6,000 yuan to entrust Tokyo Imperial University with related research. The end result of the study is that the anti-explosive agent does not work well. And don't say it's pure oxygen, that is, the oxygen content in the air is higher, which may turn combustion into an explosion! The easy way to come up with it was blocked again!
<h1>Unintentional willow cutting</h1>
However, Tokyo Emperor Daidai received money or very seriously, their research is not only anti-explosive agents, the final report pointed out: there is only one way not to explode, that is, first use ordinary air mixed fuel to start burning, and then blow in pure oxygen will continue to burn instead of exploding! This conclusion immediately made all the people in the headquarters of the ship administration happy to blossom, and a small trick in engineering and technology often made major projects suddenly open! However, this "trick" gold digger thinks it is not very valuable: this "trick" has long been used in the oxygen cutting oxygen welding process - first ignite acetylene when used, and then open oxygen; after use, first turn off oxygen and then turn off acetylene! The Ship Administration Headquarters should consult the welders more.
The common oxygen cutting gun applies the principle of blowing pure oxygen first and then air
In 1932, the Torpedo Experiment Department of Wu Naval Plant began experiments related to oxygen torpedo engines, first mixing and igniting with air and fuel, and then blowing in pure oxygen, and the experiment went quite smoothly. Greedy Japanese people also feel that the oxygen content in the air when it is initially ignited is too low, so they increase the oxygen content to about 60%, and they also ignite smoothly! The successful experiment greatly encouraged the Ship Administration Headquarters, and despite several fatal accidents, the fanatical Japanese continued to push forward desperately.
The new problem found later is that the temperature of the pure oxygen engine is much higher than that of ordinary air, resulting in a large increase in the consumption of fresh water originally used for cooling, and the technician simply gave up fresh water and directly used seawater to ignite and cool the engine, at the cost of the salt in the seawater precipitating crystallization at high temperatures may block the pipeline, but the torpedo is originally a disposable weapon, as long as the fuel is not blocked before the problem is not big!
Engine of oxygen torpedoes
Pure oxygen also makes the same weight of engine more powerful – burning more efficiently. Japan learned from Italy that on the original smooth oval torpedo head, a small protrusion was added, which is actually a cavitation generator, which can reduce the pressure of the front seawater when moving at high speed, allow the seawater to vaporize in advance to form a cavitation, and reduce the resistance - the principle is similar to the later Soviet "storm" torpedo, but the formation of the bubble is very small, far from reaching the point where the "storm" like the bubble wraps around the entire torpedo, but it can also greatly reduce the resistance. The more powerful engine, combined with the "half-empty bubble" technology, makes the Type 93 torpedo the highest speed in the world at 50 knots!
Diving Type 95 torpedo, the red arrow points to the top hat for drag reduction
It is also worth emphasizing that the exhaust gas of the torpedo using pure oxygen combustion is water vapor and carbon dioxide with high solubility in water, there is no excess nitrogen, so the mine trace formed by the exhaust gas is very weak, especially at night, it is difficult to see with the naked eye, and the concealment is very good!
In early 1933, the Japanese Type 1 and the world's first type of oxygen torpedo was successfully test-fired, and although there were still some minor problems, the performance displayed was ecstatic to the Japanese Navy, and it was immediately finalized as the Type 93 torpedo that year - 1933 was the 2593 year of the Japanese Shinbu Chronicle. After some minor improvements, it officially joined the Active Service of the Japanese Navy in 1935 and became a highly classified and highly valued "decisive weapon" in Japan before the war.
The terrifying reloaded lightning strike ship, the game "Sea Battle" players should have a lingering feeling
<h1>Ferocious "spear"</h1>
How powerful is this secret "decisive weapon"? Compare it with other torpedoes in the same period, as shown in the following table.
As can be seen from the table above, the performance indicators of the Type 93 oxygen torpedo are overwhelming compared to other countries. The range of this item is even more terrifying 40 kilometers! The main torpedo of other countries is not even half of it, even compared with the main gun range of the main battleship, it is not inferior at all - the longest hit record of the battleship's main gun in history is 24 kilometers, which means that the Type 93 torpedo can calmly return fire to the battleship outside the main gun range! Coupled with very faint lightning tracks, simplicity is an excellent sneak attack weapon!
In front of the Type 93 torpedo, the range of the capital ship is no longer there
With such a strong performance, it is no wonder that the Japanese Navy is not only equipped with Type 93 torpedoes on the traditional main lightning destroyers, but also the heavy cruisers that other countries have removed the mines, and at least 12 launch tubes have been stuffed in, plus oxygen concentrators, spare torpedoes and related loading equipment, which is really not light! But the Japanese were not satisfied, and also changed the two light cruisers to the north and Oi into heavy lightning cruisers, equipped with 40 launch tubes (4 combined with 10 seats), and the single side could fire 20 Type 93 torpedoes in one go, and only need to turn around to shoot 20 more!
Game CG: The ussular strike ship "Northbound" preparing for a salvo
At that time, 533 mm torpedoes were still used on Japanese submarines, so the ship administration headquarters hit the iron while it was hot, and in 1938, it put into production a 533 mm Type 95 oxygen torpedo, with a total weight of 1665 kg, a charge of 405 kg, and a range of 12 km @ 51 knots! Compared with the similar torpedoes of the previous table Britain, the United States and Germany, the advantage is also very obvious! In addition, lighter Type 94 aviation torpedoes were developed, but encountered the problem of sea crystals blocking the pipeline - the pipe of the small torpedo was relatively thin, easy to block, and finally did not continue to improve and mass production due to the tension of the war.
Type 95 submarine oxygen torpedo
<h1>Great magic</h1>
At the beginning of the war, such a good torpedo did not catch the opportunity to play, but instead a specially modified shallow aviation torpedo without oxygen was killed in Pearl Harbor! Aviation power is beginning to show its power. The "A-label" miniature submarine that sneaked into Pearl Harbor carried the Type 97 450 mm oxygen torpedo, but the results are unknown. When it was the real turn of the Type 93 torpedo, it was already 3 months later in the Indian Ocean Raiders, and the first result was a Dutch destroyer, or a leak after being seriously injured. 10 days later, in the Battle of Surabaya on February 28, the two heavy cruisers "Haguro" and "Nachi" sank two Dutch cruisers with 12 Type 93s at a distance of 12 kilometers, showing the advantages of long range!
The heavy cruiser Nachi
On the same day, another heavy cruiser, the Mogami, also fired six Type 93 torpedoes at the Allies, but this time it was a big disaster - the torpedo did not hit the opponent, but because the range was long enough, it directly broke into the Japanese troop carrier fleet in the distance, sank 1 ship and injured several times, and the commander of the Japanese 16th Army on board, Lieutenant General Imakawa Jun, also fell into the water! Before the end of the Indian Ocean operation, several more Allied ships were killed under the Type 93 oxygen torpedo. However, at that time, the Japanese had absolute superiority in the Indian Ocean, and the glow of the Type 93 oxygen torpedo was completely overshadowed by the carrier mobile team.
The cruiser "Top" in trouble
What really made the Type 93 torpedo come to life was in a series of naval battles at the Battle for Guadalcanal. At this time, the aircraft carrier forces of Japan and the United States suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway some time ago, and they were still busy healing their wounds and relieving pain, and the surface combat ships of both sides were fighting each other at night on Guadalcanal, which was extremely tragic, which was the most suitable battlefield for the Type 93 torpedo! If the two sides are still similar in strength at the Battle of Savo Island and the Battle of Cape Esperaine, the Americans have absolute superiority in the Battle of Tassafalunga: 4 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser and 6 destroyers, 8 destroyers transporting supplies to Japan, and advanced radars, and special reminders to each ship to maintain a 10-kilometer engagement distance with the enemy! But that distance is clearly too much of an underestimation of the capabilities of the 93 oxygen torpedo.
The Japanese destroyer had a salvo of eight Type 93 torpedoes on the side of a single port, with 4 combined launch tubes in the red circle
The Japanese destroyer quietly fired a Type 93 oxygen torpedo in the fierce baptism of fire of the US army! Without warning, the Minliapolis was hit by two torpedoes, one blowing off the entire bow and the other hitting the engine room, immediately paralyzed on the surface of the sea and unable to move. The New Orleans immediately evaded it, but was hit by a torpedo. The third ship, pensacola, prepared to cover the retreat of the two ships, and despite the wide-eyed eyes of the watchtower, it was hit by a torpedo without warning and set on fire! The "Northampton" with soy sauce behind the temple was the most unlucky, the only one to find the trajectory of the torpedo, although trying to avoid it, it still hit 2 pieces, and finally capsized and sank! What seemed like a low-hanging fruit was lost in just 15 minutes! 1 heavy cruiser sank, 3 heavy damaged! After the Japanese army was successful, it quickly withdrew from the scene.
The Minliapolis lost its bow but escaped
The Northampton was sunk by a 93 torpedo
This battle of weak victory and instantaneous overturning alarmed the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Nimitz, who specially organized a comprehensive investigation, combined with a series of defeats in the previous guadalcanal waters, including the case of the "Wasp" aircraft carrier being attacked by the Type 95 oxygen torpedo of the Japanese submarine, and finally concluded that Japan has a torpedo with a long range, great power and very good concealment! In the subsequent Battle of the Solomon Series, the Type 93 oxygen torpedo still posed a great threat to the United States, and 1 more light cruiser was sunk! The Type 93 torpedo terrified the U.S. Navy, and for a time everyone talked about the discoloration of the thunder!
<h1>Beyond one's power</h1>
However, despite this power, the impact of the Type 93 torpedo on the Pacific War was minimal, and even the aforementioned beautiful "back gun" of Tassafagron, the final result was that the Japanese fleet quickly slipped away, and the original goal of supplying Guadalcanal was not achieved! In the end, it is still the sentence in Sun Tzu's Art of War: "To be in harmony, to win by surprise." To win victory in the war, it is still necessary to rely on the dignified strategy and tactics, superior strength, the Type 93 torpedo is only a "strange" soldier after all, more suitable for stealing chickens and dogs, even if there are some results, but the impact on the entire war situation is limited, far from being comparable to aircraft carriers, aircraft and even battleships.
Sun Tzu's Art of War Pays More Attention to "Right Union"
Although the maximum range of the Type 93 torpedo is an astonishing 40 kilometers, it takes 36 minutes to complete the voyage! This time in a normal naval battle is enough for enemy warships to sail more than 20 kilometers! In an era when there was no guidance system and only direct flight, such a long range actually did not make much sense. Even at a high speed of 50 knots with a range of 20 kilometers, it takes 13 minutes to sail, and the enemy ship can still run more than 10 kilometers! Therefore, the long range of the Type 93 torpedo can only play a role in night battles, sneak attacks, etc., in fact, even if it is a naval battle of traditional gunboat duels, the Type 93 torpedo is difficult to play a decisive role!
Even with a duel between the big ships and cannons, the slow speed of the torpedoes is embarrassing
In addition, there are also problems with the gyroscope of the Type 93 torpedo, which should have a speed of 8,000 revolutions, but in fact, the limited industrial level - mainly precision bearing processing capacity - is difficult to achieve, resulting in the stability of the torpedo's navigation far lower than expected! This is a disaster for long-range torpedoes, like having a sniper rifle with a huge range but no sophisticated scope! The Japanese Navy itself almost never shoots a target with a long range of 40 km @ 36 knots!
Gyroscope of the Type 93 torpedo
In order to equip the Type 93 torpedo, the Japanese ship also needs to carry a special oxygen concentrator, storage and oxygen delivery system, which makes the vulnerability of the whole ship extremely poor. The last drop of blood at the Battle of Midway is the best example: after the collision between the cruisers "Minakama" and the cruisers "Mikuma", the two ships dragged, and the "Mogami" was much more seriously damaged, but the damage officer handled it properly - shooting out all the torpedoes. Although the Mikuma was only slightly injured, it was not treated accordingly. When the two ships faced the subsequent air raids of the US army, they were hit by many bullets, and the seriously injured "Mogami" escaped from the sky, but the "Mikuma" eventually became the first heavy cruiser to sink because of the torpedoes and mines! It can also be seen that the Type 93 torpedo is almost useless in the battle of sea and air integration, but has become a dangerous burden! And this situation will be repeated many times in the future, when the torpedo dispute between the Non-Kaga Clan and the Kaga Clan at the Headquarters of the Ship Administration led to the departure of "Hiraga Not let" (a nickname for stubborn persistence), but it seems that he laughed to the end - although he was an old man who did not like to laugh.
The Mikuma, which was severely injured by the explosion, can also see the torpedo tube protruding out of the port
<h1>Inability to return to heaven</h1>
The Japanese themselves were aware of the deviation of the initial research and development, and in 1943 designed the Type 93 3 torpedo, which increased the minehead charge from 490 kg to 780 kg, and the corresponding oxygen chamber was shortened, and the range was reduced to 15 km @ 50 knots, 25 km @ 40 knots, which actually admitted the failure of the original blind pursuit of the design idea of range! By the time the Type 93-3 torpedoes were actually mass-produced, however, there were few opportunities for Japanese warships to launch torpedoes— the oceans were completely dominated by American-like carriers and aircraft.
The Type 93 3 torpedo reduces range and increases power
The angry and corrupt Japan used its last trick, and readers must have guessed it - "suicide"! Starting in 1944, they removed the Minehead of the Type 93 torpedo, retained the first half of the second half of the section, and loaded it with a small cockpit and a terrifying 1.55 tons of explosives, with a range of 78 km @ 12 knots and a maximum speed of 30 knots! This torpedo is driven by a single person, and the cockpit will be welded to death before the attack, which is called the "back to the sky" torpedo. Before the end of the war, the "Return to Heaven" sank 29 Allied ships of various types! So much so that when Japan surrendered, the first demands made by the US military included the immediate recall of ships carrying the "Return to Heaven" at sea.
"Back to heaven" suicide torpedo
However, the Japanese army was defeated like a mountain, and just as the "kamikaze" could not blow the typhoon that destroyed the Mongol army that year, the "return to heaven" was ultimately powerless to return to the sky. However, the Type 93 torpedoes are still constantly "hindering the master", and the heavy cruisers that were forcibly required to load torpedoes were particularly unlucky, and the "Chikuma" and "Torikai" died from the martyrdom of the Type 93 torpedoes. And the heavy-duty lightning strike ships "Going North" and "Dajing", which had high hopes at that time, finally simply removed all the torpedo tubes - relying on this could not resist the AMERICAN aircraft! Poor "decisive weapon" that was highly anticipated at that time, and finally ended up with a knife and water in vain!
Model: A submarine carrying the "Huitian" suicide torpedo
<h1>epilogue</h1>
The gold digger said: Like many Japanese weapons, the Type 93 oxygen torpedo is also the result of the sword's deviation, and the performance is particularly outstanding in some aspects, and it can even be said that Japan's "special" type destroyer and its successor ships are designed around how to effectively strike! The price paid so much for lightning strikes that they lagged behind American destroyers in air defense, anti-submarine, and so on.
A Type 93 torpedo that hit the coast after losing it
Such extremes are actually based on the operational idea of naval gun duels in the era of large ships and giant guns, in the era of aircraft carrier unification of the ocean, the Type 93 torpedo can only be reduced to stealing chickens and dogs, and finally fighting to the death "jade crush" is also powerless to return to the sky. It can be seen from this that the theory of asymmetric warfare may be able to reap some effects, but the final result of the war is still as "just in harmony" as stated in Sun Tzu's Art of War, and the "victory with surprise" of oxygen torpedoes cannot last long after all, but witnesses the comprehensive collapse of the combined fleet.