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Does anyone know whether or not spent torpedoes fired in WW2 either sank or floated ? I guess that it might vary from navy to navy and different circumstances, but in generally what happened to them ?

Beershark - AFAIK in WWII at least they were fitted with various devices to regulate the depth they ran at...and this could be variable within quite a few metres. A torpedo set to hit below the waterline of a heavily-laden merchantman...would pass harmlessly underneath it as it returned across the Atlantic EMPTY, for instance without that degree of adjustment.

After they exhausted their fuel, they would float for some time IIRC; in WWI at least, there are many instances of clever captains on long patrols managing to slavage and refuel torpedoes that hadn't hit their target and could be located. I believe this happened in WWII on a number of ocasions too.

Try this link:
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WTGER_WWII.htm

The German standard torpedo, the G7 series, was almost invariably set to explode at the end of it’s run. I have never seen this spelled out, but I assume it was to keep the secrets of it’s guidance system out of the hands of the Allies.

BTW, the torpedo could be detonated by a magnetic trigger which was activated by passing under a ship. This was frequently used to great effect against merchant shipping.



Hope this helps,
Bruce

This was frequently used to great effect against merchant shipping

When it was eventually got to work...the torpedo would be set to run at a depth just beneath the ship, relying on a magnetic exploder to activate at the appropriate time. Germany, Britain and the U.S. independently devised ways to do this; German and American torpedoes, however, suffered problems with their depth-keeping mechanisms, coupled with faults in magnetic pistols shared by all designs.

Inadequate testing had failed to reveal the effect of the Earth's magnetic field on ships and exploder mechanisms, which resulted in premature detonation. The KM and RN promptly identified and eliminated the problems. In the USN, there was an extended wrangle over the problems plaguing the Mk 14 torpedo (and its Mk 6 exploder). Cursory trials had allowed bad designs to enter service. Both the Navy Bureau of Ordnance and Congress were too busy protecting their own interests to correct the errors, and fully-functioning torpedoes only became available to the USN 21 months into the Pacific War.

phylo_roadking wrote:

This was frequently used to great effect against merchant shipping

When it was eventually got to work...the torpedo would be set to run at a depth just beneath the ship, relying on a magnetic exploder to activate at the appropriate time. Germany, Britain and the U.S. independently devised ways to do this; German and American torpedoes, however, suffered problems with their depth-keeping mechanisms, coupled with faults in magnetic pistols shared by all designs.

Inadequate testing had failed to reveal the effect of the Earth's magnetic field on ships and exploder mechanisms, which resulted in premature detonation. The KM and RN promptly identified and eliminated the problems. In the USN, there was an extended wrangle over the problems plaguing the Mk 14 torpedo (and its Mk 6 exploder). Cursory trials had allowed bad designs to enter service. Both the Navy Bureau of Ordnance and Congress were too busy protecting their own interests to correct the errors, and fully-functioning torpedoes only became available to the USN 21 months into the Pacific War.

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I understand that the faulty US torpedoes alse caused numerous sub skippers to be fired, ostensibly for lack of aggressiveness. This is a bit tough ! One other curious fact about torpedoes is their occassional propensity to, once fired, describe a huge arc in the water and return to the submarine that launched it, thereby sinking the sub. I don't know how many times this happened, but I have read about it frequently.

From what I can work out, this is a property of WWII torpedoes that could be fired in a spread...that they would "arc" from the point of origin I.E. the sub...to spread across the path of a large vessel, particularly a naval vessel, that if the approaching torpedoes were spotted could be expected to make avoidance manouvers. Thus the "spread" would cover an area of sea that the target vessel could be expected to manouver in...and set as they were to arc/curve - in a worst case scenario they would indeed arc right back to the point of origin...!

Yes, there is documented stories of RN subs in WWI retrieving their spent torpedoes ..... as during the Gallipoli campaign.

A few years back a German torpedo was found and recovers off the coast of Nova Scotia. It had no warhead as it had fallen off (maybe after an impact) and had been blown into the shallows after a storm.

If no detonation, then they sank, as this is what I have read.