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Captain Hara, CO of the Japanese cruiser Yahagi, in his book Japanese destroyer commander, writes that his ship, or others in the flotilla escorting Yamato on its latest mission, carried homing torpedoes. How could this be?

Fred

fredleander wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:24 pmCaptain Hara, CO of the Japanese cruiser Yahagi, in his book Japanese destroyer commander, writes that his ship, or others in the flotilla escorting Yamato on its latest mission, carried homing torpedoes. How could this be?

Japan never developed an operational torpedo with acoustic homing, so it couldn't (unless they had some of the experimental Type 92 homing torpedoes onboard as cargo).

That book has translations problems in some parts. One is when it describes the best track that a destroyer has to sail to launch torpedoes. It says that the track must be a parabola (what would need the destroyer changing continually its heading), whereas I presume the author means that the distance plotted versus time between two ships sailing a straight course is a parabola, and its apex represents the closest distance they would reach, and that this is the moment to launch.

Regards