Dod Grile wrote:Does anyone know whether the Imperial Navy's surface torpedo doctrine preferred curved fire ahead (with increased gyro settings) or straight broadside fire during WWII? I know USN destroyer skippers much preferred the former...but I haven't seen much documentation from the Japanese side.
Dod Grile wrote:Hello,
Thanks for that; I am glad to learn this. And it makes some sense. (How the torpedoes were fired with the tubes pointed "more or less abeam" is a mystery & bit hard to accept, though. I'd like to know more about that, certainly. Does this mean the ship had to orient itself to provide the Sight Angle when firing?)
You're probably quite right about USN practice, though. I meant (& should have specified) that I was thinking of the confusion caused in some early actions in which various American DesDivs did not have the same tactical doctrine...This was certainly a holdover from inadequate pre-war training. A real mess in some instances resulted when some division Cdrs wanted curved ahead fire and others straight broadside...
As for the Japanese information---that's also very good to know. If I could have another fifty years on this earth, I might attempt to sort out Tassafaronga thoroughly, but no chance realistically.
DG
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