The timing of joint attacks was therefore critical. Torpedo plane pilots were advised to time their runs to come into range at the same moment as dive-bombers’ bombs were actually hitting. This would mean that part of the target ship’s AA batteries should be knocked out, and also that the ship might suffer loss of control or propulsion, making her an easier target. If only strafing fighters and rocket-firing aircraft were available to support the torpedo pilots, the latter were warned not to hesitate, as the speed of the fighters meant they pressed in their attack much quicker. Finally, all forms of supporting attack would aid the torpedo planes in safely retiring from the scene.
NOTABLE WARTIME TORPEDO ACCIDENTS
‘You know, that looks remarkably like one of ours!’
Used correctly, the torpedo can be a devastating weapon. Sadly, there are numerous accounts of torpedo launches causing unintended damage to their own side and even sinking their own vessel. The most notorious was the Battle of Sunda Strait, but each incident was a tragedy for the side involved. Early doubters, including the future Admiral Fisher, regularly expressed fears of the effects of launching a Whitehead in the midst of a general melee as at Lissa. As the then Commander Fisher reported on Whitehead’s weapon to the Admiralty in 1869, ‘it must be remembered that, once started, his Torpedo is beyond control and will blow up anyone it comes across.’
Modern torpedoes fired in error can be left unarmed, and even be made to self-destruct before they strike their launch vessel. With early torpedoes there was no such opportunity. Two French destroyers, a British cruiser and at least two US submarines managed to torpedo themselves. The destroyers and the submarines sank, and the cruiser was so crippled she later succumbed to air attack.
Circular runs could occur when a torpedo’s gyro was upset or failed, or when a wave or shell-burst caused the torpedo to roll. In the latter case the horizontal planes would operate to try to control the torpedo’s depth, but would instead act as the vertical rudders, turning it in a circle. Receiving no response, the depth-keeping mechanism would stubbornly continue to try to correct the depth, and the torpedo would continue to circle.
The incidents of torpedo explosion on board caused by enemy fire are noted in the following chapters, but there was also the self-inflicted injury, from the explosion of an air flask. Often serious, in one case it led directly to the loss of a large modern fleet destroyer.
The air flask of a torpedo is a highly stressed component, and when charged at full pressure it poses a significant risk if somehow the flask is ruptured. Even a flask which has undergone the most rigorous construction and testing can faiclass="underline" repeated cycles of charging and releasing the pressure can set up fatal metal fatigue; to this must be added the risks of the corrosion always present in a sea-going environment; and, lastly, the factor of handling. When a ship at sea rolls and pitches, moving and loading a torpedo can cause minor blows which, in time, could lead to flask failure. In more than one case, the failure was suspected to have been caused by overpressure as a result of the ambient temperature.
Sadly, torpedo incidents have continued into the postwar period, and while the Germans experienced no naval losses with HTP fuel, the Japanese had several spectacular explosions during laboratory testing, but none at sea. The Americans have been careful, or perhaps fortunate, in their use of navol, but it was left to the Royal Navy to suffer the first deadly explosion, and it is feared that the Kursk disaster must also be laid at the door of this extremely volatile fuel.
CHAPTER 20
Early Torpedo Actions
The armament manufacturer’s dream is to sell to both sides in a major conflict. And then to sell further units to replace those lost in that conflict, creating an upwardly spiralling arms race. Such was the situation in Latin America in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, culminating in Brazil’s order for the Rio de Janeiro, the longest dreadnought in the world with the greatest number of big guns (which became the Sultan Osman I and eventually HMS Agincourt), and Chile’s contract to purchase two super-dreadnoughts (which became HMS Canada and the aircraft carrier Eagle).
Conflicts there were, between the Pacific Coast nations but also between government and rebel factions in these young republics. One of these internecine squabbles resulted in the launch of the first ever Whitehead used in combat, and a later rebellion led to the first documented sinking of an ironclad by a locomotive torpedo.
THE BATTLE OF PACHOCA
The background to the encounter was that on 6 May 1877 Peruvian rebels in their civil war against the elected President Prado seized the small ironclad turret ship Huáscar at Callao. Huáscar’s captain, Germán Astete, needed fuel and supplies, which he proceeded to take from passing merchant ships, four of which happened to be British-registered. On 23 May Huáscar’s crew were in the process of plundering the port of Pisagua, to the north of Iquique, when a loyalist squadron appeared and tried in vain to capture her. A few days later Admiral Algernon de Horsey, commander of the British Pacific Fleet, arrived with the large unarmoured iron frigate HMS Shah, and the smaller wooden corvette HMS Amethyst. Horsey’s orders were to seek reparations for the plundering of British ships, and his command cornered the Huáscar in Pachoca Bay on 29 May 1877.
Refusing de Horsey’s demand that he surrender his ship, Captain Astete cleared for action, and battle commenced. The Shah was armed with two 9in and six 7in rifles, plus two 14in Whitehead torpedoes. Amethyst carried 64pdr smoothbores, and two torpedoes. Huáscar was armed with two 10in guns in a single Coles-type turret, plus several smaller weapons.
While Huáscar manoeuvred in shallow water where the British ships could not follow, and three times lined up to ram, the British fired off no less than 427 Palliser shells and solid shot at her, hitting Huascar fifty times but penetrating her armour only once. Seeing the lack of effect of his guns, de Horsey decided at last to resort to that most ungentlemanly of weapons, the new Whitehead. Shah launched one of her torpedoes … and missed. As night was falling, the inconclusive action was called off.
However, since Huáscar had fired off most of her ammunition, Astete put into Iquique for a parley with the government forces. As a result they took back the ship, and the rebels departed under safe conduct. De Horsey was severely criticised in Parliament for failing to capture the Huáscar, until it was pointed out that she was, after all, a British export, and therefore proof of Britain’s supremacy in naval matters.
To continue the story of the renegade ironclad, the Huáscar led a charmed life, and survived many naval actions to become the famous Chilean navy museum ship of today. But her career could have been cut short in the hands of her original Peruvian owners due to an incident with one of Lay’s enormous dirigible torpedoes.