And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
A Mark 13 torp, which probably failed to detonate on its target, given that the pic is from mid-42 to early 43 based on the markings on the plane, and the wildly defective Mk13 wasn't fixed until 1944.
Angantyr, I may be wrong, but I believe the Mk 13 was built by BuAer. The Mk14 which was defective was submarine launched and built by BuWeps. Willing to admit to any mistakes. :-)
Both torps sucked, for varying reasons. Problems included running too deep, defective detonators, and for air dropped torps, having too low an airspeed to be launched (specifically you had to drop at no more than ~100 knots or so, which made air drops spectacularly dangerous, and was largely responsible for the severe losses at Midway, not just of carrier based TBD Devastators, but also TBF Avengers and B-26 Marauders flying from Midway Island during the battle. I have a theory that the Pacific War would have ended much sooner had we had torpedoes as effective as the Japanese torps, in terms of airdropping at higher speeds and reliability)
Not sure...
ReplyDeleteBut I hope he's inbound to Martha's vineyard.
Torpedo
ReplyDeleteYep you can see the puff of smoke where the torpedo's engine fired up upon release
DeleteThat is a Mark 13 torpedo.
ReplyDeletePV-1 Ventura?
ReplyDeleteyes
DeleteA Mark 13 torp, which probably failed to detonate on its target, given that the pic is from mid-42 to early 43 based on the markings on the plane, and the wildly defective Mk13 wasn't fixed until 1944.
ReplyDeleteAngantyr, I may be wrong, but I believe the Mk 13 was built by BuAer. The Mk14 which was defective was submarine launched and built by BuWeps. Willing to admit to any mistakes. :-)
ReplyDeleteBoth torps sucked, for varying reasons. Problems included running too deep, defective detonators, and for air dropped torps, having too low an airspeed to be launched (specifically you had to drop at no more than ~100 knots or so, which made air drops spectacularly dangerous, and was largely responsible for the severe losses at Midway, not just of carrier based TBD Devastators, but also TBF Avengers and B-26 Marauders flying from Midway Island during the battle. I have a theory that the Pacific War would have ended much sooner had we had torpedoes as effective as the Japanese torps, in terms of airdropping at higher speeds and reliability)
Deletebitchin' aircraft, R2800 P&W 2000 HP engines. a real solid airframe.
ReplyDeleteI agree.. would make a hell of a tree top flier.
Delete