World War II Database

1.  David Stubblebine says:
28 Sep 2021 11:25:48 AM

The Navy’s official caption for this photo misidentifies this as a “Type 93 (long lance), fired from a submarine.” This is a Type 93 (long lance) but the Type 93 were launched from surface vessels such as destroyers and cruisers. The Type 95 was the smaller companion torpedo that was launched from submarines.

2. Steve Voorhees says:
11 Jul 2023 05:12:04 PM

At what point during the war were the capabilities of the Type 93 and 95 torpedoes commonly known among commanding officers in the USN?

3.  David Stubblebine says:
16 Jul 2023 01:30:04 PM

Steve Voorhees (above):
The question merits a little more research, but it would seem US Naval Intelligence was starting to catch on in early 1944. How long it took for that information to trickle down to the ships’ captains is a little less certain. An Apr 2019 paper posted by the U.S. Naval Institute titled “A Massive Torpedo” said this:

“[T]he first indications of how [the Japanese were firing torpedoes from very long ranges] apparently came only in February–March 1944 ... A February 1944 U.S. Navy survey of Japanese naval ordnance credited the Type 93 with a range of 22,400 yards at 50 knots and 33,000 yards at 32 knots. A March 1944 report based on prisoner-of-war interrogations and captured documents credited the Type 93, nearly correctly, with a range of 32,700 to 33,800 yards at 32 knots and 11,000 yards at 47 knots. The July 1944 edition of ‘Statistical Summary of the Japanese Navy’ (ONI 222-J) described the Type 93 as ‘probably ... the most radical and spectacular development in naval ordnance that has appeared in the Pacific Theatre,’ crediting it with a 1,200-pound warhead and a range of 11,000 yards at more than 45 knots.”

There is no question that the American understanding of these weapons was delayed by the arrogant attitudes at the Bureau of Ordnance that maintained the Japanese could not possibly have built a weapon system superior to their own (which, of course, they had – and “arrogant” is the nice way of describing these attitudes; “racist” might be more accurate). See also US Navy H-Gram-008-3 (2017).

4. Steve Voorhees says:
16 Jul 2023 05:34:33 PM

Thanks very much for the response and the research time it took. Your assessment of BuOrd attitudes is dead on I think especially when their defence of our Mk 14 torpedoes killed unknown numbers of our submariners in the war. A lesson for us there. about racism.