Talk:61cm Quadruple (Oxygen) Torpedo Mount/@comment-175.142.197.192-20140805144925/@comment-175.142.197.192-20140812134731

Nah, long lance was particularly volatile... i mean we don't generally expect torpedo to remain intact when they get shot into pieces, the trouble is that Long Lance with it's oxygen fuel base ignite very readily from things that don't quite sets off other torpedoes...

this shows itself SPECTACULARLY during the battle of samar where US destroyer escorts (tin can vessels that are even less powerful than fleet destroyers) and air strikes armed with ground based bombs (HE bombs, which were unsuited normally against armored warships) sunk or heavily damaged heavy cruisers which they otherwise had virtually no way of damaging effectively without direct hits from torpedo. the US destroyer escorts charge against them literally brought them to point blank range to the japanese vessels, close enough that they can use their AAA against the japanese vessels..

it's worth noting that the destroyer escorts carried torpedoes as well... and several of those ships were hit repeatedly by the Japanese return fire before they could release all their torpedoes... they didn't seems to suffer a problem of torpedo detonation despite taking hits from shell big enough to rip their superstructure clean.

Long Lance essentially was a submarine's dream weapon... long range, powerful warhead, no wake... and if the torpedo inside the sub gets shot, then the sub is already penetrated in which case it's likely to be a dead sub soon enough so no difference.

But for surface ships which can and will get shot, splintered with shrapnels, and set on fire... they are a double edged weapon that as Chokai and Suzuya can attest to in Battle of Samar... can be as bad as having enemy shell blowing up in your face.