Why did large surface ships use torpedo turrets?

[goduranus]

From playing Silent Hunter, it seems like most WW2 era torpedoes already have gyros that turn them toward any direction after they hit the water. So then, why bother with using torpedo turrets? Why do large ships not simply use fixed tubes like small boats and subs do? or even, just drop torps into the water like depth charges, and then have the torp turn itself toward the gyro heading?

Also, gameplay wise, can we get a torpedo gyro upgrade that expands the torpedo launch arc in this game? to simulate these gyros that lets torps turn a little more after launch.

[Tortue Agile]

They still needed to send the torpedo in the direction of the target, I guess you have to think about speed and turning radius. I don't think they were super maneuverable.

[Guest]

Torpedo gyros sucked for more than a 15 degree corner, had risks of torpedoing the launcher when it breaks and causes it to run in a circle.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Absolute0CA

[Pedroig]

8 hours ago, goduranus said:

From playing Silent Hunter, it seems like most WW2 era torpedoes already have gyros that turn them toward any direction after they hit the water. So then, why bother with using torpedo turrets? Why do large ships not simply use fixed tubes like small boats and subs do? or even, just drop torps into the water like depth charges, and then have the torp turn itself toward the gyro heading?

Also, gameplay wise, can we get a torpedo gyro upgrade that expands the torpedo launch arc in this game? to simulate these gyros that lets torps turn a little more after launch.

You are mixing up eras.  There were no modern WWII surface ships with fixed torpedo tubes, for that matter there were no WWII surface ships larger than LC with torpedoes.

Predreadnaught era, fixed tubes were common on CL and above, but they didn't have gyros then.  With the 10k torpedo, some countries went "all in" on torpedo research, but with the Dreadnaught, and ranges of 20+k, torpedoes were impractical on any ship with guns larger then 6", would have to close to knife fighting range to use them...

[goduranus]

Wut man? Tirpitz has torpedoes, and Scharnhorst and Mogami.

Edited October 30, 2019 by goduranus

[Pedroig]

Mogami was a Light Cruiser, and was the only class you bring up designed to have torpedoes.

As far as the Germans...

Quote

 

The recommendation for arming Tirpitz with torpedo tubes came from the Chief of Fleet, Admiral Günther Lütjens in late Spring of 1941, and was based on the experiences he encountered during the successful raiding cruise of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The German planning staff had dropped the requirement for battleships to have torpedo tubes and so Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau had been built without them. However, the outbreak of war with Great Britain caused the Germans to adopt the kleiner Krieg strategy whereby if one was too weak to fight the enemy fleet, the weaker navy could attack the vital merchant shipping that supplied the enemy with the goods needed to fight the war.

The Bismarck and Scharnhorst classes, though, had not been designed as merchant raiders, but being pressed into that role by circumstance, Lütjens noted that the ammunition expenditure required to quickly dispatch a merchant ship was extremely high. This was costly, both in the cost of ammunition and the cost of wear and tear on the guns which would naturally have to be relined or replaced sooner. Lütjens felt that a torpedo from close range was much more effective than pumping dozens of shells into a steamer.

The German Naval War Directorate agreed with him, and ordered the battleships to be so equipped. Tirpitz and the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau received theirs in late 1941, and Bismarck would have gotten hers as well had she returned from her first and only war cruise.

 

So they were great against lightly armed, unescorted merchant ships, totally useless against a warship and were never used as such.

[FinnishJager]

 

1 hour ago, Pedroig said:

for that matter there were no WWII surface ships larger than LC with torpedoes.

You just have to look at all the other Japanese cruisers, heavy or light, to see that they were armed with torpedoes. German and British heavy cruisers had torpedo launchers.

Also:

4 minutes ago, Pedroig said:

So they were great against lightly armed, unescorted merchant ships, totally useless against a warship and were never used as such.

Perhaps true the were not used "as such" [against other battleships] but to call them "totally useless" seems quite bold...

[Guest]

@goduranus to expand on my previous comment that was really inadequate. Fixed torpedo tubes were used up until the nelson class with Rodney being the last ship equipped with them, and the only ship to fire and hit something with their below water torpedo tubes in battle. The original idea wasn't so much for in the middle of combat as it was for finishing off crippled ships after the battle had finished. Though these below water torpedo tubes were massive compartments that if hit and were flooded were a dire threat to a ships operational capabilities. Though a torpedo detonation was considered an almost nonexistent threat it was still a flaw in a ships protection. Also you couldn't go faster than about 5 maybe 10 knots otherwise the torpedo could get either stuck or snap in half neither of which is desirable. It also required aiming the ship to aim the torpedo tubes and in the era they were employed you would get at most a 10 degree course correction after firing if the gyros were even adjustable at all.