\">Basically a good, reliable acoustic torpedo for routine anti-convoy ship use was beyond the state of the art in WWII.<\" Depends on what you mean by \"state of the art\". The electronic components needed for the job certainly existed at the time, as did the theory. It was more an applications design issue. The Germans were well advanced in this area, despite the lowly priorities given, and had several generations of acoustic torpedoes including Falke (T IV), Zaunkoenig (T V), Zaunkoenig II (T IX) and Lerche. Falke was a rather primitive device fielded in 1943, but it only had a contact pistol which made it basically unusable against small ships like escorts. The faster Zaunkoenig with contact and magnetic pistols was fielded in 1944, but it had big problems with premature detonation which was not discovered for some time due to the way Zaunkoenig was used.

The Allies had a sound decoy called Foxer which was available when Falke and Zaunkoenig arrived. The Foxer was towed behind a ship and was designed based on some technical data about the German acoustic torpedo program betrayed to the British by a German traitor in 1940; this was part of the \"Oslo Report\".

Zaunkoenig II was a more advanced version which would have solved both the decoy problem and the premature detonation problem. Lerche was a Zaunkoenig II with a wire connection back to the U-boat which allowed the sonarman to hear what the torpedo heard and to change its course. Both of these torpedoes were ready at the end of the war and could have been ready earlier if the projects had gotten a better priority. None of this work was done with anything like a crash program urgency.

Magnetic pistols were tried by several powers, notably Germany and the US. The US version did not work, was withdrawn and a working model was never developed. The German one had been cleared for front use after only two tests, one of which failed. In the winter of 1939/40 it became clear this device did not work, especially in the North Sea. It was withdrawn, there was an inquiry, some court martials and work continued until a functional version became available in late 1942. Improved versions followed.

The FAT and later LUT torpedoes were an interesting idea which worked sometimes. However, they missed more often than they hit. The problem was the torpedo did run out of power rather quickly and most of the ocean was filled with water and not ships.

Firing accurately by sonar alone became possible in 1943 with the advent of the 48 sensor Balkon GHG, but it was rarely done. The type XXI was perfectly capable of doing it, but only one ever went out on a war patrol in May 1945.

Regards,
SuperKraut