Hi Walter

There were many examples of using captured war material. The Germans used many captured weapons on the Eastern Front.. in example the captured 7.62cm Anti-Tank guns were modified to fire the German 7.5cm shells.

I know of two systems to start the engine of a torpedo:
1. The one you mentioned (in the launch itself with reciprocating engine)
2. By a latch in the torpedo tube, which engange a starting lever when the torpedo leave the tube.

I heard about some incidents in WW1, when torpedo engines were started through a heavy shock (i.e. depth charge near the torpedo tubes) and had to be blown out.
In other cases the engines failed to start and the torpedo fell to the bottom of the sea. I read about incidents with torpedoes driven by compressed air, when a mechanic controlled the torpedo, the air was blown out with 2000 psi and the torpedo was pushed 40 metres in the air and fell back to earth without hurting someone. But I think that the mechanic had the shock of his life. ;-)

I don\'t have heard about such problems in WW2, perhaps the starting mechanism was improved.

Regards
Rainer