General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: belgrano - Tim
Posted by:
John Griffiths
()
Date: May 20, 2001 05:32AM
<HTML> Hi Tim,
Firstly, the \'extra forum\' bit would be great. I think it is a tech op though, so that\'s down to Gummi! I would welcome it as it may keep the lurkers and flamers off the historic bit. What do others think?
TEZ was what it stands for, mate! TOTAL Exclusion Zone. I think, in the case of the Belgrano, it was decided she presented a significant threat. Just like their carrier. Had it have sailed it would now be deep six - no doubts.
ASW ops are \'prudent\'. On the way south, the UK SAGs swept working on the basis that the Argies had Type 209 boats and might want to throw a dice on chance. Also, the Russians were active in monitoring things and it was useful to know where they were in case they decided to offer the hand of friendship...
Hedgehog.
>>#2: Belgrano\\\'s escorts were equipped with HedgeHog launchers. Are not the Hedgehog projectiles contact fuse? If so, blast radius would be a mute point, it has to hit the boat....<<
Mortars, Hedgehogs, Squibs, Limbo - whatever they\'re called - are fused to suit operational requirements. In the case of that old standard Mortar, A/S, Mk.10, they fired 175g bombs set to depth. However, they had pretty piss poor depth selectors until the Aussies upgraded the mech-elec kit in the early 80\'s. Notwithstanding that, they are fused to depth - any contact is a bonus.
In the case of lethality,you need to get close to a sub. It doesn\'t have to be contact! If you\'ve seen Das Boot you\'ll have seen the underwater shots of the boat being depth charged. The cans brew up near to the sub - depth set - in the hope that they get close enough to do some serious internal / external damage. That\'s what I was saying about the 5m lethality range. The charges use the incompressibility of water to add to the \'thump\' effect. What water does is magnify that pressure - in some cases, a depth charge set off at 15 m from a contact can do all sorts of internal damage - never mind what it does to the morale of the crew! I read somewhere that the average sub crew gets windy with depth charges at 1kilometre, with battle seasoned crews getting the heeby-jeebies at 100m.
However, you\'re right. If a depth charge hits a boat...it\'s goodnight.
So, fuses are set to depth, with the proximity being largely discounted. It is a sort of team effect between explosion and water hammer effect.
Hope this helps? Oh and by the way, my knowledge is well out of date. I was in many years ago - things have moved on somewhat since then!
Aye,
John</HTML>
Firstly, the \'extra forum\' bit would be great. I think it is a tech op though, so that\'s down to Gummi! I would welcome it as it may keep the lurkers and flamers off the historic bit. What do others think?
TEZ was what it stands for, mate! TOTAL Exclusion Zone. I think, in the case of the Belgrano, it was decided she presented a significant threat. Just like their carrier. Had it have sailed it would now be deep six - no doubts.
ASW ops are \'prudent\'. On the way south, the UK SAGs swept working on the basis that the Argies had Type 209 boats and might want to throw a dice on chance. Also, the Russians were active in monitoring things and it was useful to know where they were in case they decided to offer the hand of friendship...
Hedgehog.
>>#2: Belgrano\\\'s escorts were equipped with HedgeHog launchers. Are not the Hedgehog projectiles contact fuse? If so, blast radius would be a mute point, it has to hit the boat....<<
Mortars, Hedgehogs, Squibs, Limbo - whatever they\'re called - are fused to suit operational requirements. In the case of that old standard Mortar, A/S, Mk.10, they fired 175g bombs set to depth. However, they had pretty piss poor depth selectors until the Aussies upgraded the mech-elec kit in the early 80\'s. Notwithstanding that, they are fused to depth - any contact is a bonus.
In the case of lethality,you need to get close to a sub. It doesn\'t have to be contact! If you\'ve seen Das Boot you\'ll have seen the underwater shots of the boat being depth charged. The cans brew up near to the sub - depth set - in the hope that they get close enough to do some serious internal / external damage. That\'s what I was saying about the 5m lethality range. The charges use the incompressibility of water to add to the \'thump\' effect. What water does is magnify that pressure - in some cases, a depth charge set off at 15 m from a contact can do all sorts of internal damage - never mind what it does to the morale of the crew! I read somewhere that the average sub crew gets windy with depth charges at 1kilometre, with battle seasoned crews getting the heeby-jeebies at 100m.
However, you\'re right. If a depth charge hits a boat...it\'s goodnight.
So, fuses are set to depth, with the proximity being largely discounted. It is a sort of team effect between explosion and water hammer effect.
Hope this helps? Oh and by the way, my knowledge is well out of date. I was in many years ago - things have moved on somewhat since then!
Aye,
John</HTML>