Let's make a small digression from our aviation reviews and move on to the water. I decided to start like this, not from above, where it is important to blow bubbles all sorts of battleships there, destroyers and aircraft carriers, and bottom. Where passions boiled no less comic, even in shallow water.
Speaking of torpedo boats, it is worth noting, that before the start of the war, the participating countries, including even "Mistress of the Seas" Britannia, the presence of torpedo boats did not burden themselves. Yes, there were small ships, but, rather for educational purposes.
for example, The Royal Navy had 1939 year in total 18 TC, Germans owned 17 boats, but the Soviet Union had 269 boats. Shallow seas affected, in the waters of which it was necessary to solve problems.
That's why we'll start, perhaps, from a participant under the flag of the Soviet Navy.
1. Torpedo boat G-5. the USSR, 1933 year
maybe, experts will say, that it would be worth putting the boats D-3 or Komsomolets here, but it's just that the G-5 was released more, than D-3 and "Komsomol" combined. Respectively, these boats unequivocally took on such a part of the war, which is hardly comparable to the rest.
G-5 was a coastal zone boat, unlike D-3, which could well work away from the coast. It was a small boat, which the, Nevertheless, throughout the Great Patriotic War he worked on enemy communications.
During the war it underwent several modifications., motors GAM-34 (Yes, Mikulinsky AM-34s became planing) were replaced by imported "Isotta-Fraschini", and then on the GAM-34F with a power 1000 hp, who accelerated the boat to crazy 55 units with combat load. An empty boat could accelerate to 65 knots.
Armament also changed.. Frankly weak DA machine guns were first replaced by ShKAS (interesting solution, to be honest), and then two DShK.
Perhaps, a minus should be considered the need to turn around to drop torpedoes. But it was also solved., TKA G-5 fought the whole war and on the combat account of these boats there is a pretty decent bunch of sunken enemy ships.
by the way, great speed and a non-magnetic wooden-duralumin hull allowed the boats to sweep acoustic and magnetic mines.
dignity: speed, good weapons, cheap design.
disadvantages: very low seaworthiness.
2. Torpedo boat "Vosper". United Kingdom, 1938 g.
The history of the boat is notable for, that his British Admiralty did not order, and the company "Vosper" developed a boat on its own initiative in 1936 year. However, the sailors liked the boat so much, that was adopted and went into series.
The torpedo boat had a very decent seaworthiness (at that time, British ships were the standard) and range. He also went down in history, that it was for the first time in the fleet that the Oerlikon automatic guns were installed on Vospers, which greatly increased the firepower of the ship.
Since the British TKA were weak rivals to the German "schnellboats", which will be discussed below, the gun came in very handy.
Initially, the same engines were installed on the boats, like on the Soviet G-5, i.e, Italian "Isotta-Fraschini". The outbreak of war left Great Britain, and the USSR without these motors, so we have another example of import substitution. In the USSR, the Mikulin aircraft engine was very quickly adapted, and the British transferred technology to the Americans, and they began to build boats with their engines from Packard.
The Americans further strengthened the armament of the boat, expectedly replacing the "Vickers" with "Brownings" 12,7 mm.
Where "Vospers" fought? yes everywhere. Participated in the evacuation of the Dunker disgrace, caught German "schnellboats" in the north of Britain, attacked Italian ships in the Mediterranean. We also noted. 81 an American-built boat was handed over to our fleet as part of lend-liza. 58 boats took part in the battles, two were lost.
dignity: seaworthiness, weaponry, cruising range.
disadvantages: speed, big crew for a small ship.
3. Torpedo boat MAS type 526. Italy, 1939 year
The Italians also knew how to build ships. Beautiful and fast. This can't be taken away. The standard for an Italian ship is narrower, than contemporaries, housing, so a little more speed.
Why I took the 526th series in our review? Probably, because they even drew on us, and fought in our waters, though not there, where most thought.
Italians are cunning. To two conventional Isotta-Fraschini motors (to-be, all the same!) by 1000 horses they added a couple of Alfa Romeo engines to 70 HP. for economical running. And under such engines, boats could sneak at a speed 6 knots (11 kmh) at fantastic distances 1100 miles. Or 2000 km.
But if someone had to catch up, or quickly escape from someone - this was also in order.
Plus, the boat turned out not only good in terms of seaworthiness, it came out very versatile. And besides the usual torpedo attacks, he could completely walk through the submarine with depth charges. But it's more psychological, since sonar equipment on a torpedo boat is understandable, did not put.
Torpedo boats of this type participated primarily in the Mediterranean Sea.. but, four boats in June 1942 of the year (BUT №№ 526—529) together with the Italian crews were transferred to Lake Ladoga, where they participated in the attack on Suho Island in order to cut the Road of Life. AT 1943 year they were taken by the Finns, after which the boats served as part of the Finnish naval forces.
Italians on Lake Ladoga.
dignity: seaworthiness, speed.
disadvantages: Italian versatility. The boat was armed, but there were problems with its application. One machine gun, albeit large-caliber - this is clearly not enough.
4. Patrol torpedo boat RT-103. USA, 1942 year
Of course, in the USA they couldn’t do something small and fidgety. Even with technology, received from the British, they got a rather massive torpedo boat, which was generally explained by the number of weapons, which the Americans were able to place on it.
The idea itself was not to create a purely torpedo boat, and patrol. This is evident even from the title., because RT stands for Patrol Torpedo boat. I.e, patrol boat with torpedoes.
torpedoes, naturally, It was. Two twin large-caliber "Browning" - a useful thing in every respect, but we are generally silent about the 20-mm automatic gun from Oerlikon.
Why does the US Navy need so many boats? It's simple. The interests of protecting the Pacific bases required just such ships., capable of primarily carrying out patrol service and, in which case, quickly escape, if enemy ships suddenly show up.
The most significant contribution of the RT series boats was the fight against the "Tokyo Night Express", i.e, with the supply system of the Japanese garrisons on the islands.
The boats turned out to be especially useful in the shallow waters of archipelagos and atolls., where destroyers were afraid to go. And torpedo boats intercepted self-propelled barges and small coasters, carrying military contingents, weapons and equipment.
dignity: powerful weapons, good speed
disadvantages: perhaps, which is not.
5. Torpedo boat T-14. Japan, 1944 year
In general, the Japanese somehow didn’t bother with torpedo boats, not counting them as weapons, worthy of a samurai. but, opinion has changed over time, since the successful tactics of using patrol boats by the Americans greatly worried the Japanese naval command.
But the trouble lay elsewhere: there were no free engines. Fact, but really, the Japanese fleet did not receive a decent torpedo boat precisely because, that there was no engine for him.
The only acceptable option in the second half of the war was the Mitsubishi project, which was called T-14.
It was the smallest torpedo boat, even the coastal Soviet G-5 turned out to be larger. Nevertheless, thanks to its space-saving, the Japanese managed to cram so many weapons into it (torpedo, depth charges and automatic cannon), that the boat turned out to be very toothy.
Alas, but the frank lack of power of the 920-horsepower engine, with all its advantages, did not make the T-14 at least some kind of competitor for the American RT-103.
dignity: small size, weaponry
disadvantages: speed, range.
6. Torpedo boat D-3. the USSR, 1943 year
It makes sense to add this particular boat, since the G-5 was a coastal zone boat, and the D-3 just had more decent seaworthiness and could operate at a distance from the coastline.
The first D-3 series was built with GAM-34VS engines, the second went with the American Lend-Lease Packards.
Sailors believed, that the D-3 with the Packards was much better than the American Higgins boats, who came to us under Lend-Lease.
The Higgins was a good boat, but slow speed (to 36 knots) and drag torpedo tubes, which, in the conditions of the Arctic, completely froze, somehow did not come to the yard. D-3 with the same engines was faster, and since it also turned out to be less in terms of displacement, and more maneuverable.
low silhouette, shallow draft and a reliable silencer system made our D-3s indispensable for operations off the coast of the enemy.
So D-3 not only went into torpedo attacks on convoys, it was used with pleasure for landing, delivery of ammunition to the bridgeheads, setting minefields, hunt for enemy submarines, protection of ships and convoys, trawling of fairways (bombarding German bottom proximity mines with depth charges).
Plus it was the most seaworthy of the Soviet boats, withstood the excitement 6 points.
dignity: a set of weapons, speed, seaworthiness
disadvantages: I think, that they are not.
7. Torpedo boat S-Boat. Germany, 1941 year
At the end we have Schnellbots. They really were quite "schnell", i.e, fast. In general, the concept of the German fleet provided for a huge number of ships, carrying torpedoes. And the same "schnellboats" were built more than 20 various modifications.
These were ships of a slightly higher class., than all of the above. But what to do, if the German shipbuilders tried to stand out in every possible way? And the battleships they had were not quite battleships, and the destroyer could puzzle another cruiser, the same thing happened with the boats.
These were universal ships, able to do everything, almost like our D-3, but they had very impressive weapons and seaworthiness. Especially the weapons.
properly, like soviet boats, the Germans took on their TKA all the same tasks of protecting small convoys and individual ships (especially coming from Sweden with ore), wherein, by the way, succeeded.
Ore carriers from Sweden calmly came to ports, because the large ships of the Baltic Fleet spent the entire war in Leningrad, without interfering with the enemy. And torpedo boats and armored boats, especially, submarines, Schnelbot, loaded with automatic weapons, was too tough.
So I consider control over the delivery of ore from Sweden the main combat task., performed by the Schnellbots. But 12 destroyers, who were sunk by boats during the war - this is not a little.
dignity: seaworthiness and armament
disadvantages: dimensions, respectively, not great maneuverability.
These ships and their crews had a difficult life. Not battleships after all ... Not battleships at all.
/Roman Skomorokhov, topwar.ru/
