Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 182 Returning Torpedo
"Huh! What's this? Does this warship have torpedoes on it?"

In response to Wang Gensheng's doubts, the chief engineer nodded and said:
"That's right, we have torpedoes on this ship. After all, torpedoes are much more powerful than battleship guns. For a warship like ours with a displacement of a thousand tons, being hit by a dozen or so 100mm shells wouldn't be a big deal, but being hit by a torpedo might sink us!"

At this moment, Duan Peng, who was learning alongside him, asked:
"If torpedoes are so powerful, why bother with ship guns? Why not just equip them with torpedoes?"

Upon hearing this, the chief engineer shook his head with a wry smile and said:
"Although torpedoes look powerful, even the most powerful weapon has to be able to hit its target, and torpedoes can only deal with targets in water, unlike naval guns which can deal with targets on land!"

"Then why can't you hit the target? Is it because you can't aim properly or what?"

Duan Peng, still puzzled, continued to ask, but the chief engineer replied:
"Of course it's impossible to aim accurately. Torpedoes are different from artillery shells. Artillery shells fly through the air with less resistance, so they fly fast and steadily. Even if they are tens of kilometers apart, they can reach the target in just a few seconds. But torpedoes are different. Torpedoes only travel at a speed of fifty or sixty kilometers per hour!"

Therefore, even at a distance of only five kilometers from the target, it would take five or six minutes to hit. Furthermore, as a torpedo travels through the water, it expels a large amount of air bubbles, making it easy to spot and evade. So, the hit rate of a torpedo is actually very low! After all, torpedoes are not piloted by humans and do not automatically pursue targets.

Duan Peng nodded thoughtfully at the chief engineer's words, while Wang Gensheng, looking at the torpedo, couldn't help but think of the Japanese's most famous Kaiten torpedo during World War II.

During World War II, the Japanese came up with a unique idea: they planned to develop a torpedo that was unprecedented and would never be repeated—using living people to pilot the torpedo, acting as human guides to drive it into American and British warships.

This torpedo is the infamous weapon used for mutual destruction – the Kaiten torpedo.

However, the development of this inexplicable "human-guided" torpedo was not proposed by the high command of the Japanese Navy, but by two junior officers, namely Navy Vice Admiral Hiroshi Kuroki and Navy Lieutenant Admiral Sekio Nishina.

As for why these two would create such a pointless contraption as the Kaiten torpedo, it's partly because they were more like the Showa era, and partly because they didn't want to die in vain.

In fact, these two unfortunate fellows originally served in the surface fleet. Hiroshi Kuroki served on the battleship Yamashiro, and Sekio Nishina had also served on battleships and aircraft carriers. Their futures were originally very bright, but because the surface fleet was overcrowded while the Japanese navy's submarine force was severely understaffed, these two unlucky guys were transferred there.

It's worth mentioning that the submarines these two were assigned to after joining the submarine force weren't even proper submarines, but rather "Miniature submarines" that were proven useless during the Pearl Harbor attack.

The "Class A miniature submarine" was 23 meters long, 1.8 meters in diameter, 3 meters at its highest point, and had a displacement of 47 tons. It had a crew of two and a total of 100 li and 100 were built.

The weaponry consisted of two torpedo tubes mounted side-by-side at the front, capable of launching 450mm torpedoes. The Japanese Navy originally built it for close-range surprise attacks, so the submarine's survivability was quite poor. As a midget submarine, it also had to consider the issue of returning to base, which gave it a somewhat undesirable outcome.

In the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy deployed five "Class A midget submarines," but these five submarines achieved nothing and all sank in Pearl Harbor. One unfortunate sailor was even captured by the Americans and put on display.

Needless to say, Hiroshi Kuroki and Sekio Nishina had absolutely no liking for these utterly useless midget submarines. However, their criticism of the Kō-yō midget submarines was unique; they considered such weapons un-Showa-era. In the eyes of these two Showa youths, since midget submarines were meant for close-range attacks, their ability to return to base and the chances of survival of the sailors piloting them shouldn't be considered in order to ensure maximum success. According to their thinking, the best midget submarines would be modified versions of the Type 93 oxygen-powered torpedoes, allowing crews to simply pilot the torpedoes and ram enemy ships.

Hiroshi Kuroki and Sekio Nishina conducted research on the Type 93 oxygen torpedo and concluded that if the Type 93 oxygen torpedo were equipped with a cockpit, operating devices, and a periscope, a living person could be used as a guide to make the torpedo collide with the enemy ship.

The feasibility of this plan is theoretically very high. After all, the Type 93 oxygen torpedo has a warhead with 500 kilograms of high explosives, a top speed of 50 knots, and a range of 22 kilometers, which is more than enough to ram enemy ships.

So after completing the basic design, these two idiots took their design and went to lobby the naval high command in 1943, only to be rebuffed.

Unconvinced, the two wrote another letter in blood and went to other high-ranking officials in the Navy. They visited the General Staff and the Department of Military Affairs, and even went to the Minister of the Navy, Shigetaro Shimada. However, the only result they got was that "the plan will not be adopted for the time being, but it can be considered."

However, the Japanese navy did not value Hiroshi Kuroki and Sekio Nishina's suicide torpedoes in 1943, but by 1944 they had become highly sought after.

The reason is quite simple: the Japanese navy was so badly defeated in the Pacific that they were practically stripped bare, so they had no choice but to resort to some underhanded tactics.

Therefore, the design by Hiroshi Kuroki and Sekio Nishina was pulled out of the drawer by the Japanese Navy General Staff in February 1944, and the Navy Factory was ordered to develop and produce this torpedo.

It's worth mentioning that the Japanese navy at this time still had some sense, requiring the torpedoes to have an escape device so that the pilot could escape in critical moments.

Then, in mid-1944, Hiroshi Kuroki and Sekio Nishina finally completed the torpedo they had been longing for. To be honest, it would be a bit of a lie to call it a torpedo; it was just a Type 93 oxygen torpedo engine section with an outer shell added. The front part retained the warhead and gas tank, and the middle part was left for the pilot.

The modified torpedo is 14 meters long, 1 meter in diameter, and has a displacement of 8 tons. Its warhead is filled with 1.5 tons of explosives, which is three times that of a regular torpedo. At its fastest speed of 30 knots, it has a range of 23 kilometers.

However, the escape device was never developed in the end; none of the suicide torpedoes were equipped with an escape device, meaning the pilots were essentially on a "one-way ticket."

Despite its unremarkable appearance, this suicide torpedo was named "Kaiten" (meaning "Rescue the Heavens") by Yonai Mitsuki, the then Minister of the Navy of Japan, who intended to "save the nation from imminent collapse." This clearly demonstrates the high expectations the Japanese Navy had for this suicide torpedo. Unfortunately, the Japanese Navy probably didn't anticipate that while this torpedo lacked other capabilities, it was certainly adept at killing its own people.

During the testing phase, some pilots reported that operating this torpedo was extremely difficult, described as requiring "six hands and six eyes to operate." Countless unlucky pilots perished during the testing phase.

(End of this chapter)