TRACKLESS TORPEDO

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 76, 9 March 1931, Page 6

TRACKLESS TORPEDO

NEW AMERICAN DEVICE. DRIVEN BY ELECTRIC MOTOR. According to trustworthy intelligence from "Washington, a new and deadly weapon is about to bo added to the armoury of naval warfare. After prolonged research the United States Navy has developed an electrie torpedo which has the immense advantage of leaving no track as it travels below the surface of the sea. The ordinary torpedo, propelled by Brotherhood compressed-air engines, leaves a wake of bubbles which, except in a choppy sea, betrays its approach, and often enables the target ship to alter her course in time to dodge the approaching danger. During the war, hundreds of ships escaped being torpedoed, thanks to timely observation of the tell-tale bubble track. Earl Jellicoe has told how several of our battleships at Jutland avoided torpedoes .by a prompt movement of the helm. Realising the tremendous advantage of an invisible torpedo, the Germans did their best to evolve one, and had produced a fairly satisfactory type on the eve of the armistice. Experiments in the same direction wero also, undertaken in Britain, but they appear to have been dropped. It has remained for the United States to develop what is claimed to be the first really efficient trackless torpedo. Trials carried out at the torpedo headquarters at Newport, Rhode Island, are reported to have been very successful. .< The new weapon Is driven by a feather-weight electric motor, taking current from very light storage batteries. Its speed is somewhat lower than that of the air-driven type, nut efforts are being made to improve both motor and batteries in the hope of attaining a velocity of thirty knots for a run of 12,000 yards. Unlike the air-propelled type, which progressively loses speed during its run, the electric model maintains a constant rate of travel, a circumstance which greatly simplifies aiming at a distance and moving target, and tends to increase accuracy.

Submarines armed with this new weapon would be much more dangerous both to warships and merchantmen than they are at present. There would be no warning of atta<;k, ; the torpedo arriving as a Dolt from the blue.