Let's make a small digression from our aviation reviews and get to the water. I decided to start like this, not from above, where it is important to blow bubbles of all sorts of battleships, battle cruisers and aircraft carriers, but from below. Where passions boiled no less comic, albeit in shallow water.
Speaking of torpedo boats, it is worth noting that before the start of the war, the participating countries, including even the "Lady of the Seas" Britain, did not burden themselves with the presence of torpedo boats. Yes, there were small ships, but this was more for training purposes.
For example, the Royal Navy had only 18 TC in 1939, the 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.
Therefore, let's start, perhaps, with a participant under the flag of the USSR Navy.
1. Torpedo boat G-5. USSR, 1933
Perhaps experts will say that it would be worthwhile to put the boats D-3 or Komsomolets here, but the G-5 was simply produced more than the D-3 and Komsomolets combined. Accordingly, these boats have unequivocally taken on such a part of the war that is hardly comparable to the rest.
The G-5 was a coastal boat, unlike the D-3, which could well operate offshore. It was a small ship, which, nevertheless, worked on the enemy's communications throughout the Great Patriotic War.
During the war, it underwent several modifications, the GAM-34 engines (yes, the Mikulinsky AM-34s became planing) were replaced with imported Izotta-Fraschini, and then with the GAM-34F with a capacity of 1000 hp, which accelerated the boat up to 55 knots with a combat load. An empty boat could accelerate to 65 knots.
The armament also changed. The frankly weak YES machine guns were replaced first with a ShKAS (an interesting solution, to be honest), and then with two DShKs.
Perhaps the disadvantage is the need for a turn to drop torpedoes. But this was also solvable, the TKA G-5 fought the entire war and on the combat account of these ships there is a pretty decent bunch of sunk enemy ships.
By the way, the tremendous speed and non-magnetic wooden-duralumin hull allowed the boats to sweep acoustic and magnetic mines.
2. Torpedo boat "Vosper". Great Britain, 1938
The history of the boat is remarkable in that the British Admiralty did not order it, and the Vosper company developed the boat on its own initiative in 1936. However, the sailors liked the boat so much that it was put into service and went into production.
The torpedo boat had a very decent seaworthiness (at that time British ships were the standard) and cruising range. It also went down in history by the fact that it was on the Vospery that the Oerlikon automatic cannons were installed for the first time in the fleet, which greatly increased the ship's firepower.
Since the British TKA were weak rivals to the German "Schnellbots", which will be discussed below, the gun came in handy.
Initially, the boats were equipped with the same engines as the Soviet G-5, that is, the Italian Isotta-Fraschini. The outbreak of the war left both Great Britain and the USSR without these engines, so this is another example of import substitution. In the USSR, the Mikulin aircraft engine was very quickly adapted, and the British transferred the technology to the Americans, and they began to build boats with their own Packard engines.
The Americans have strengthened the armament of the boat, as expected, replacing the Vickers with Browning 12.7 mm.
Where did the "Vospers" fight? Yes, everywhere. They took part in the evacuation of the Dunker disgrace, caught German Schnellboats in the north of Britain, and attacked Italian ships in the Mediterranean. They also checked in with us. 81 American-built boats were transferred to our fleet under Lend-Lease. 58 boats took part in the battles, two were lost.
3. Torpedo boat MAS type 526. Italy, 1939
The Italians also knew how to build ships. Beautiful and fast. This cannot be taken away. The standard for an Italian ship is a narrower hull than that of contemporaries, so the speed is slightly higher.
Why did I take the 526 series into our review? Probably because they even drew in our place, and fought in our waters, although not where most thought.
Italians are cunning. To two ordinary Isotta-Fraschini engines (yes, all the same!) Of 1000 horsepower, they added a pair of 70 hp Alfa-Romeo engines. for economical running. And under such engines, boats could sneak at a speed of 6 knots (11 km / h) for absolutely fantastic distances of 1,100 miles. Or 2,000 km.
But if someone had to catch up, or from someone to quickly escape - 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 quite walk through the submarine with depth charges. But this is more psychologically, since, of course, no sonar equipment was installed on the torpedo boat.
Torpedo boats of this type participated primarily in the Mediterranean. However, four boats in June 1942 (MAS No. 526-529), together with Italian crews, were transferred to Lake Ladoga, where they participated in an attack on Sukho Island in order to cut the Road of Life. In 1943, they were taken by the Finns, after which the boats served as part of the Finnish naval forces.
4. Patrol torpedo boat RT-103. USA, 1942
Of course, in the USA they could not do something small and nimble. Even taking into account the technology received from the British, they had a rather massive torpedo boat, which was generally explained by the number of weapons that the Americans were able to place on it.
The idea itself was not to create a purely torpedo boat, but a patrol boat. This is evident even from the name, for RT stands for Patrol Torpedo boat. That is, a patrol boat with torpedoes.
Of course, there were torpedoes. Two twin large-caliber "Browning" is a useful thing in all respects, and we are generally silent about the 20-mm automatic cannon from the "Erlikon".
Why does the American Navy need so many boats? It's simple. The interests of protecting the Pacific bases demanded just such ships, capable of primarily carrying out patrol service and, in which case, promptly escape if enemy ships were suddenly discovered.
The most significant contribution of the RT series boats was the fight against the Tokyo Night Express, that is, 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 careful not to enter. And torpedo boats intercepted self-propelled barges and small coasters carrying military contingents, weapons and equipment.
5. Torpedo boat T-14. Japan, 1944
In general, the Japanese somehow did not bother with torpedo boats, not counting them as weapons worthy of a samurai. However, over time, opinion changed, since the successful tactics of the use of 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 there was no engine for it.
The only acceptable option in the second half of the war was the Mitsubishi project, which was called the T-14.
It was the smallest torpedo boat, even the coastal Soviet G-5 was larger. Nevertheless, thanks to their space saving, the Japanese managed to squeeze in so many weapons (torpedoes, depth charges and an automatic cannon) there that the boat turned out to be very toothy.
Alas, the frank lack of power of the 920-horsepower engine, with all its advantages, did not make the T-14 any competitor for the American RT-103.
6. Torpedo boat D-3. USSR, 1943
It makes sense to add this particular boat, since the G-5 was a coastal boat, and the D-3 just had more decent seaworthiness and could operate at a distance from the coastline.
The first series D-3 was built with GAM-34VS engines, the second went with American Lend-Lease Packards.
The sailors believed that the D-3 with the Packards was much better than the American Higgins boats that came to us under Lend-Lease.
The Higgins was a good boat, but the low speed (up to 36 knots) and drag torpedo tubes, which were completely frozen in the Arctic, somehow did not come to court. The D-3 with the same engines was faster, and since it also turned out to be less in displacement, it was also more maneuverable.
Low silhouette, shallow draft and reliable silencer system made our D-3 indispensable for operations off the enemy coast.
So the D-3 not only went into torpedo attacks on convoys, it was happily used for landing troops, delivering ammunition to bridgeheads, setting minefields, hunting enemy submarines, guarding ships and convoys, trawling fairways (bombarding German bottom proximity mines).
Plus, it was the most seaworthy of the Soviet boats, withstanding waves of up to 6 points.
7. Torpedo boat S-Boat. Germany, 1941
At the end we have the Schnellbots. They were really quite "snell", that is, fast. In general, the concept of the German fleet provided for a huge number of ships carrying torpedoes. And the same "snellbots" were built more than 20 different modifications.
These were ships of a slightly higher class than all those listed before. But what if the German shipbuilders tried to stand out in every possible way? And their battleships were not quite battleships, and the destroyer could have puzzled another cruiser, the same happened with the boats.
They were versatile ships, capable of doing almost anything like our D-3s, but with very impressive armament and seaworthiness. Especially with weapons.
Actually, like the Soviet boats, the Germans charged their TKA with all the same tasks of protecting small convoys and individual ships (especially those coming from Sweden with ore), which, by the way, they succeeded in.
Ore carriers from Sweden calmly came to ports, because the large ships of the Baltic Fleet stood in Leningrad throughout the war, without interfering with the enemy. And torpedo boats and armored boats, especially submarines, the "Schnellboat" stuffed with automatic weapons was too tough.
So I consider the control over the delivery of ore from Sweden to be the main combat mission that the "snellboats" performed. Although 12 destroyers, which were sunk by boats during the war, is not a little.
These ships and their crews had a difficult life. Not battleships after all … Not battleships at all.
