Caption reads: Torpedo attack with Heinkel He 111 Torpedo attack. An airplane torpedo falls, second is still visible under the airplane. 10.10.41. I can't say I have ever heard of these before. Were they used extensively or as I suspect from this Pic just in the Med? From the caption it appears it carried two torpedoes, you can just make out the second still fixed under the wing or fuselage. Regards Andy
The type saw success as a torpedo-bomber being widely used with effect against Anglo-American convoys supplying Russia with war materials. It also saw service, albeit with less success, in the missile-launching role, 865 FZG-76 flying bombs being launched against London flying at night over the North Sea.
The only torpedo carrying unit of the German Luftwaffe was Kampfgeschwader 26. It was employed not only in the norhtern Atlantic but as well in the Black sea and mainly in the Mediterranean. There is a book about this unit: "Achtung - Torpedo los!" written by one of its group-commanders, Rudi Schmidt.
The German Air Force and Torpedo Development. Although the employment of torpedo carrying aircraft was part of the Luftwaffe’s per-war plans, they were incredibly backward in developing torpedo bombing. German air theory believed in combined attacks by bombers and torpedo bombers as offering the greatest measure of success in direct attacks on ships. The lack of equipment, however, made this theory rather empty. From the outbreak of war up to the autumn of 1941, the German Fleet Air Arm maintained two seaplane units consisting chiefly of He.115 floatplanes – a total of some 24 aircraft which were spasmodically engaged in torpedo operations against British shipping off the Scottish coast and south western approaches. Results were poor and, hampered by a shortage of torpedos, development, showed little progress in launching methods since trials in 1939. It was not until the full implications of the campaign against the Allied supply lines to the United Kingdom were realised in mid 1941 that energetic measures were taken by the Luftwaffe to rectify the omission of an alternative method to bombing in direct attack against merchant shipping. Due to the increasingly effective defensive armament being developed by the Allies, the Luftwaffe turned afresh to the torpedo as a weapon which could reduce aircraft losses. The efforts of the German Air Force in the field of torpedo development were, however, strenuously resisted by the Naval High Command. Data on development of aerial torpedo practice accumulated at naval establishments was consistently withheld from the Technical Office of the German Air Force and any independent development in collaboration with private firms was deliberately hindered. Later in 1941, direct requests by the Air Force to take over the aerial aspect of torpedo development were flatly refused by the navy. On its own account the Luftwaffe began exhaustive torpedo trial at the bombing school at Grossenbrode in the Baltic, and in spite of the lack of torpedoes proved that the He.111, at least, was a highly suitable aircraft for such work. Matters came to a head in December 1941, when the subject of torpedo development was raised at a Technical Office conference and reported to Goering. A direct demand was made that the Luftwaffe should take over aerial torpedo development in both Germany and Italy, that it should open experimental establishments with the inclusion of such naval staff as had already been engaged in the aerial branch and finally, that a special Commissioner should be appointed to control Air Force torpedo development, supply, training and operations. [FONT="]Within a month the German Air Force had been granted these facilities. Generalmajor Harlinghausen, the former Fliegerfuhrer Atlantik was appointed Commissioner for Torpedoes, and with the whole field of the airborne torpedo now in its hand, forged ahea. AIR41/47 [/FONT]
Wasn't the need to supply U-boats the prime reason that air launched torpedos were not more widely used? To be honest, the photo doesn't seem to show a technique much different from bomb dropping.
I suspect it maybe more tricky hitting target with a torpedo than a bomb...Just my opinion mind. Cheers Andy
There was thefamous saying:" Why, if you can drop a bomb directly on a ship, to drop it first into the water?" But in fact, I guess, it is the better choice to take a torpedo. A) The hit is below the waterline of the ship. B) The aiming is easier. C) If the torpedo enters a bulk of ships, missing the first target, it could even hit a second one...
