I first heard about the homing torpedoes many years ago but this provides new details. This torpedo is the reason the D Day preparations began in May, 1943. Development of the electronics was by the US telephone industry: Western Electric and Bell Labs. Most people today are not aware that most audio technological developments including microphones, headphones, amplifiers, cables, plugs, jacks, etc. came from the telephone industry. 1/4" phono plugs were invented for telephone switchboards. Amplifiers were invented for long distance calls. British code breakers at Bletchley Park depended on the British telephone industry which built the first electronic computers in 1943 to decode German teletype messages. That was a bigger secret than the atomic bomb.
This is undoubtedly the single best source for information on WW2 US bombers anywhere on RU-vid. All of his information comes from credible source material, USAAF documents, declassified reports and other sources like that, he doesn't use books or other videos for source material which quite often can contain flawed information, nothing but official records and documents. And a lot of it has very surprising results that proves a lot of old time myths wrong, like painted B17's actually being faster than unpainted one's despite the long held myth that painted one's were slower and couldn't fly as high due to the added weight of the paint which some sources claimed weighed as much as 500 lbs, turns out it was only 75 lbs of paint and due to the fact that it smoothed over the lap joints in the fuselage panels and rivets it actually increased their speed and maximum altitude along with range. Watch his series on B17's and B29's, they're fantastic, along with his videos on the Norden bombsight that prove it was actually very accurate and dispell the myth it wasn't. There's no better source for information on WW2 US bombers than this channel.
Your preparation and documentation is first rate. While, I’m not a student of US Bombers, I’m fanatically addicted to the Battle of The Atlantic. In my readings, I was under the impression that US intelligence predicted it would take the Kreigsmarine 9 months to identify the threat of Fido and develop countermeasures. Something that never happened. What I never knew was the physical dimensions of Fido. It’s much smaller than I envisioned. Great work!
Yea, I read about it's existence year's ago in an article that wasn't specifically about it where it just basically rated a mention, so I always assumed it'd be the size of a regular torpedo or thereabouts, I was really surprised when I saw this picture.
No need to be big: submarines of the day were quite slow submerged, so it doesn't need to be fast (and definitely isn't!). In fact, high speed would have been counterproductive, because the faster it goes, the more noise the torpedo makes, which will deafen it's own sonar. In contrast, anti-ship unguided/gyro directed torpedoes must be fast because their targets are faster and since they are unguided, high speed means the target has less chance to evade they get to the target faster, AND target speed estimation errors are less important with shorter torpedo travel time. They don't need to be long-range, because they are intended to be dropped by an aircraft directly on top of a submerged submarine. They don't have to travel far, the sub can't be much deeper than 800 feet, and the sub is very unlikely to travel more than a half mile between the time the torpedo hits the water and gets to the sub. In comparison, anti-ship torpedoes fired by subs or ships will have to travel thousands of yards; easily over two miles. Even air-dropped anti-ship torpedoes need longer range, because the torpedo bomber must be able to drop the torpedo from outside the lethal AA firing range of the target ship. But against a submerged submarine, there is no range restriction, because it can't shoot back. Since it doesn't have to be fast, and doesn't need to go far, it can be small. As an aircraft munition, if it CAN be made small, it will be, because takeoff weight is limited and that saved weight means the aircraft can instead carry more sonobuoys, more fuel for more loiter time, and more rockets for attacking surfaced subs.
@@johnhannigan8265 Test depth of the Type XXI was right around 800 feet. I didn't say EVERY axis submarine could dive that deep, only that FIDO would never have to engage any deeper than that.
This was fascinating. It seems that one of the primary differences between allied and german secret weapons is that the allied weapons stayed more secret. Well, except for the one that made the very big noise.
Also the allied secret weapons tended to be really useful, whereas the Germans mostly did Cold War R&D for the allies. Because weapons like the V-2 were not going to change the outcome without either an atomic warhead, or precision guidance. Neither of which they had.
I like all your videos but so far this is a favorute, I never knew about FIDO and think that is really cool. I find it fascinating that people developed it so quickly and it worked.
More great info of little to unknown weapons developed during the war. Necessity is truly the mother of invention. Thank you for your research and concise videos bringing the results to us! Fills a niche for me!
Thanks. A topic I had not heard of before now. I always thought 'Hedgehog' turned the tides against the sub. I like learning new things about old topics.
I recall a book I read about an RAF pilot who flew with Coastal Command. In one attack, flying a B24, a target was detected with S/E ( secret equipment, known now as radar) He dived and opened up with his 4 20mm cannons. Then fired his 8 rockets, these were unguided weapons which submerged on hitting the water, and then would return to the surface. Any sub hit by one, submerged, would be lucky to survive. Surfaced, they might, survive. Then on a second pass, with the U boat submerged he dropped what he referred to as a " Wandering Willie". This name is RAF slang, for a weapon that sounds to be acoustic torpedo being described. The submarine, didn't surface again.
Until I saw RU-vidrs playing U-Boat games I hadn’t either. The Germans had torps that could be programmed if they missed they’d travel so far then turn around hoping to hit something in the convoy.
Super interesting content provided by this channel. I think that Fido, Mousetrap and Hedgehog are excellent names coined by the allies for their A/S weaponry.
Once again, you surprised me. I had no idea we had such capabilities in the 40s. Apparently, neither did the Germans. I can't imagine what the sub's crew thought when the torpedo hit the sub.
Germany developed a couple of acoustic torpedos. The most popular one was the T5 Zaunkoenig. The acoustic sensors were more developed. It could run 24kn vs. 12 kn of the FIDO. But it often detonated in the keel water. The allieds developed the foxer decoy.
With the exception of a Computer to target analysis and automatic plotting and ESM systems, almost everything you would find on a modern ASW Aircraft was in service with the Allied ASW Aircraft by mid 1943.
A weapon being so successful that they cancelled orders because so few are needed to to do the job is not only an amazing brag but could be seen as a harbinger for the future of warfare. If I recall this was the first widespread use of a guided weapon, no more trajectories of wider and wider dispersion at greater and greater range but exceptional accuracy that doesn't decay with range. This would soon be applied to rockets, bombs and more recently even artillery. WW2 really had all the fiubdations for the subsequent revolutions in the subsequent decades.
The Germans were using acoustic torpedoes in 1943 to sink shipping. I believe it was the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) that theorised that U-boats were using some sort of acoustic torpedo. American torpedoes at this point of the war were far more likely to fail than explode.
Thank you for your video of the most efficient weapon against the dreaded U-boat. I have been looking for this data for a long time, but found little. It seems the effect of secrecy in its deployment in WW2, still has some effect.
Great great video. It is extremely important to look at the actual impact of specific technological innovations in warfare. FIDO had a huge impact, imagine what the impact of ubiquitous drones is having in Ukraine today.
Good thing Fido was able to get into tge wR when it did. My father who fought in WWII told me while we were watching Das Boot that the U. Boats were destroying like 70% of transports at a bad point in the war.
And RUSSIANS didn't believe the USA as loses claimed were so great, Stalin thought he had been left to die, until his spies told him the ships had left ports.
I find it funny why the americans didn't modify mark 14 torpedoes with the acoustic homing capability. They could have outperformed Japanese and Germans by a huge margin if they introduced those.
As always, excellent video based on great historical records. I always find the military acronyms intriguing. As I recall the American submarine torpedoes had several problems with targeting accuracy you may have information on that. Also the German actress Hedy Lamarr escaped from Germany and developed a frequency hoping torpedo with a Hollywood friend that was very successful but the Navy didn't put into service until well after the war because of security reason as she was married to a German industrialist. On American submarine losses, I also think there was group of submariners families who formed a group called the Missing 52, which try to account for MIA SUBS. I believe they have discovered several by working with the Japanese, but many German records could not be found. Ironically I'm catching your video on June 6. There are still many stories and MIA's to this day.
Ms LaMarr was an _Austrian._ She would have begged to differ as to her ''German'' nationality, regardless of the Fearless Leader's anschluss-ing Austria into Greater Germany. She escaped to the West in 1937. Her ex-husband was an Austrian arms dealer [torpedo merchant] who dealt with the 3rd Reich. He treated her like a brainless trophy wife. She talked him into letting her wear all her jewelry to a Party gala one night, then disappeared.
@@HootOwl513 true, Germany, Austria, same thing back then. However she was allowed to hire a maid and she hired one with a close resemblance - then she walked out and the maid impersonated here :-) I didn't want to type all the details.
@C123B Thunderpig Yeah. I read that story on IMDb, but you never know how much is invented by MGM press agents, especially in that period. Most anti fascist Austrians did not enjoy being called "Germans." Austrians who escaped to America were key in instructing US soldiers in mountain warfare.
It is really astonishing to me that since the threat from magnetic mines was well known from the start of the war that acustic homing torpedoes was not also thought of... it speeks volumes about the inability of military people as a general rule to think about the next war or even the next thing in their present war...Their minds were always rethinging how to fight the last war better... Churchill had a cadre of civilian outside the box thinkers who came up with mad but effective tools weapons... Radar saved England, invented by an English mad scientist! my favorite one was the spherical bouncing bomb that destroyed dams... the second was the hedghog, a group of mortar rounds which was fired in front of a destroyer that only detonated when they hit anything... both pure genius...
The first mention I remember of FIDO was in Edward L. Beach's memoir, _Submarine!_ , where he said that his submarine was issued a few late in the war.
@@petesheppard1709 no problem. They launched it in the middle of a depth charge attack so they couldn't listen to it. They started to worry it wasn't going to work when BANG. Then they could hear voices of the crew screaming as it sank. I don't know why I remember that so well.
I think you made a mistake. U-436 was sunk in May 26, by depth charges from the frigate HMS Test and the corvette HMS Hyderabad. Are you sure it wasn't a different U-Boat?
On the opposite side, U-Boats used acoustic homing and pattern running torpedoes to increase hit probabilities… The Germans didn’t make much used of anti submarine aircraft at all…
All your work here is excellent. The documentation you provide in all your vids is outstanding. Not a criticism, but I find if I set my playback speed to .75 or .50%, I can absorb more of your commentary and see the graphics and photos longer and better than at normal speed. I do wish you would not superimpose the next video(s) in the last seconds of the current one as your endings are usually full of content right to the very end, thank you, and can't be seen.
@@WWIIUSBombers Glad to see you keeping up the great work you do. So many channels just read a script cribbed from Wikipedia, so the research you do really stands out.
How was FIDO actually deployed? Would the aircrew first drop sonobuoys to estimate the U-boat’s probable speed, location, direction and depth before launching the FIDO? It would be interesting if you could make a further video detailing this process.
The arrangement of the [I think it was Avenger] aircraft bomb bay described at 7:27 minutes gives a clue to FIDO's use. The main requirement was to cause the submarine to crash dive and in doing so it would make the most noise which is what FIDO wanted. The two 'traditional' aircraft depth charges were used to 'encourage' the submarine to dive and if they happened to score a hit killing the sub, then it was game over at that point. However, FIDO was still the main weapon. If the aircrew felt they had a good chance of launching FIDO right away, they could. If however there was doubt, the Sonor bouys would be deployed and from this information the track of the 'lost' sub could be re-established and a FIDO attack commenced. I have read accounts from the RAF in the Bay of Biscay that their attacks using Radar and the Leigh Light would surprise surfaced Uboats at night having located by Radar, then turning on the Leigh Light would blind the surfaced crew as the plane went in for attack. However at this time they were still using traditional aircraft deployed depth charges and to the RAF's surprise, some Uboats would remain surfaced and fight it out with a single aircraft. This is seen in the removal of the deck guns from Uboats during the war and an increasing number of anti aircraft installations coming into effect around the conning tower. But when the Uboat was attacked by two aircraft or more, their will to fight evaporated and they would crash dive. The first anti submarine aircraft attack used standard aircraft deployed depth charges and his job was not so much to destroy the sub but to cause it to crash dive. It was the second aircraft that carried the FIDO and that was the sting in the tail. Thus we can see this Avenger aircraft had the capability to perform the roles of both aircraft, such as to push the sub into a crash drive, then to track the sub, then to deliver the final blow.
I had heard about FIDO somewhere years ago and yes, it is very much overlooked in history. I never knew it was so stubby and squat. A little cage fighter.
Aircraft were so deadly to u-boats: machine guns when the sub was surfaced, depth charges when recently submerged, and homing torpedoes after that. Yikes.
Thanks for the great video! A quick question: does anyone know why the air-dropped depth charges had a squared-off nose profile? I’m wondering why they didn’t have a domed nose like a typical bomb. Thanks!
I like it (I knew about FIDO, yet not some details presented here) if for nothing else, than for debunking to some extent that myth how ubermensch-superior German technology was in all and every aspect (yet miraculously they lost the war)
For some forgotten japanese soldiers on isolated islands in the Pacific it was thought to last for decades longer than that. But the year 1945 was the end and begining (the end of WW2 and begining of cold war).
I’m not able to scroll through the comments, so I don’t know if this has been covered, but it stands to reason that these would’ve been deployed against the Japanese as a well we have them why not strategy.
Everybody's favourite US Navy CNO was going to send them all to the Pacific in March 1943. Roosevelt overruled him saying we need these in the Atlantic right now.
They had a radio transmitter on them. Each bouy was color coded , the plane dropped the bouys in a pattern , the radio operator turned a dial on his reciever that had the colors on it so he could listen to each bouy separately
The Germans were losing around 50 hands per sinking. With so many amputees from fighting in the East available crews of one armed men could have been trained, cutting the number of hands lost by half.
Some argued that Nazi Kriegsmarine were brave fighters instead of evil outlaws. I'd say if you ride with outlaws, you hang with them. So I have no sorry feelings for those killed by Fido.
Because they were, as was any sailor living in a small, smelly underwater tube, expecting the next depth charge to be his end. The fact you dislike them doesnt change that.
@@DD-qw4fz sitting in a small underwater tube to send torpedo to the bottom of slow helpless merchant ship and send their crew trapped inside to the abyss of the ocean - all in order to help your Fuhrer to slaughter more innocent human being in the name of his (and yours) sick ideology? When FIDOed: You got what you had volunteered for ...
what a fine video! I have never heard about this device. in all the documentarys and movies i have seen, only the classic "dumb" depth charges, mines etc are mentioned.
