Torpedo cruiser
A torpedo cruiser is a type of warship that is armed primarily with torpedoes. The major navies began building torpedo cruisers shortly after the invention of the locomotive Whitehead torpedo in the 1860s. The development of the torpedo gave rise to the Jeune École doctrine, which held that small warships armed with torpedoes could effectively and cheaply defeat much larger battleships. Torpedo cruisers fell out of favor in most of the great power navies in the 1890s, though many other navies continued to acquire them into the early 1900s.
The
History
The torpedo cruiser emerged from the
The enthusiasm of the German , designed primarily to defend against smaller attackers such as torpedo boats.
Concurrently with the German procurement of Zieten, the Italian Regia Marina laid down the small cruiser Pietro Micca in 1875, which was armed with a single torpedo tube and two machine guns. The Regia Marina built a further seventeen torpedo cruisers over five classes over the course of the following twenty years.[3] Starting in 1879, the French Navy also began experimenting with the type, first with the cruiser Milan, before building a series of smaller torpedo avisos similar to Zieten.[4] The Austro-Hungarian Navy adopted a similar organization for the confined waters of the Adriatic Sea, with flotillas of torpedo boats grouped with torpedo cruisers, which were intended to defeat enemy battleships attacking the Austro-Hungarian coast.[5]
Two of the Austro-Hungarian torpedo cruisers,
Torpedo cruisers were also procured early by a South American navy. The
By this point, however, the type was falling into disfavor. The publication of Alfred Thayer Mahan's seminal work, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, in 1890 persuaded many experts to abandon the Jeune École theory in favor of a fleet centered on powerful battleships.[8] Simultaneously, the first modern light cruisers began to emerge. These ships, such as the German Gazelle class, had the speed and torpedo armament of the earlier torpedo cruiser, but had a bigger hull which also allowed them to carry the gun armament and armor of a larger protected cruisers.[9] Reflecting the change in thinking, Gazelle was designed as an enlarged torpedokreuzer, combining the standard salvo of three torpedo tubes with a stronger gun armament, but the later ships of the same class were completed with just one fixed tube on either broadside, designed for line of battle tactics.
Another new type which threatened to usurp the torpedo cruiser's role was the "torpedo-boat destroyer", soon simply known as the destroyer. The concept was influenced by the Spanish torpedo cruiser Destructor launched in 1886, but the subsequent British type pioneered in 1892 was smaller and faster, and was quickly adopted by all the great power navies of the 1890s.
However, ships of the German torpedokreuzer type continued to be built for a number of navies outside the great powers. The five vessels of the Swedish Örnen class, which were built in the late 1890s, continued in service for many decades.[10] German shipyards also produced a number of torpedo cruisers for export to various foreign clients, with Krupp building three for the Brazilian Navy, one for the National Navy of Uruguay, and two for the Ottoman Navy Peyk-i Şevket class, which were completed in 1907.[11]
One great power battlefleet which continued to utilize the torpedo cruiser was the
World War II
The Imperial Japanese Navy faced a numerical disadvantage against the United States Navy, and prior to the Pacific War, they formulated a strategy of attacking the American fleets through ambush tactics, with heavy reliance on torpedoes. This plan principally emphasized submarines, but with the development of the type 93 torpedo, there was a need for surface vessels that could accommodate such weapons. Three vessels of the Kuma class of light cruisers were appointed for renovation, namely Kitakami, Ōi and Kiso. Renovation of Ōi and Kitakami began in 1941, with large-scale expansion of the hull, enlargement of the bridge, and removal of main and secondary artillery armaments. 61-centimetre (24 in) quadruple torpedo tubes were mounted on the vessel, with 5 mounts and 20 bays on each side, adding to a total of 10 mounts and 40 bays. Kiso was planned for modification, however the renovations never took place. Kitakami and Ōi served only briefly in this new role, but were not used operationally before being converted into high speed troop transports in 1942.[12]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Ropp, p. 128
- ^ Gardiner, pp. 256–257
- ^ Gardiner, pp. 346–348
- ^ Ropp, pp. 129–130
- ^ Ropp, pp. 134–136
- ^ Friedman, pp. 147, 151, 174-184.
- ^ "Torpedo Cruiser No.1" on the GlobalSecurity.org website
- ^ Wawro, pp. 160–162
- ^ Gardiner, pp. 249, 258
- ^ Gardiner & Gray, p. 357
- ^ Fleets of the World, p. 140
- ^ Stille, pp. 14–18
References
- Fleets of the World 1915. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 1915. OCLC 8418713.
- Friedman, Norman (2012). British Cruisers of the Victorian Era. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-099-4.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
- Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-141-6.
- Stille, Mark (2012). Imperial Japanese Navy Light Cruisers 1941–45. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84908-562-5.
- ISBN 0-415-21445-9.