On 21 Jul 2015 at 14:18, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote:

> ----- On Tue, 7/21/15, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
> wrote:
>
>  One
>  of my old books in my collection  is `They were
>  expendable´
>  <http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/837265.They_Were_Expendable> the
>  book that the John Wayne movie was made from; it was clearly written
>  as wartime propaganda, but a lot of the actual flavor of the actual
>  reality comes through, like how many of them simply exploded because
>  they were essentially high-powered racing boats with hundreds of
>  gallons of avgas in them, and the bilge vents sometimes stopped
>  working. -
>  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>  --------
>
> Now thinking about those rocket powered interceptors that the germans
> flew a few of towards the end of WWII &  wondering what the TU equiv
> would be?
>
> p.s. I also wonder if the US managed to improve on the design as far
> as such 'mishaps' are concerned. Does anyone know if the UK or Axis
> MTB's had similar problems?

They weren't so prone to blowing up, partly because they were deloyed in much cooler
climes, and partly because they weren't at sea for long periods. They were just as, ah,
'exciting' overall though, and had their own quirks of design.

In all cases, we have a light-weight hull, generally built quickly and cheaply, with
massively over-sized engines, which we then tune the hell out of. Then we add 2-4
torpedoes, placed good and high up where they'll do the least good to stability and will
stress the hull the most.

Now in case of the US ones, we stuff it full of fuel, ammo, and rations, and send it out
into the tropical heat for as long as the boat or crew can stand, and then a bit longer
(the same goes for the smaller and less well-known Japanese ones - and they weren't
intended for long missions). In the case of the German and British ones, we instead run
them flat out for far longer than is sane in some of the nastier patches of water (in
terms of sea conditions and general weather).

In all cases add in periods of hard manoeuvring at full speed that would void any
manufacturer's warantee, whilst firing weapons and possible also whilst having holes
put in the boat. It's a wonder they lasted as long as they did.

By the way, this describes the life of a destroyer fairly well too, especially up to the end
of WWI, when they were rather smaller than the WWII classes.