How many torpedo hits has as ship survived historically?

[String]

As the thread title says, what's the maximum number of torpedo hits in ww2 that a ship has survived and still made it back to port and after that, back to service? IIRC there was a thread on the same subject ages ago and IIRC the consensus was that it was a maximum of 2? However my memory is fuzzy and it seems to be a nice subject to re-visit.

[Gunnulf]

Technically Littorio took 3 at Taranto and was back in service 4 months later, but she didn't have far to go to port obviously.

[adarbrauner]

By memory, Musashi took several (7? 10?) to go down, from this one could infere her durability.

Vittorio Veneto took one at Taranto and one in Cape Matapan, if I recollect well. Bismarck took how many , and still kept her sea worthiness, one on the rudder?

Are there other relevant cases?

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: Gunnulf

Technically Littorio took 3 at Taranto and was back in service 4 months later, but she didn't have far to go to port obviously.

I think it was Vittorio Veneto not littorio, but i may be be wrong... 3 took you say?

[wdolson]

This isn't what you're looking for, but the US finally figured out there was a serious problem with their torpedoes when a US sub blew off the propeller on an unescorted freighter with it's first torpedo. They then lined up for the perfect textbook shot (the target was pretty much stationary at that point) and they ended up firing every last torpedo except for one and scored a hit with every torpedo, but they were all duds. They took the last one back to Pearl Harbor to report. They test fired the one torpedo against a cliff face and it went off, but the brass were finally listening. They discovered the firing pins were too fragile. On a glancing angle, the force on the pin was less and the torpedo would explode, but if the angle was "perfect" the firing pin would shatter before setting off the charge. They made new firing pins and replaced all the pins on torpedoes in stock and the US started getting better results.

In this case only one was an exploding hit and it was pretty much a near miss as it only blew off the propeller (and I think it damaged the rudder), but didn't breach hull integrity.

At Midway a US sub scored a couple of hits on the Akagi after she was set on fire, but those didn't explode either.

I don't know of any ship that survived more than one torpedo hit at one time. The Saratoga was torpedoed twice, but it was two separate occasions months apart.

There are many ships that survived a single hit. I believe one or two destroyers managed to survive a hit on the extreme end of the ship.

Bill

[Gunnulf]

I wasn't there but I believe so, Veneto wasn't actually hit at all in the raid.

[String]

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

By memory, Musashi took several (7? 10?) to go down, from this one could infere her durability.

Vittorio Veneto took one at Taranto and one in Cape Matapan, if I recollect well. Bismarck took how many , and still kept her sea worthiness, one on the rudder?

Are there other relevant cases?

But IIRC she did settle on the bottom ie. would have sunk if out in the open. Also, Musashi and Bismarck never made it back to port nor for continued service, those torpedo hits doomed them, if not directly sank them in Bismarck's case.

[geofflambert]

These ships didn't survive but here's what they took:

Yamato "at least" 6 bombs and 11 torpedoes

Yahagi 12 bombs and 7 torpedoes

Musashi 17 bombs and 19 torpedoes. Since none of these hits registered after she sank, you could say she survived them for at least a little while. [:'(]

[Buckrock]

From Combinedfleet.com :-

[center]"22 July 1943:
Formosa Straits. At 2355, SEIA MARU is torpedoed and badly damaged by three of six torpedoes fired in a surface radar attack by LtCdr
Eugene T. Sands' USS SAWFISH (SS-276) at 30-54N, 125-15E. She goes dead in the water. Later, the ship is taken in tow by NICHINAN MARU
and together they head back to Japan."[/center]

The USS Sawfish's own patrol report describes observing (and feeling) the three torpedo detonations (forward, amidships and aft) on
the targeted ship that was by then over 8000yds away but still clearly visible at that time.

The Seia Maru was a 6700ton (GRT) auxilliary ammuntion ship. A somewhat unlikely candidate but it was at sea when reportedly hit by
three torpedoes and did make it back to port (several days later) and did eventually return to service (only to be sunk in 1944).

[Macclan5]

Midway : Yorktown: From WikiPedia

Hiryū's second attack wave, consisting of ten B5Ns and six escorting A6Ms, arrived over the Yorktown; the repair efforts had been so effective that the Japanese pilots assumed that Yorktown must be a different, undamaged carrier.[113] They attacked, crippling Yorktown with two torpedoes; she lost all power and developed a 23-degree list to port. Five torpedo bombers and two fighters were shot down in this attack.

But she survived !

Until

Late afternoon 6 June the Japanese submarine I-168, which had managed to slip through the cordon of destroyers (possibly because of the large amount of debris in the water), fired a salvo of torpedoes, two of which struck Yorktown.

With further salvage efforts deemed hopeless, the remaining repair crews were evacuated from Yorktown, which sank just after 05:00 on 7 June.

Which eventually sunk her but it does not exactly equate. Had the Hammond not sunk (providing auxiliary power), or another ship was able to provide auxiliary power immediately after, and or if Yorktown had maintained power and a full damage support crew.... ???

But that is what if.

Survive two but not four.

And these were "world class Japanese Torps" at the time.

[crsutton]

Well, American torpedoes had magnetic devices that were so unreliable that the use of them was practically abandoned in favor of the contact warhead. The problem with this is that a contact explosion on the side of a ship was much less effective than if a working magnetic device were to explode underneath. I read accounts of American subs firing multiple torpedoes at merchant ship- (some cargoes make them amazingly buoyant) and getting solid explosions with very little effect. I recall one sub using five hits to put one merchant down. Tankers could be very tough if they were not set aflame.

People like to quote the durability of the two Japanese super ships but in reality they were probably in a sinking state well before many of those torpedo hits were recorded. They were tough ships no doubt but American pilots tended to fixate on them long after they were doomed. probably many of the torpedo hits were redundant.

[dr.hal]

One must keep in mind the power of differing torpedoes in order to say which ship survived the most destructive attack. The airborne torpedo the Japanese used had a far smaller warhead than a sub or surface launched torpedo. One recent article stated that the reason why the USS Oklahoma was the only ship at Pearl on the 7th to turn turtle was because she was the only one hit by a submarine launched torpedo which did extensive damage well within the ship. All other ships struck by torpedoes at Pearl and "sank" did so on an even keel. This "evidence" supports the belief that a midget sub DID penetrate Pearl and did launch it's torpedoes at battleship row, striking the Oklahoma at least once. Photos of the Oklahoma, once raised in Pearl, do show that she was the only ship to have her armored hull breached during the attack. Again suggesting that she was hit by something far more powerful than a torpedo launched by a Kate. My point is that if struck by many airborne torpedoes is not the same as being struck by one surface/subsurface launched torpedo (especially if one is using a magnetic device that detonates below the keel).

[crsutton]

Large modern ships built right before or during the war were amazingly durable and designed to take a tremendous amount of damage. I think that most American BBs and CVs could easily handle multiple torpedo hits, and many more bomb hits. Most Japanese ships as well. The problem was that the took these very tough ships and filled them full of bangy-explody things. So, it rarely was a bomb hit or torpedo hit that did in a big ship but the collateral damage such as major system failure or sympathetic fuel and ammo explosions. One torpedo was just fine if it set off a massive fuel explosion. But if the ship took multiple hits and fire or an explosion (or pump failure) did not take materialize, they probably would survive. Really just a matter of luck in a lot of cases.

[Yaab]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

These ships didn't survive but here's what they took:

Yamato "at least" 6 bombs and 11 torpedoes

Yahagi 12 bombs and 7 torpedoes

Musashi 17 bombs and 19 torpedoes. Since none of these hits registered after she sank, you could say she survived them for at least a little while. [:'(]

Torpedo-Eating Contest
1.Musashi
2.Yamato
3.Yahagi

[dr.hal]

You're certainly right in a focused way CR, but if the torpedo or bomb damaged caused the fire that blew the magazine, then it was the torpedo or bomb that sunk the ship, albeit indirectly. In fact one could argue the point you make for almost ANY ship that is sunk. For example the USS Arizona was not "sunk" by the bomb the Kate dropped, but by the explosion of the forward magazine. But I think most historians give credit to the Japanese Kate.

[Lokasenna]

Don't forget Hornet in the torpedo eating contest.

There are instances where it's possible a ship could have survived after multiple torpedo hits, but usually the ship was either finished off afterwards or scuttled. Yorktown and Hornet come immediately to mind there.

[BBfanboy]

RN DD Kelly took three torpedoes on two separate occasions from S-boats (E-Boat to the Brits) and TBs. The two torpedo hits were fore and aft so large chambers were not flooded. The single hit was amidship and Kelly was nearly decks awash. After surviving all that and being rebuilt, Kelly was lost to Stuka bombs in the Battle for Crete. She held them off until her AAA ammo ran out and then maneuvering wasn't enough.

[SheperdN7]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Don't forget Hornet in the torpedo eating contest.

+1
That was just plain embarrassing on the US side of things. I guess that since the ships power went out, they wouldn't just "counter flood" the whole thing throughout.

[SheperdN7]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

At Midway a US sub scored a couple of hits on the Akagi after she was set on fire, but those didn't explode either.

I didn't realize any US subs fired torps at any of the CV's that day. Wasn't Hiryu the only one that was actually possible to save?

[Denniss]

German Battleship Scharnhorst is claimed to have been hit by 10-14 torps + many Artillery hits of various caliber.