5 ms·

Wow, 208 rockets fired and all of them missed. That is way more than I would have thought. Also, I hope those pilots got some training, or maybe they quickly re

Wow, 208 rockets fired and all of them missed. That is way more than I would have thought. Also, I hope those pilots got some training, or maybe they quickly reevaluated the battle worthiness of those rockets. I imagine there are much harder targets to hit than an unmanned drone.

yencabulator 2y ago
> The Mighty Mouse was to prove a poor aerial weapon. Although it was powerful enough to destroy a bomber with a single hit, its accuracy was abysmal. The rockets dispersed widely on launch: a volley of 24 rockets would cover an area the size of a football field. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding-Fin_Aerial_Rocket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding-Fin_Aerial_Rocket
- hn_go_brrrrr 2y ago
  Also they had no functional targeting computer or gun sights.
  - russfink 2y ago
    And they were not skilled in the ways of the Force.
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  They should have used the nuclear Genie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie
russdill 2y ago
There's a lot of stories regarding weapons that have abysmal success but stay fielded anyway. US navy torpedos are a good example.
- RecycledEle 2y ago
  If the Mk 14 Torpedo had worked for the US submariners off the Philippines in December, 1941 the Japanese would have probably failed to take those islands. IIRC, the US subs put torpedoes into more than half the Japanese ships, but did almost no damage due to defective torpedo exploders. Imagine if the US had stayed with the reasonably reliable Mk 10 Torpedo and had adopted the British Fairey Swordfish instead of the TBD Avenger. Just deploying Swordfish along the US East Coast would have saved thousands of lives lost in the Battle of the Atlantic. Instead Admiral Nimitz relegated the existing Swordfish to ferrying personnel after they chased Japanese subs away from the American West Coast. He did not believe the reports of then damaging so many Japanese subs. After the war, he learned those reports were correct. WW2 in the Pacific would have been a lot shorter.
  - cpgxiii 2y ago
    You are confusing the TBD Devastator with the TBF/TBM Avenger. The Avenger was a very capable aircraft, certainly the best carrier-borne torpedo bomber and antisubmarine platform of the war. The Swordfish did OK in the Atlantic solely because it never faced any meaningful fighter opposition (having been quickly relegated to "safer" roles), and the distances were low enough that its low speed was not a hindrance. It would have been utterly unsurvivable in the Pacific theater against Japanese opposition. Additionally, short-range ASW aircraft were never really the problem in the Atlantic, the problem was always how to provide long-range cover, which was only solved by the use of land-based B-24s and carrier-borne Avengers.
    - RecycledEle 2y ago
      > You are confusing the TBD Devastator with the TBF/TBM Avenger. You are correct. I apologize. The TBD Devastator was a disaster compared to the ready-to-use Fairey Swordfish. FDR and Nimitz screwed the pooch on that one.
      - cpgxiii 2y ago
        I think you're giving the TBD a bad rap. Both were fundamentally obsolete aircraft at the start of the war for their primary role, and both were unsurvivable when used in that role. The Swordfish acquired a somewhat mythic representation from performance early in the war, but that performance was a result of FAA doctrine rather than any particular characteristics of the Swordfish - the FAA was really the only service to take night carrier operations seriously pre-war, and most of the successful Swordfish operations were conducted at night. When operated in daylight against competent air defense they were just as vulnerable as the TBD. Where the two also differ is that the TBD was soon retired completely following the slaughter at Midway and replaced by a much superior platform (the TBF/TBM), while the Swordfish was moved to other roles (e.g. ASW) as it was also replaced (also by the TBF/TBM in many cases). In no small part that was because the FAA needed everything it could get, and the failure of the intended successor (the Fairey Albacore) left them with no other domestic alternative.
EdwardDiego 2y ago
They got hits, but the rockets bounced off.

yencabulator 2y ago

> The Mighty Mouse was to prove a poor aerial weapon. Although it was powerful enough to destroy a bomber with a single hit, its accuracy was abysmal. The rockets dispersed widely on launch: a volley of 24 rockets would cover an area the size of a football field. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding-Fin_Aerial_Rocket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding-Fin_Aerial_Rocket

hn_go_brrrrr 2y ago
Also they had no functional targeting computer or gun sights.
- russfink 2y ago
  And they were not skilled in the ways of the Force.
actionfromafar 2y ago
They should have used the nuclear Genie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie

russdill 2y ago

There's a lot of stories regarding weapons that have abysmal success but stay fielded anyway. US navy torpedos are a good example.

RecycledEle 2y ago
If the Mk 14 Torpedo had worked for the US submariners off the Philippines in December, 1941 the Japanese would have probably failed to take those islands. IIRC, the US subs put torpedoes into more than half the Japanese ships, but did almost no damage due to defective torpedo exploders. Imagine if the US had stayed with the reasonably reliable Mk 10 Torpedo and had adopted the British Fairey Swordfish instead of the TBD Avenger. Just deploying Swordfish along the US East Coast would have saved thousands of lives lost in the Battle of the Atlantic. Instead Admiral Nimitz relegated the existing Swordfish to ferrying personnel after they chased Japanese subs away from the American West Coast. He did not believe the reports of then damaging so many Japanese subs. After the war, he learned those reports were correct. WW2 in the Pacific would have been a lot shorter.
- cpgxiii 2y ago
  You are confusing the TBD Devastator with the TBF/TBM Avenger. The Avenger was a very capable aircraft, certainly the best carrier-borne torpedo bomber and antisubmarine platform of the war. The Swordfish did OK in the Atlantic solely because it never faced any meaningful fighter opposition (having been quickly relegated to "safer" roles), and the distances were low enough that its low speed was not a hindrance. It would have been utterly unsurvivable in the Pacific theater against Japanese opposition. Additionally, short-range ASW aircraft were never really the problem in the Atlantic, the problem was always how to provide long-range cover, which was only solved by the use of land-based B-24s and carrier-borne Avengers.
  - RecycledEle 2y ago
    > You are confusing the TBD Devastator with the TBF/TBM Avenger. You are correct. I apologize. The TBD Devastator was a disaster compared to the ready-to-use Fairey Swordfish. FDR and Nimitz screwed the pooch on that one.
    - cpgxiii 2y ago
      I think you're giving the TBD a bad rap. Both were fundamentally obsolete aircraft at the start of the war for their primary role, and both were unsurvivable when used in that role. The Swordfish acquired a somewhat mythic representation from performance early in the war, but that performance was a result of FAA doctrine rather than any particular characteristics of the Swordfish - the FAA was really the only service to take night carrier operations seriously pre-war, and most of the successful Swordfish operations were conducted at night. When operated in daylight against competent air defense they were just as vulnerable as the TBD. Where the two also differ is that the TBD was soon retired completely following the slaughter at Midway and replaced by a much superior platform (the TBF/TBM), while the Swordfish was moved to other roles (e.g. ASW) as it was also replaced (also by the TBF/TBM in many cases). In no small part that was because the FAA needed everything it could get, and the failure of the intended successor (the Fairey Albacore) left them with no other domestic alternative.

EdwardDiego 2y ago

They got hits, but the rockets bounced off.