Tail of the torpedo.

[Kala]

Many years ago I made a switch with my friend. I got this and he got air rifle.It´s measures are (if I remember right) approximately 60*60 cm. I don´t find any markings but same number in many parts #5 or something. It´s not younger than 1950, because my friends father was in the army as a diver and he bring it home. I have good reason to believe that it is Finnish, German or Russian. Nobody any ideas or knwledge about this?

Thanks
Kala

[j dubbel]

sorry cant help you whit this but i just wanted to say it is a rather rare item so nice find there

[GasMasksUK]

I know nothing abut this, but what an awesome item wpuld made a great lampstand thanks for showing it

Thanks

Danny

[Kala]

I know nothing abut this, but what an awesome item wpuld made a great lampstand thanks for showing it

Thanks

Danny

Hi Danny
In a matter of fact it was a lampstand. It had a shade made of nautical chart transferred to canvas. It was beautiful. When I get married, my wife Did Not think so. What can you do? Now we have a nice little lamp with a nice little romantic shade . And this is in my garage.

Kala

[SpenceMortlock]

Hi Danny
In a matter of fact it was a lampstand. It had a shade made of nautical chart transferred to canvas. It was beautiful. When I get married, my wife Did Not think so. What can you do? Now we have a nice little lamp with a nice little romantic shade . And this is in my garage.

Kala

This made me laugh out loud, I can relate to that 100%

Great item though, I hope someone can identify it for you.

Regards,

Spence

[Matt L]

It doesn't match the tail section of the one good photo I can find of a German G7-type torpedo- it's fins' ends extend twice as far as the end of the central conical section. The lack of markings wouldn't immediately make me think German to be sure- when it came to infantry weapons, they marked every single little bit that could be marked, so it'd be a surprise if the Kriegsmarine did differently.

[Natter]

Many years ago I made a switch with my friend. I got this and he got air rifle.It´s measures are (if I remember right) approximately 60*60 cm. I don´t find any markings but same number in many parts #5 or something. It´s not younger than 1950, because my friends father was in the army as a diver and he bring it home. I have good reason to believe that it is Finnish, German or Russian. Nobody any ideas or knwledge about this?

The possible torpedodesigns in the period from 1900 to 1940 are so numerous and similar (not to mention all the variants in between), that it's very hard to distinguish them without more information.
It's a very typical "whitehead-tail" (as opposed to the more simple "Woolwich-tail" were the propellers are placed aft, and the rudders in front - like the german G7e and the british Mk VIII).
This could be italian/croatian (Whitehead) or even norwegian (it's in fact very similar to the norwegian "Horten Mod IX" and X through XV types). If it's german, that would be a early design - before the 1930's, but I can't see any candidate exept possibly the WW1 Ceto 2 (but I think the leading edges of the fins are too "rounded" in your tailpiece - I have only the photo in Rösslers book to compare with).

The lack of markings wouldn't immediately make me think German to be sure- when it came to infantry weapons, they marked every single little bit that could be marked, so it'd be a surprise if the Kriegsmarine did differently.

There are no markings on the G7a tail (exept for serial number found on some torpedoes, but I'm not sure these are not added post war), so that's not a valid criteria.

[Scout]

Interesting.

Would have liked to see it, in its previous incarnation as a lamp

Tell your wife, that you'd like a very tasteful helmet lamp in the living room instead of the other lamp!

.................on the other hand better not

[Matt L]

There are no markings on the G7a tail (exept for serial number found on some torpedoes, but I'm not sure these are not added post war), so that's not a valid criteria.

Very surprising- even ammunition as small as 13mm has multiple markings on the cartridge, projectile and even the tiny fuse of HE shells; but then perhaps that's a wartime phenomenon- is it that the early torpedoes just 'predate' the practice of marking so much, before the elaborate marking system came into being? I'd have thought something as complicated and costly as a torpedo would surely have lots of inspections and such. Now that I think of it, I have a couple of SlfZF1a1 gunsights that are minimally-marked- just the title and maker code; and the replacible upper mirror section has no marks at all. But that's a device, not a weapon or munition...

[Natter]

Very surprising- even ammunition as small as 13mm has multiple markings on the cartridge, projectile and even the tiny fuse of HE shells; but then perhaps that's a wartime phenomenon- is it that the early torpedoes just 'predate' the practice of marking so much, before the elaborate marking system came into being? I'd have thought something as complicated and costly as a torpedo would surely have lots of inspections and such.

Don't get me wrong: There are plenty of markings on the torpedo as such, but not on the tail.
The airtank (or batterychamber on the G7e), as well as the aftsection has the torpedo's serialnumber engraved. The warhead (as well as the exersiceheads) and the pistol also had their unique serialnumbers as well (head and pistol were usually matched, but I'm not sure wether the germans matched the heads to the torpedoes like it was in the torpedo's post-war usage).

There were several maintenance-routines for the torpedo (weekly/monthly etc) - all being logged in the torpedoprotocol which always followed the torpedo (same with repairs, exersice-shots, transports etc). Even for the warshot, a special protocol was filled out ("shussmeldung") with info about the target and launch-platform, as well as the serialnumber for torpedo/head/pistol and settings like speed, depth, gyroscope etc.

Some internal mechanisms also had serialnumbers, like the gyroscope and the depth-mechanism. The gyroscope was matched and adjusted for each individual torpedo and taken out during transport in it's own wooden crate (were it was mounted in a suspension to avoid damage from impacts). Heads and pistols also had special transport/storage containers.