Best Torpedo
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MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German military transport ship originally built as a cruise ship for the Strength Through Joy organization in the 1930s. On January 30, 1945, it was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 while participating in Operation Hannibal, evacuating German civilians and military pe...
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line that held the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing early in its career. During World War I, on May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the ship off the southern coast of Ireland. The sinking resulted in the deaths o...
USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was a Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy that saw extensive service during World War II. In July 1945, the ship completed a top-secret mission to deliver components for the first atomic bomb to Tinian island. On July 30, 1945, the vessel was torpedoed by...
MV Goya was a Norwegian freighter that was requisitioned by Germany during World War II and used as a troop transport and refugee vessel. On April 16, 1945, while participating in the evacuation of German military personnel and civilians from the eastern Baltic, the ship was spotted and torpedoed by...
USS Yorktown (CV-5) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier commissioned in 1937 and the lead ship of the Yorktown class. After participating in the Battle of the Coral Sea, it was rapidly repaired and returned to action for the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Japanese aircraft inflicted severe dam...
Shinano was an Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier converted during construction from the third hull of the Yamato-class battleships. Commissioned in November 1944 before it was fully fitted out, it was torpedoed by the United States submarine USS Archerfish while traveling between Japanese port...
HMS Ark Royal, pennant number 91, was a British aircraft carrier commissioned before the Second World War and operated by the Royal Navy throughout the conflict's early years. Her aircraft participated in the Norwegian campaign, Mediterranean operations, and the pursuit of the German battleship Bism...
USAT Liberty is the wreck of a United States Army cargo ship lying close to shore at Tulamben on the northeast coast of Bali, Indonesia. A Japanese submarine torpedoed the vessel in the Lombok Strait in January 1942, after which it was towed toward port and beached at Tulamben. Volcanic activity ass...
HMS Royal Oak was a Revenge-class battleship of the British Royal Navy that served in both world wars. On 14 October 1939, the German submarine U-47 penetrated the defenses of Scapa Flow and torpedoed the ship at anchor, causing it to sink with the loss of 833 crew members. The wreck remains in Scap...
SS Laconia was a British ocean liner requisitioned as a troopship during the Second World War. German submarine U-156 torpedoed it in the South Atlantic on 12 September 1942 while it carried crew, passengers, British and Polish military personnel, and about 1,800 Italian prisoners of war. Rescue eff...
Robert Whitehead was a British engineer who developed the first effective self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s while working in Fiume, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His 1866 design used compressed air to power a propulsion system and incorporated depth control, allowing the weapon to trav...
HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the British Royal Navy that served in both world wars. On 25 November 1941, the German submarine U-331 torpedoed her in the Mediterranean, causing the ship to roll onto her side before a catastrophic magazine explosion destroyed much of the hull....
SS City of Benares was a British passenger liner used during the Second World War to carry passengers and evacuees across the Atlantic. On 17 September 1940, the German submarine U-48 torpedoed the ship while it was sailing for Canada as part of a convoy. Of the 90 children aboard under the Children...
MV Struma was a vessel carrying 769 Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania who were attempting to reach Mandatory Palestine during the Holocaust. After being detained at Istanbul, the ship was towed into the Black Sea, where the Soviet submarine Shch-213 torpedoed it on 24 February 1942. The sinki...
HIJMS Taihō was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the only ship of her class. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 June 1944, she was struck by a torpedo fired by the American submarine USS Albacore. The initial damage appeared manageable, but efforts to ventilate leakin...
USS Wasp (CV-7) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier commissioned before American entry into the Second World War. She supported operations around Guadalcanal until 15 September 1942, when the Japanese submarine I-19 struck her with multiple torpedoes southeast of San Cristobal Island. Uncontro...
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line passenger steamship launched in 1902 and used on North Atlantic routes. After RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in April 1912, Carpathia traveled through ice to the disaster area and took aboard 705 survivors from the lifeboats before carrying them to New York. During the...
ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy light cruiser, originally commissioned by the United States Navy as USS Phoenix. The British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed and sank it on 2 May 1982 during the Falklands War, killing 323 members of its crew. The wreck remains a war grave...
SS Arandora Star was a British passenger liner operated by the Blue Star Line and later used as a troop and internee transport during the Second World War. On 2 July 1940, the German submarine U-47 torpedoed the ship northwest of Ireland while it was carrying Italian and German internees and prisone...
The SS Athenia was a British transatlantic passenger liner operated by the Donaldson Line. On September 3, 1939, the same day Britain declared war on Germany, the ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U-30 while carrying passengers from Glasgow to Montreal. The attack resulted in the deaths of...
SS Khedive Ismail was a British troop transport sunk in the Indian Ocean during the Second World War. On 12 February 1944, the Japanese submarine I-27 torpedoed the ship while it was carrying military personnel and other passengers from East Africa toward Ceylon. Approximately 1,297 of roughly 1,511...
RMS Leinster was a mail and passenger steamship operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company on the route between Kingstown, now Dun Laoghaire, and Holyhead. On 10 October 1918, the German submarine UB-123 torpedoed and sank her in the Irish Sea shortly after departure. More than 500 passenge...
Lisbon Maru was a Japanese cargo and troop transport ship used during the Second World War. In October 1942, the American submarine USS Grouper torpedoed her near the Zhoushan Islands, unaware that she was carrying roughly 1,800 British prisoners of war in her holds. More than 800 prisoners died thr...
USAT Dorchester was a United States Army transport carrying troops and other personnel across the North Atlantic during the Second World War. The German submarine U-223 torpedoed it near Greenland on 3 February 1943, and the ship sank with heavy loss of life. The disaster is remembered for four Army...
SS Leopoldville was a Belgian passenger liner converted for use as an Allied troopship during the Second World War. On 24 December 1944, the German submarine U-486 torpedoed her in the English Channel near Cherbourg while she was transporting United States Army troops to Europe. The ship sank after...
HMS Courageous was a British warship originally completed during the First World War as a large light cruiser and later converted into an aircraft carrier. On 17 September 1939, while conducting anti-submarine operations in the North Atlantic, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-29....
SS Gairsoppa was a British cargo steamship sunk in the North Atlantic during the Second World War. A German U-boat torpedoed the vessel on 17 February 1941 while it was carrying commodities that included a large shipment of silver; only one member of the crew survived. The wreck was located in 2011...
SS Persia was a British passenger liner operated by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. On 30 December 1915, during the First World War, the German submarine U-38 torpedoed the ship without warning in the Mediterranean while it was traveling toward India, and the vessel sank rapidl...
