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Atrocious Historic Weapon Designs That Left a Lot to be Desired

Khalid Elhassan February 6, 2025 16 min

Weapon - An American general with a captured Krummlauf — An American general with a captured Krummlauf. Sandboxx

8. A Magnetic Detonator That Was a Great Idea

A Mark 14 Torpedo on display in Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco. Wikimedia

Designed in 1931, the Mark 14 Torpedo was American submarines’ standard weapon when the country joined WWII in 1941, and it failed the submariners miserably. Unlike earlier American torpedoes that detonated on impact with a target ship’s hull, the Mark 14 Torpedo had an advanced magnetic detonator. It was supposed to set off the torpedo’s explosive charge directly beneath the enemy’s keel and break its back – fatal damage to any ship. The concept was good, since it meant that a single Mark 14 could sink any enemy ship, regardless of its size. By contrast, earlier designs often required multiple torpedo hits on various spots in a targeted ship’s hull in order to hole and sink it.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.