Russian and Japanese capital ships carried fixed torpedo tubes that required the ship itself to provide the aim. Some broadside tubes opened below the waterline to reduce the shock of a torpedo striking the sea, but that arrangement did not solve the aiming or range problem. The standard Russian weapon described here had a useful disabling charge but only about a thousand yards of range, while battleship gunfire commonly opened at several times that distance. That mismatch calls into question the weight and internal space devoted to a weapon unlikely to enter its firing envelope in a normal line-of-battle engagement.
Chapter · 1:15:36-1:18:40
Why Russo-Japanese War battleships carried torpedoes
A Russian-warship guide explains fixed above- and below-water torpedo tubes, then exposes the mismatch between their short range and the gunnery distances at which battleships normally fought.