Torpedo failures at the First Battle of Narvik

The account follows repeated British firing runs through a harbor already crowded with wrecks, shore batteries, and torpedo tracks. German magnetic pistols proved sensitive to high-latitude conditions, while the Royal Navy's simpler impact-fuzed Mark IX benefited from longer testing. Destroyer-fired internal-combustion torpedoes and submarine battery types shared the magnetic-pistol problem that combat at high latitude exposed. The contrast shows how secrecy pressure and incomplete trials can turn technical sophistication into combat failure.