“The Fancy”
Mk XII anti submarine 21” homing torpedo
The Fancy (According to the Collins Dictionary)
in British English
archaic
“those who follow a particular sport, esp prize fighting”
U125 – 220 NMs North West of the Azores 29th Dec 1942 – 13:30 hrs GMT
The crew hardly dared to breathe as the sound of yet another Tommy escort closing in on their position the harsh sounds of its Asdic pulses could be heard through the hull.
Close enough that its thrashing propeller could now be heard gaining in volume with every second
‘Hard to port, make revolutions 90, down planes’ the Captain snapped in a harsh whisper that the crew immediately rushed to obey
This was the 5th attack in the last hour and the captain had used every trick in the book to evade the depth charge attacks.
So far he had been successful, with the only damage being to the crews increasingly frayed nerves – the boat accelerating from its ‘I’m an innocent hole in the ocean’ through to 7 knots and dropped through 100 meters down to 140 meters and a course change that went through 90 odd degrees before the first depth charges splashed into the sea somewhere above them
This attack while closer than the rest was also a failure with the depth charge pattern above and somewhere off to the submarines starboard quarter too far away to cause any damage.
‘Return to course, reduce revolution to 50, maintain depth’ Ordered the 25 year old commanding officer as the submarine slowed to steerage speed at a depth of 145 meters
‘Hopefully the Tommies will tire of this game’
Despite the relief among the crew that they had survived another attack, the frustration that the Convoy that they had tried to attack was now past them was also evident.
Little chance for them to now get into an attack position, not with the batteries half exhausted and the need to now overhaul the convoy while still needing to throw off the ‘shepherds’ would probably involve a long night on the surface while they recharged the batteries and used their higher surface speed to get ahead of the expect course in time for an attack at dawn.
Just the small matter of shaking off the 2 escorts that where trying to sink them
The Captain gave a wolfish grin to the crew in the control room
“We will have to let them live another day and catch up overnight then we will..”
He was interrupted by the senior rating on the Hydrophones who had just replaced the headset (which he had removed upon hearing the first splashes of depth charges in order to save his ear drums)
“Captain high speed screws from astern…sounds like…sounds like a torpedo?”
The Captain leaned in and put on the 2nd headset and nodded at his senior sonar man in agreement
“Bearing constant – its coming right at us”
Captain Folkers stomach went cold as a terrible thought occurred to him - he knew of developments in 'smart' homing torpedoes in the German Navy - could this be...?
“Maximum revolutions, full right rudder”
This time no attempt at silence
The submarine slowly accelerated from near steerage rapidly up to 4 knots then through 5 knots then more slowly to 6.
“Bearing still constant, torpedo closing, Captain its like it knows where we are”
7 knots…….7 and a half
Folkers blinked – unsure of what to do – but one thing was clear – the torpedo was definitely hunting them
“Up planes, Blow main ballast, get us on the surface, NOW”
8 knots, the hull creaking along with the roar of water being forced from the main tanks, as the submarine slowly began to ascend.
“Torpedo very close, bearing constant”
8 and a bit knots, depth slowly climbed through 100 meters, 95 meters
“Brace for coll..”
The Mk XII “Fancy” 21” Electric torpedo passed slightly below the stern of U125 before its magnetic detonator tripped the fuse and the 365 Kilograms torpex warhead detonated close enough to crumple the hull of the Type IXC Uboat, almost breaking it in 2 and merciful killing the entire crew nearly instantly.
The now twisted tube that had once been U125 and the home of 48 men and now their tomb began its long decent towards the Atlantic floor.
This obviously slightly ‘fictional account’ regarding the last moments of U125 during the afternoon of 29th Dec 1942 was the first use of the Royal Navy’s first Anti Submarine Acoustic homing Torpedo known the MK XII or more commonly 'The Fancy'
Fired by the J class Destroyer HMS Javelin the weapon remarkably, considering this was the first ‘war shot’ of the weapon worked perfectly.
Based on the new MK XI electric powered torpedo designed to provide RN destroyers with a wakeless torpedo the MK XII differed in that it used an experimental acoustic homing system that operated on the 24khz range that was common to U-boats – this allowed the weapon to track a potential target.
The Torpedo’s speed was reduced to 12 knots to allow the homing system to function and as such had a range of well over 10,000 yards compared to half that for the MK XI
Unlike the later US MK 24 Fido ‘The Fancy’ could not change depth but was usually set to 100 meters depth (this to also ensure that it did not attack the launching vessel or any other surface vessels nearby) the expectation being that the magnetic detector fuse and 365 Kilo Torpex (which was the equivalent of 550 kilos of TNT) warhead would cause enough over pressure to sink a submarine so long as it was not more than 100 odd meters above or below the target when it detonated.
This another difference to the smaller air dropped Fido that used a much smaller warhead and contact fuse.
Like the Fido the Fancy had a very high success rate of almost 20% with what is thought to be a total of 52 Enemy Submarines sunk and 17 damaged (5 of those forced to surface and subsequently sunk or captured) out of 342 war shots.
Although initially husbanded into mid 1943 due to the early low rate production of the weapon later tactics emerged where the weapon was used to flush a suspected or known submarine where it would be attacked with other weapons or another Fancy.
Even an unsuccessful engagement would force a U-boat to use up a large part of its battery charge effectively nullifying it in the short term.
As reports of this weapon reached the German Navy’s commanders the weapon gained something of a reputation and caused many Uboat commanders to be less aggressive when attacking a convoy
Also at least a dozen u boats tried to use the tactic of surfacing when fired on by a Fancy and trying to fight it out with the escort vessels and in all but one case, lost to the more heavily armed Corvettes and Destroyer escorts.
Almost 2000 MK XII ‘Fancy’ torpedoes were built by VJ day and while the MK XIV was placed into production (which was able to change depth etc) in 1945 the ‘Fancy’ was a good enough system and remained the principal Destroyer ASW system along side the Hedgehog and Squid mortars for the Royal Navy well into the 50s
Mk XII anti submarine 21” homing torpedo
The Fancy (According to the Collins Dictionary)
in British English
archaic
“those who follow a particular sport, esp prize fighting”
U125 – 220 NMs North West of the Azores 29th Dec 1942 – 13:30 hrs GMT
The crew hardly dared to breathe as the sound of yet another Tommy escort closing in on their position the harsh sounds of its Asdic pulses could be heard through the hull.
Close enough that its thrashing propeller could now be heard gaining in volume with every second
‘Hard to port, make revolutions 90, down planes’ the Captain snapped in a harsh whisper that the crew immediately rushed to obey
This was the 5th attack in the last hour and the captain had used every trick in the book to evade the depth charge attacks.
So far he had been successful, with the only damage being to the crews increasingly frayed nerves – the boat accelerating from its ‘I’m an innocent hole in the ocean’ through to 7 knots and dropped through 100 meters down to 140 meters and a course change that went through 90 odd degrees before the first depth charges splashed into the sea somewhere above them
This attack while closer than the rest was also a failure with the depth charge pattern above and somewhere off to the submarines starboard quarter too far away to cause any damage.
‘Return to course, reduce revolution to 50, maintain depth’ Ordered the 25 year old commanding officer as the submarine slowed to steerage speed at a depth of 145 meters
‘Hopefully the Tommies will tire of this game’
Despite the relief among the crew that they had survived another attack, the frustration that the Convoy that they had tried to attack was now past them was also evident.
Little chance for them to now get into an attack position, not with the batteries half exhausted and the need to now overhaul the convoy while still needing to throw off the ‘shepherds’ would probably involve a long night on the surface while they recharged the batteries and used their higher surface speed to get ahead of the expect course in time for an attack at dawn.
Just the small matter of shaking off the 2 escorts that where trying to sink them
The Captain gave a wolfish grin to the crew in the control room
“We will have to let them live another day and catch up overnight then we will..”
He was interrupted by the senior rating on the Hydrophones who had just replaced the headset (which he had removed upon hearing the first splashes of depth charges in order to save his ear drums)
“Captain high speed screws from astern…sounds like…sounds like a torpedo?”
The Captain leaned in and put on the 2nd headset and nodded at his senior sonar man in agreement
“Bearing constant – its coming right at us”
Captain Folkers stomach went cold as a terrible thought occurred to him - he knew of developments in 'smart' homing torpedoes in the German Navy - could this be...?
“Maximum revolutions, full right rudder”
This time no attempt at silence
The submarine slowly accelerated from near steerage rapidly up to 4 knots then through 5 knots then more slowly to 6.
“Bearing still constant, torpedo closing, Captain its like it knows where we are”
7 knots…….7 and a half
Folkers blinked – unsure of what to do – but one thing was clear – the torpedo was definitely hunting them
“Up planes, Blow main ballast, get us on the surface, NOW”
8 knots, the hull creaking along with the roar of water being forced from the main tanks, as the submarine slowly began to ascend.
“Torpedo very close, bearing constant”
8 and a bit knots, depth slowly climbed through 100 meters, 95 meters
“Brace for coll..”
The Mk XII “Fancy” 21” Electric torpedo passed slightly below the stern of U125 before its magnetic detonator tripped the fuse and the 365 Kilograms torpex warhead detonated close enough to crumple the hull of the Type IXC Uboat, almost breaking it in 2 and merciful killing the entire crew nearly instantly.
The now twisted tube that had once been U125 and the home of 48 men and now their tomb began its long decent towards the Atlantic floor.
This obviously slightly ‘fictional account’ regarding the last moments of U125 during the afternoon of 29th Dec 1942 was the first use of the Royal Navy’s first Anti Submarine Acoustic homing Torpedo known the MK XII or more commonly 'The Fancy'
Fired by the J class Destroyer HMS Javelin the weapon remarkably, considering this was the first ‘war shot’ of the weapon worked perfectly.
Based on the new MK XI electric powered torpedo designed to provide RN destroyers with a wakeless torpedo the MK XII differed in that it used an experimental acoustic homing system that operated on the 24khz range that was common to U-boats – this allowed the weapon to track a potential target.
The Torpedo’s speed was reduced to 12 knots to allow the homing system to function and as such had a range of well over 10,000 yards compared to half that for the MK XI
Unlike the later US MK 24 Fido ‘The Fancy’ could not change depth but was usually set to 100 meters depth (this to also ensure that it did not attack the launching vessel or any other surface vessels nearby) the expectation being that the magnetic detector fuse and 365 Kilo Torpex (which was the equivalent of 550 kilos of TNT) warhead would cause enough over pressure to sink a submarine so long as it was not more than 100 odd meters above or below the target when it detonated.
This another difference to the smaller air dropped Fido that used a much smaller warhead and contact fuse.
Like the Fido the Fancy had a very high success rate of almost 20% with what is thought to be a total of 52 Enemy Submarines sunk and 17 damaged (5 of those forced to surface and subsequently sunk or captured) out of 342 war shots.
Although initially husbanded into mid 1943 due to the early low rate production of the weapon later tactics emerged where the weapon was used to flush a suspected or known submarine where it would be attacked with other weapons or another Fancy.
Even an unsuccessful engagement would force a U-boat to use up a large part of its battery charge effectively nullifying it in the short term.
As reports of this weapon reached the German Navy’s commanders the weapon gained something of a reputation and caused many Uboat commanders to be less aggressive when attacking a convoy
Also at least a dozen u boats tried to use the tactic of surfacing when fired on by a Fancy and trying to fight it out with the escort vessels and in all but one case, lost to the more heavily armed Corvettes and Destroyer escorts.
Almost 2000 MK XII ‘Fancy’ torpedoes were built by VJ day and while the MK XIV was placed into production (which was able to change depth etc) in 1945 the ‘Fancy’ was a good enough system and remained the principal Destroyer ASW system along side the Hedgehog and Squid mortars for the Royal Navy well into the 50s
