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Mine Mark 24: World War II Acoustic Torpedo

A summary is given of the results of studies with an experimental sound-directed self-propelled mine which embodied the basic principles of operation subsequently employed in the Mark 24 Mine of World War II. The directive to develop such a weapon was given to Bell Laboratories on December 24, 1941, by Division 6 of the National Defense Research Committee. On July 22, 1942, the first successful operation under both horizontal and vertical sound control was achieved inthe waters between Fishers Island and Groton Long Point, Conn. Work on the Mark 24 experimental model was completed on October 20, 1942. Because of the urgency of the war situation, a parallel research program was carried out at Harvard University. This program contributed in important ways to the Mine Mark 24 production model which was manufactured by the Western Electric Company at Kearny, N.J. Mine Mark 24 went into active service in July 1943. Except for these notations, and a few additional ones in the text regarding the production model, the present report has been limited to an outline of the experimental program as carried out at Bell Laboratories.

Author: Gardner, Mark B.
Affiliation: Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
JAES Volume 22 Issue 8 pp. 614-626; October 1974 Import into BibTeX

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