Use
There is at least one recorded case of a U-boat being bombed based upon her position being given away by a G7a's wake. On September 14, 1939, U-30 was attacked by loitering United Kingdom Fairey Swordfish naval bombers when she fired a G7a from her stern torpedo tube at the SS Fanad Head. U-30 was undamaged in the attack and served until she was scuttled at the end of the war.
Though the G7a could easily be spotted by surface ships, it remained the torpedo of choice for some U-Boat captains until the release of the G7e (TIII) electric torpedo in 1942, largely due to the inferior performance and tendency of the G7e (TII) (the wakeless electric torpedo available to U-boats from 1939–1942) to fail to detonate, both on proximity and contact fuses.
The G7a were also issued in versions with programsteering gyroscopes, using the Fat I ladder search pattern and the Lut I or Lut II pattern running for attacking convoys.
Read more about this topic: G7a Torpedo
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