Reply To: HMS Hood and Naval Wire Barrage weapons

[Malcolm Lewis]

Near the end of Stephen Roskill’s book “Churchill and the Admirals” on page 269 he refers to the threat of Japanese suicide bombers (Kamikazes) in 1944 which had attacked and severely damaged the RAN cruiser Australia. Churchill was keen to offer the Americans the latest A-A devices known as the Type K rocket supposedly to assist their efforts in the Pacific. This could be fired up to 24,000 feet where the head separated and discharged wires attached to mines.
This was a variation of the aerial UP or aerial mine of the early days of the war. His naval staff dissuaded him as, quote, “we had no intention of using them ourselves”.
Extraordinary that the UK persisted with such weapons after their early failures. I find references to “Type Z” rockets but not “Type K”. These were essentially Army weapons but am I correct in assuming the Navy did not persist with them during the war or did any of the other services actually use them?