MS-472
| This page is about the Italian motor torpedo boat MS-472. For other versions, see CRDA60t (Family). |
Contents
Description
The story begins in 1942 when it was completed with the denomination MS-24. It was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, operating in the channel of Sicily. It carried out several rescue missions, when Tunisia fell it carried out rescue missions alongside several convoys to evacuate Italians and Germans who were not captured by the Allies in Tunisia. Before the armistice, it was taken to Gaeta for work, but the armistice occurred before repair work was finished. The MS-25 then participated in the advance of the Allies under the Co-Belligerent Italy, in which it carried out several special missions to gather information on the German enemy lines at Anzio and Nettuno. At the end of the war, the vehicle was modernised. It was renamed into MS-472 after several years and carried out coastal patrol and training missions until the 1970s. It was removed from service with its sister MS-473. MS-473 was displayed as a monument in Ravenna since 1981, while its sister was placed in the Museum of Venice specifically in the depot.
The MS-472 was added in the "Starfighters" update. It is a torpedo boat with good speed and manoeuvrability to attack ships larger than you. The MS-472's armament is composed of a single 40 mm Bofors in the front of the ship that allows you to have a fairly good firing range, however, if the tide is rough it will be very difficult for you to aim. It is equipped with two 450 mm torpedoes, excellent for shooting down other ships with a single shot. For larger ships, aim at the hold to have a better chance of destroying it. Finally, the least important armament is its 8 depth charges, useful only for slow targets or those that are very close.
General info
Survivability and armour
The MS-472 is entirely unarmoured apart from the 40 mm of wood comprising the hull, making it fairly weak overall. It also has a relatively small crew count of 19 members, and this in tandem with the lack of armour will see this vessel knocked out fairly quickly if repeatedly hit. The vessel is also fairly long, making it quite easy to hit at ranges which also hurts its survivability. It's effectively vulnerable everywhere, so a less aggressive playstyle will see it stay in the fight longer.
Mobility
This vessel is fairly fast but not so much manoeuvrable, it can reach a decent speed in a straight line but due to the length of the craft it struggles to complete a turn swiftly. It's also fairly unresponsive with accelerating and decelerating, which makes backing out of a dangerous situation very difficult, the poor reactive mobility tied with the lack of armour protection means you need to be bit more careful with choosing engagements when using this craft, it may be fast in a straight line but as it has no passive protection it can't constantly use that mobility to reliable effect.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 86 | 33 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 61 | 23 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
This vessel is equipped with a single 40 mm Bofors cannon, functionally the same variant used on many British and American light craft. Despite its relatively slow fire rate it deals a great amount of damage, and is also fairly easy to aim at range, allowing this vessel a lot of versatility in where you choose to engage. However, there is a large dead-zone towards the rear of the craft where the 40 mm cannot cover, and as it's lacking any secondary weapons it becomes very vulnerable from the rear. This also means the primary cannon is the only defence against aircraft as well, a single well placed shot from the cannon will usually cripple an enemy aircraft, but the slow fire rate and dead-zone can make a manoeuvring aircraft quite hard to hit. The cannon comes with three belts-
- Universal: AP-T · HEFI-T
- 40 mm HE clips: HEFI-T · HEFI-T · HEFI-T · AP-T
- 40 mm AP clips: AP-T · AP-T · AP-T · HEFI-T
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEFI-T | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| AP-T | 81 | 78 | 68 | 58 | 49 | 41 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEFI-T | 874 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.1 | 67.13 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| AP-T | 874 | 0.89 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
Overall, the HE majority belt will do the most damage against most of the common craft you'll be encountering around the battle rating, but it's recommended to carry some AP belts to combat armoured craft, as these rounds will easily be able to get through most armour. They are also very capable of setting off ammo racks, an accurate burst into the ammo will commonly destroy most enemy vessels, so if you encounter a large enemy with a lot of crew, it's recommended to load the AP and aim for the ammo racks.
Additional armament
The MS-472 carries two W.200/450X5,75 torpedoes, which contain an explosive mass of 200 kg, which isn't quite as powerful as torpedoes used by other nations, however they will easily be able to take down the light patrol craft commonly encountered around the battle rating. They travel fairly fast but have a somewhat limited range of only 3km, meaning they can't be safely used to combat Destroyers at significant ranges, they're perfectly adequate for close range engagements with lighter craft however.
The MS-472 can also carry eight BTG 100 Depth Charges, which can be used to destroy trailing enemy vessels. They have quite limited use overall however, and can rarely be used to good effect as engagements in which they have an actual use is quite rare. They can easily knock out larger vessels if you're able to sneak up on them, but this is a rather inconsistent tactic, they're the most useful when being tailed by an enemy vessel, especially as the MS-472 has no weaponry facing rearwards. If an enemy is in close proximity to the rear of the craft these charges can be dropped to sink them, however it requires very precise timing and overall isn't hugely reliable as a defensive weapon.
Usage in battles
The MS-472 is a fairly niche vessel but it does fill that niche quite well, the frontally mounted 40 mm cannon will do great at dealing with the bulk of enemies around the battle rating, but the lack of almost any defensive attributes mean that playing it more defensively is required to keep it in the fight longer. Arguably the most important aspect to mastering this vessel is where to position it, it's important to find a spot that offers both an active sight-line that will let you engage enemies, while also offering substantial cover for the vessel itself. As it is very weak and long, a good option for positioning yourself would be to stick the front portion of the boat out of cover, while leaving the middle and rearward sections in cover, as there is no weaponry present on these sections of the boat there's no real need to have them out of cover; as all this does is give your enemies more of you to shoot at. To have total combat effectiveness only the front of the boat needs to be able to engage targets, so this style of positioning is key.
It's important to be careful when traversing the map and leaving cover, this vessel isn't very quick to engage reverse, so if you sail out of cover and into the path of multiple enemy boats you'll likely take critical damage. This boat is weak to practically all types of weaponry, so tanking shots isn't really a viable option in any situation. If you're approaching the end of a stretch of cover make sure to slow down before you leave it, this way you can scout the area ahead for enemies and work out the best move. The majority HE belt will be best for engaging most of the enemies you'll fight, as they're overall unarmoured and HE will do the most structural damage. If you encounter a Russian river boat or a large gunboat however it's recommended to switch to AP to take them out, large gunboats like the Syonan, MPK, and the British Isles and Flower class vessels are too large to safely take out quickly with just using the HE belt, but they do have large, weak ammo racks under the guns, and a good burst of AP rounds into these racks will generally blow these vessels up, this is a much faster way to engage and dispatch these large craft. Alternatively you could make use of the torpedoes against these vessels as they do have a high speed, making it hard for large ships to avoid them.
This boat leads itself to a much more defensive playstyle, staying in cover and waiting for enemy vessels to come to you, this ship has no defensive fallbacks and can therefore only rely on the firepower, which can be best made use of when positioned partially in cover. The 40 mm cannon is able to knock out targets at a few kilometres range quite easily due to the high velocity, meaning that it isn't necessary to get very close to enemies most of the time. In close quarters engagements this vessel does struggle due to the dead-zone, lack of reactive mobility and armour, so you'll want to avoid getting too close most of the time. All-in-all, try not to be too aggressive, and stay around some form of hard cover, and if you start to take fire simply back off, repair and re-engage.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Effective primary weapon
- Versatile ammo options
- Decent top speed
Cons:
- No secondary weapons
- Large rearward dead-zone
- Large turning radius
- Comparatively weak and vulnerable
History
MS 24
The MS 24, after having been built in 1942, was assigned to the units of the 2nd Squadron, destined to participate in operations in the area of the Sicilian Channel. She was deployed to Sicily on 28 April 1943, leaving Marsala with her twin MS 34, and went to rescue the crew of the torpedo boat RN Climene, torpedoed by an enemy submarine off Marettimo, managing to save 40 sailors.
After the fall of the German and Italian units in Tunisia, she participated in the rescue of soldiers who had not been captured by the Allies, and was later deployed to Milazzo in July 1943, where she was sent to Gaeta for work; in the meantime, the Armistice was signed and the temporary foundation of the Co-Belligerent Italy was established, which would operate from Capri.
MS 24 would work with the Special Services Flotilla formed in Ischia in November 1943, participating in landing operations and recovery of informers beyond the German lines, i.e. risky missions to obtain information for hydrographic surveys and reconnaissance in the coastal sector between Anzio and Nettuno, where the Allies landed at the beginning of 22 January 1944, the following month, 16 February, she was transferred to the 5th MAS Flotilla and operated from Maddalena to Bastia for special missions in the German-occupied Tyrrhenian coast.
After the war, she remained in service in the Navy, being employed in the Adriatic, first by the Coastal Forces Group, i.e. the Motor Torpedo Boat Group Command.
In 1957 she went into a reserve to be modernised, MS 24 was renamed MV 612 later MS 612 and eventually MS-472.
MS-472
The MS-472 is a CRDA 60t (MS) motor torpedo boat. It received this designation after World War II, and is one of the 8 (out of 14 surviving) MS ships the Italian navy was allowed to keep after the war. The terms of the 1947 Paris peace treaty also required the removal of torpedo launchers, which were added back after Italy's entry to NATO. The two surving MS boats of the first series (which did not have the tail-mounted MAS-style torpedo tubes) were upgraded to the second-series spec.[1]
The MS 472, 473, 474 and 481 received modernization work in 1956, creating the CRDA 60t Convertible with the goal of serving as a flexible unit able to function as a torpedo boat (1 forward 40 mm gun and 2 torpedo tubes), gun boat (2 x 40 mm guns), or a fast mine layer (1 forward 40 mm gun and minelayer). The ships received a new 3×1,500 hp pulpusion system, radio, radar, and a deck rearrangement and served in the 42nd torpedo squadron, mostly in the Adriatic.[1] The MS-472 in game reperesents the torpedo boat configuration; the MS-473 represents the gun boat.
The MS-472 and MS-473 were put out of service in the late 1970s. MS-472 is on exhibit as a monument in Ravenna from 1981, while the MS-473 remains in storage at the Naval History Museum of Venice.[1]
Media
- Skins
See also
External links
References
| Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico (C.R.D.A) | |
|---|---|
| Motor Torpedo/Gun Boats | |
| Motosilurante CRDA 60 t Type I | MS-15 · MV-611* |
| Motosilurante CRDA 60 t Type II | MS-53 |
| Motosilurante CRDA 60 t Convertibile | MS-472 · MS-473 |
| Folgore-class | MC-490 |
| Freccia-class | Saetta P-494 |
| Light Cruisers | |
| Etna-class | RN Etna |
| *MS-11 converted to a motovedette (patrol boat) | |
| Italy boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | MC-490 · Freccia P-493 · MAS 555 · MAS 561 · MAS 569 |
| MS-15 · MS-53 · MS-472 · Stefano Turr · VAS 201 · GIS 811 · MS 444 · MC 485 | |
| Motor gun boats | MAS 441 · MS-473 · MV-611 · Alano · Sparviero |
| Motor torpedo gun boats | Saetta P-494 |
| Gunboats | Albatros · Alcione |
