Depth Charge

A depth charge is an anti-submarine weapon designed to destroy a submarine by detonating in the water near it, using the resulting hydraulic shock rather than a direct hit to rupture the target's hull. Most depth charges pack high explosive behind a fuze set to detonate at a chosen depth, and navies have dropped them from surface ships such as destroyers and frigates as well as from patrol aircraft and helicopters. The Royal Navy developed the weapon during the First World War as one of the first viable ways to attack a submerged submarine, fielding the first effective model, the Type D, in January 1916; the Q-ship Farnborough achieved the first submarine sinking credited to a depth charge on March 22, 1916, sending down the German U-68. Depth charges remained a mainstay of anti-submarine warfare through the Second World War and into the Cold War before homing torpedoes largely superseded them.