I remember my physics teacher telling us this story.
How he told it was, that a US submarine was following (?) a Russian submarine. For some reason, the Russian one had to go somewhere as soon as possible, so they went full speed forward. The Americans then didn't like that (doesn't make much sense, but thats how I remember it) and shot a torpedo after them. The Russian submarine however, was faster than that torpedo.
What the fun part about this is, that Americans were boasting that they have the best and fastest submarines back then.
So my question is, is that true? Did my memory mix up the nations? And does anyone have an explanation or a link to this, or some similar story?
During WWII the United States Navy used the Mark 14 torpedo. The torpedo had a speed of 46 knots. Now it is unclear what class of Soviet submarine was being used but I can assure you that it would have been hopelessly outmatched in terms of submerged speed. From what I found the submerged top speed of most submarines of that era top out at around 10-14 knots. And actually that torpedo would be able to catch the fastest submarine in the world, the Soviet K-222 which had a top speed of 44.7 knots and was commissioned in 1969.