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Re: Subject: Re: [OM] OT: Naval museums now (US WW2 Subs)

Subject: Re: Subject: Re: [OM] OT: Naval museums now (US WW2 Subs)
From: Rand E <rtomcala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 11:21:57 -0500
Joe, what you say is true, but it only tells part of the story. Being a former submariner, I have little sympathy with any organization that would put out a product like the torpedoes that we went into W.W.II with. That being said, and being aware of quite a few of the details on this topic, it was primarily the fault of the pre-war politicians and their severe under funding the military (in general) that did not allow actual real life testing of these torpedoes. The torpedoes in question actually went from drawing board to production and then issue to the fleet - no funding to do any testing. This is also true of our recent administration in this country.

Joe Gwinn wrote:

At 7:59 PM +0000 1/9/04, olympus-digest wrote:
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 21:52:00 -0700
From: "James N. McBride" <jnmcbr@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] OT: Naval museums now (UK SSNs)

Early in W.W.II about half the US torpedoes failed to operate properly. One of
my uncles was a destroyer torpedo man and was taken off ship and sent to
Penn State University to work on this problem. They built a water tunnel
there (like an aircraft wind tunnel) to do torpedo development work. After
he left the Navy he stayed there and managed that facility until he died at
the ripe old age of 46. /jim

For those that are interested in this, I read the story of the subs and their terrible 
torpedoes in "Silent Victory" by Clay Blair.  It recounts the story of an 
incompetent organization (the US Navy's then torpedo design and production apparat) 
suffering the misfortune of being publically found out, along with the hideous costs 
their incompetance imposed.

There seems to be a March 2001 reissue of Silent Victory by one Clay Blair, 
Jr., who I assume to be the son of the original author.  Silent Victory sold 
many copies.

Silent Victory is the story of the submarine war, mostly in the Pacific.  The 
stuff about the torpedoes is a small part of the book.  As RandE said, subs 
were it for about two years, and submariners were like RAF pilots in their 
average survival time.

Joe Gwinn

<snip

In World War II, the US Navy spent ~2% of its resources on submarines (all
diesel), and the submarines were responsible for 50% of tonnage sunk.  This
was in spite of the somewhat ramshackle nature of the then US submarine
fleet and especially their torpedeos.  (For instance, Japanese torpedeos had
about four times the range.)


<snip



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