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 WWII 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 torpedos 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 torpedos 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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