Those Marvelous Tin Fish
The Great Torpedo Scandal of World War II
However, being a service made up of imperfect human beings, the USN occasionally falls flat on its face. Given the nature of what we are asked to do by the nation, a failure often results in tragedy for for the sailors and the service. It is said that Naval Regulations are written in blood, with the inference being that real progress has a very high cost. The Navy prides itself on being able to learn from its mistakes and often it does. But bringing those lessons onboard usually only comes after tragedy. Several times over the decades tragedy has occurred, and Ric and I can only sit back and shake our heads at the stupidity of the service we devoted our lives to.
On December 7, 1941 the United States Navy entered into combat embroiled in a scandal that it actually was not yet aware existed. The principal weapon of the submarine and adjunct weapons for destroyers and aircraft, the torpedo, was horribly flawed. The Mk 13, 14, and 15 torpedoes, developed by the Naval Torpedo Station Newport, Rhode Island during the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930's were finely crafted but deeply flawed weapons. Put into full production without being adequately tested the torpedo had numerous faults; they were of such a nature as to be difficult to find if not rigorously tested. Once the war started, alarming reports of torpedo malfunctions began to surface as misses began to rack up. The problems could be grouped into three major areas: deep running, erratic course keeping, and the complete failure of the Mk 6 exploder in either influence or contact mode. The leaders of the BuOrd and the technicians at NTS Newport steadfastly refused to believe anything was wrong with the weapons that they had developed. They blamed all of the faults on the operating forces and refused to do anything about it. Only when high level officers ordered field tests and put personal pressure on the Newport staff did they finally admit that there were problems. It took until the summer of 1943 before the issues with the torpedoes were corrected.
The reasons that this unforgivable situation occurred are numerous and complex. The scandal has been covered extensively by numerous authors: Clay Blair, W.J. Holmes, Theodore Roscoe, and Edward Beach have all covered the topic extensively and have been able to drill down to the root causes. In addition, the webmasters can recommend the following web articles on the scandal:
• The Great Torpedo Scandal 1941-43, 1996, by Frederick J. Milford, courtesy of the Naval Submarine League.
• Wikipedia article on the MK 14 torpedo, 2024
Page created by:
Ric Hedman & David Johnston
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