[propbeanie]

This is such an interesting subject, in that the Asiatic Fleet lost so many torpedoes when Cavite was bombed, and then more when the submarines no longer attempted to use Manila or Mariveles as a base of operations. Some of the boats that brought supplies into Corregidor left with torpedoes and spare parts that had been left behind. The US also had production problems with the Mark14 torpedo. A lot of the parts were made "by hand" and fitted "by hand", like a German automobile or swiss watch. Never mind the failures of them, which the pins used may well have been a USN decision to save money... and then to put the fellow who helped make the "magnetic" part of the detonator a submarine task force commander... yeesh!

Anyway, as two general quotes, "Silent Victory", page 348, November 1942 has where Christie is re-assigned to BuOrd Newport, only now he'll be "Inspector of Ordnance, In Charge", because they were so far behind in production that they needed an "expert" to take charge and "fix" things. Then on page 401, roughly March 1943, "In spite of all efforts on the part of the Bureau of Ordnance, submarine torpedo production had not yet caught up with expenditures. During all of 1942, the three submarine commands had fired 1,442 torpedoes. During that same period, the Bureau of Ordnance had manufactured about 2,000 submarine torpedoes, many of which had not yet even reached the submarine bases. If the shortage continued, it was clear that submariners would be forced to resort again to unpopular - and ineffective - minelaying missions." Then there are multiple examples of submarines leaving (especially) Fremantle with less than a full load of torpedoes, and with 8 to 16 mines for them to distribute at various "strategic" locations. I have a note somewhere of the "averages", but I have not found that again yet. But if you have ever played the German side with a Type II boat, the load-out would be akin to that, where you have a boat that could carry roughly 24 torpedoes 3800 miles to Empire waters, only taking 12-16 or so... and then only have maybe half of those function correctly? You would have to choose your targets very carefully...