With the 'Tench', will definitely put a kibosh, on accepting it, until after the month of Jan. '45...
As for getting the 'Balao', I most definitely got the bump up to it offer, well after the date you mentioned of the exact earliest date that it is safe to accept an upgrade to it, propbeanie.
As it was, only upgrading I did to it, was improved air & surface radar, I went with the dual 20's in place of the 50 cals. & went with the dual deck gun set up offered, which... kept it in the same location on board, aft of the conning tower, while adding an additional flak gun forward.
For now, am staying with the Mk. 14's... though I did have Mk. 18's & 23's in base, as well as the 'Cuties' torpedo mines.
I did store some of them 'Cuties' on board... for use as a defense measure for DD/DE's. Only thing I have to say is... only downside to them is.. of having them get drawn off target by your own self.. even at speeds of 1 knot, trying to creep away...
Had to, go all stop and scratch & claw for the depths, to avoid getting slammed by them... once... or
twice...
Other than that.. they work quite well... having sank a couple of escort vessels, rather nicely, I might add...
Wonder, if some of them reports of subs sank by circle runners, weren't in fact, sunk by those torp/mines... in the early on stage of them being used...
Does make 1 wonder, when you consider it... couldn't come out & say 'yeah, we lost a sub due to... x item, of our own design.. ' that would be like tantamount to what's that saying.. something about loose lips...
Basically, giving away information to the enemy... well.. at that time, of course.
M. M.
