Quote:
Originally Posted by AviatorMan
I've not yet found anything to shoot at yet, but the constant reminders to only use the correct number of torpedoes has me wondering if early war commanders knew just how likely their torps were to be duds and as a result fired more than needed just to be safe, or did they not really know the extent of the issue and often find themselves running to hide after firing 1-2 duds?
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Ahoy, AviatorMan...
Given the nature of supply/resupply... going in, early on... I believe the reasoning behind the governing of torp use was based on the time it would take for a supply to be sent abroad, added to that, of not knowing just how the area to deliver them was going to be in who's hands.. ours or theirs.
Not at the time, the fact that a lot of them were duds. Live fire training I don't think, was really in effect back then... then you add in the following:
''In the inter-war years, financial stringency caused nearly all navies to skimp on testing their torpedoes. Only the Japanese had fully tested torpedoes (in particular the Type 93).''
So, penny pinching bean counters, were the ones to blame for shoddy torpedo's that the boys serving on fleet boats had to thank for the issues with their torp's... yet, they took the brunt of the blame for their failures.
Sadly, no bean counters heads rolled for that snafu...
which their heads should have been rolling , leaving their shoulders lonesome...
But.. I digress..
so, logistics would be the reasoning behind the orders to be stingy on the use of torp's... at the start, not the foreknowledge of the travails & troubles with them.
M. M.
