
Fire One, Fire Ten: Implications of the Torpedo Scandal of World War II (2018) - smacktoward
https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2018/2/8/fire-one-fire-ten-implications-of-the-torpedo-scandal-of-world-war-ii
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desdiv
One of my favorite piece of WWII trivia is that Albert Einstein actually
worked on fixing the Mark 6 exploder of the Mark 14 torpedo.

Back then, Einstein was not employed by the military at all; he was an
academic at the Institute for Advanced Study[0] in Princeton. Lt. Stephen
Brunauer from the Bureau of Ordnance sent an unsolicited letter to Einstein
basically saying: “Hey Einstein, can you help us with our torpedo problem?”
and Einstein happily obliged[1]. Their entire correspondence is in the
national archives; here’s an example: [2].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Advanced_Study](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Advanced_Study)

[1]
[https://mathscinotes.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/torpedoesan...](https://mathscinotes.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/torpedoesandeinstein.pdf)

[2]
[https://catalog.archives.gov/id/305254](https://catalog.archives.gov/id/305254)

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redis_mlc
This is a great read.

If you study the Pacific carrier battles carefully, you'll notice that the
Americans sank no Japanese carriers with torpedos for 2 years, while the
Japanese had great success.

So all of the US torpedo planes and pilots were sent fruitlessly for that
period of time. Usually the performance of their obsolete planes was blamed,
but that doesn't matter when you're dropping duds.

In later wars, the US repeated similar disasters ...

The F-4 didn't have a gun, early air-air missiles either didn't work or were
sensitive to carrier landings and stopped working, the Zuni rocket had
electrical issues, the F-14A had the wrong (bomber) engine, carriers were
loaded with tons of "expired" bombs to reduce costs which contributed to the
USS Forrestal inferno, etc.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire)

The USA has always taken a while to spool up for war, but has then been
unstoppable. It would be nice to break the pattern of early failures though.

~~~
brazzy
> This is a great read.

It is not. I found it maddeningly superficial.

It talks about "crippling flaws in all three control mechanisms." but fails to
provide any information whatsoever about what those flaws were and what
effects they had.

The story about how the flaws were isolated and fixed is confined to a _single
sentence_.

It is completely unclear how "Lesson 1: Indecision can thicken the fog of war"
has anything at all to do with the faulty torpedoes. Why and how did
"operational consequences of this startling strategic decision masked the true
nature of the torpedo problem"?

~~~
wffurr
It's not a technical article about torpedo design. From that perspective, it
is superficial but that's not what it's about. You can easily research the
torpedo design if you want.

The article is actually about the organizational and strategic failures that
led to and exacerbated the problem. From that perspective, it has plenty to
offer.

~~~
brazzy
Even from that perspective, it has very little to offer because it completely
fails to explain how those "organizational and strategic failures" actually
had anything to do with the torpedoes.

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cstuder
I had a chuckle while reading this: Switzerland is currently starting an
evaluation of a new ground-to-air missile defense system.

The Swiss military decided that due to the enormous cost of the missiles, the
evaluation will not include a firing test, but rely on a big questionnaire for
the manufacturers of said system.

~~~
nradov
If you're buying a weapons system for deterrence then it doesn't actually have
to work reliably. It just has to present a credible appearance of possibly
working some of the time in order to complicate an adversary's plans.

~~~
ceejayoz
Plus, it’s Switzerland. They’re surrounded by friendly NATO countries. Their
Air Force has office hours and relies on France/Italy outside them.

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/feb/19/swis...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/feb/19/swiss-
air-force-ethiopian-airlines-hijacking-office-hours)

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noir-york
For a worse screw-up read about the bureaucratic slug fights around the M14
rifle (the shortest-serving US standard issue rifle), and the M16 (substandard
ammo, etc) in Vietnam that needlessly cost American lives. There are good
reasons the Springfield Armory was closed down by McNamara in '68.

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jarym
In such stories there’s always a group or person that remains in denial long
enough to frustrate the overall objective.

I see it in tech when developers often try to tell me there’s no problem until
weeks later admitting there is one.

Why not spend the time investigating instead of denying?

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protomyth
The USS Barb's story is amazing. It is detailed in the book _Thunder Below!
The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II_ by _Eugene B.
Fluckey_ who was the commanding officer for 5 deployments. Another good book
is _Sink ‘Em All Submarine Warfare in the Pacific_ by _Vice Admiral Charles A.
Lockwood_ who was the US Navy commander of the Pacific submarine fleet during
World War II.

Both discuss the torpedo problem and are available as Audiobooks. Fluckey says
in his book that they installed stiffer springs in all torpedoes before
sailing on his first deployment as Barb's captain.

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CharlesColeman
> As a result, the Bureau of Ordnance developed highly artificial testing
> procedures that were designed, in part, to safeguard their practice
> torpedoes so they could be used for multiple tests.

Reminds me of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars)

