American Torpedo Problems in WWII

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Halsey, Station Hypo, World War Ii, Macarthur, Seth Paridon, Pacific War, History, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, Fargo, William Toti, Aircraft Carriers, Nimitz, Mush Morton, Wahoo, Imperial Japan, Cruisers, Wake Island, Battleships, Spruance, Courses, Submarines, Midway, Cincpac, Guadalcanal, Documentary, Naval History And Heritage Command, Society & Culture, Admiral King, Imperial Japanese Navy, New Guinea, Cincpoa, Cryptology, Navy, Sam Cox, Pearl Harbor, Education, Bill Toti, December 7, Us Navy, Bombers, Fighters

4.8 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week Bill and Seth take a look at what one must consider a crime against American sailors in World War II, that is of course, the torpedo problems. Torpedo problems plagued the US Navy during the war, specifically from 1941-44, and Bill provides us with a deep dive into the issues, who is to blame and the way the problems were solved. Tune in and see what the team has to say.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, and welcome to episode 212 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.
0:19.0	My name is Seth Pairdon, historian and deputy director of the mississippi armed forces museum here at camp shelby and with me as always
0:25.4	is my esteemed co-host retired navy captain bill toady former skipper of the fast tech submarine
0:30.1	u s indianapolis common ore submarine squadron three in poor harbor and many other assignments
0:34.5	how are you this morning bill doing great south getting settled in here in Hoco Beach, Florida.
0:42.9	We've got an intriguing and controversial topic to talk about today. We've been asked several times
0:50.9	as we've gone through our submarine episodes here in the last several weeks to talk
0:56.7	about torpedoes, specifically American torpedoes, and why they sucked so bad. And they did indeed
1:04.7	suck very, very bad. I know, Bill, you've personally spent a lot of time and effort into researching this topic, not just in your professional career, but in your professional career as a submarine, obviously, but in your host Navy career as well, because this is something that, frankly, you could classify as a criminal act against the united states navy submarine force and not just a
1:29.6	sub force either but you know torpedo pilots and especially in 42 destroyers crews too it wasn't
1:36.6	just sub torpedoes that were pathetic it was all torpedoes that the united states navy fielded
1:42.2	in 41 42 and for the vast majority of
1:45.0	1943, they were trash.
1:49.0	Bill, lay it on us, man.
1:50.9	How much harm did these Mark 14 torpedoes, and not just Mark 14s, but specifically
1:56.6	the Mark 14s, how much harm did they cause?
1:59.2	Yeah.
1:59.4	Yeah, it's still a lot.
2:02.4	And you're right, Seth, that this is obviously a subject that every professional submarine officer studies during the
2:08.6	course of their career. We still have some procedures and systems in place today that originated
2:16.3	because of our torpedo failures in World War II.
2:19.7	So every submarine officer understands them and learns about them.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Captain William Toti, USN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Captain William Toti, USN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.