Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: WWII bum torpedos
Message-ID: <11705@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 24 Nov 89 06:02:23 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego
Lines: 20
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg)

The bad firing mechanism story is a classic case of the torpedo
designers <knowing> their work was good and not wanting to be
confused by the facts.  So a great deal of the reports
coming from PacFlt were ignored at the SysCom (then BuWepss) level.

It is quite likely that the cork getting pried out of the bottle
came from the intel community -- specifically the codebreakers in
Hawaii.  The Japanese kept insisting on using ships that submarines
had claimed sunk.  They were also referring to the torpedo failures
in the message traffic which was decoded by Rochefort, Layton et al.

The signals intelligence stuff gets read at the CNO level, so with
a bit of finishing of the intel, the case was put before Adm King.
Suddenly, the Emperor's clothes came off and the problem got solved.

Rex Buddenberg