24. Refusing to Acknowledge the Problem
The US Navy ignored numerous reports about the Mark 14’s shortcomings. In one incident, a submarine commander fired a dozen torpedoes at a large Japanese whaler, but only managed to cripple it. Then, with the enemy ship dead in the water, he maneuvered his submarine and carefully positioned it so that his torpedoes would have a perfect angle of impact. He then fired off 9 more Mark 14s. Not a single one detonated.
Despite a flood of reports from its submarine commanders detailing the Mark 14’s shortcomings, it took the US Navy two years from the start of America’s joining the war to even acknowledge the possibility of a problem. Tests were finally conducted to find out what, if anything, was wrong. The tests verified what American submariners had been complaining about for two years. Remedial steps to address the problems were finally begun – two years later than should have been the case.
