Operation Pacific (1951)

[corsair91]

Operation Pacific (1951) (B/W)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pacific
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043887/

Colorized DVD Version also available retail

Technical advisor was World War II Admiral Charles A. Lockwood,
Commander, Submarine Forces, Pacific (COMSUBPAC).

The numerous problems with the Mark 14 torpedo and its Mark VI
exploder are depicted in the film


Operation Pacific (1951) Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVljztFO1k8

A Submarine commander Duke Gifford (John Wayne), feels guilty in the death of his former commanding officer, as well as about his failed marriage. These issues pull at him during a hazardous mission against the Japanese in World War II.


Operation Pacific (1951) (B/W)
https://ok.ru/video/870627019266

runtime 1:44:53
(Ensure Sound is on)

John Wayne, Patricia O'Neal and Ward Bond


During WWII, a submarine’s second in command inherits the problem of torpedoes that don’t explode. When on shore, he is eager to win back his ex-wife.

The submarine USS Thunderfish successfully completes a secret mission to rescue a group of orphans on a remote Pacific island. On the way back to Honolulu they encounter a Japanese aircraft carrier but the torpedoes they fire explode about halfway to the target, a recurring problem that has plagued the submarine fleet for some time. The Thunderfish’s XO, Duke Gifford (John Wayne) runs into his ex-wife and Navy nurse Mary Stuart (Patricia Neal) at the hospital. There’s still a spark between them but the boat is sent out on another mission before anything is resolved. When Gifford’s good friend and captain, Pop Perry, is killed Gifford believe it’s his fault. A inquiry clears him and after he and his men solve the problem of the misfiring torpedoes, they set out to sea.

[fleetp]

My father worked at the Westinghouse plant in Sharon, PA during World War II and for many years afterwards.
He never told me what he did there during the war, but when I was a teenager, he showed me where unarmed Mark 18 torpedoes were tested at Pymatuming Lake.
The Mark 18 also had its share of problems.

[corsair91]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_14_torpedo

It tended to run about 10 feet (3 m) deeper than set.
(Warshots with explosives being much heavier than training
shots)
The magnetic exploder often caused premature detonation.
The contact exploder often failed to detonate the warhead.
(US Navy doctrine Torpedo Attack, Exploder always failed,
a non-doctrine glancing angle attack worked better)
It tended to run "circular", failing to straighten its run once set on its
prescribed gyro-angle setting, and instead, to run in a large circle,
returning to strike the firing sub.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_18_torpedo

https://www.pamilmuseum.org/blog/design-and-production-of-the-mark-18-torpedoedesign-and-production-of-the-mark-18-torpedo


Mark 18 electric wakeless (of bubbles) torpedo,
no protection against circular runs

Westinghouse copy of the German G7e Torpedo
which itself had magnetic exploder issues (Torpedokrise)
only much more rapidly fixed by a German initial switch to
a working contact exploder and a few court martials.
A new working magnetic exploder design was later available

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G7e_torpedo

Die Torpedokrise
https://ww2db.com/other.php?other_id=47

During the Hunt for the Bismark, the Cruiser HMS Sheffield
was confusingly attacked by Swordfish Torpedos by mistake
with faulty magnetic exploders.
A rapid switch to contact exploders later ensured Bismark's
rudder got jammed by a Torpedo strike.


Only the Japanese Navy Type 93 Long Lance torpedo
of any of the major navies was fully tested & working
at the start of WW2.

(The British, German & US Navies in WW2 all had magnetic
Exploder issues but only the US Navy had such a protracted
denial of the problem)


Episode 212: American Torpedo Problems in WWII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEu5xqA1TvE

Unauthorized History of the Pacific War Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/@UnauthorizedHistoryPacificWar



The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ5Ru7Zu_1I

Drachinifel
https://www.youtube.com/@Drachinifel

we look at what happens when you mix the Bureau of Ordnance with a cost-cutting Congress and a few people pathologically incapable of admitting to making a mistake, then try and get a working torpedo out of them.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_93_torpedo
Long Lance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_95_torpedo
Sub launched long Lance


Type 93 Long Lance Torpedo - Long Range Hole Poking Device
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb5F5s2F3mA

Drachinifel



Panel 5A Making Sense of “Things ” The US Navy’s Torpedoes, Bureau of Ordnance, and Pacific Command

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkIwokAXgCE

USNA Museum
https://www.youtube.com/@usnamuseum9007



The Failures of the Mark 14 Torpedo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJxswaEBq4A


Hidden History
https://www.youtube.com/@HiddenHistoryYT

[corsair91]

The development of the Mark 6 Mod 1 Exploder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm2w4f4VYAQ

Presenter: Dr. Frank A. Blazich Jr.

Military Historian; currently curator of military history at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History


In 1922, the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island initiated Project G-53 to develop a magnetic influence torpedo exploder. Four years later, this effort produced a prototype suitable for live-fire testing. Refined and “perfected” by the late 1920s, the now-designated Mark 6 Mod 1 Exploder seemingly offered the Navy’s Submarine Service a “wonder weapon” capable of efficiently and effectively destroying targets. To complement the magnetic influencer, the Torpedo Station also included an impact detonator element in the complete Mark 6 exploder. The first combat uses of the exploder and its companion torpedo, the Mark 14, however, demonstrated the exploder’s twin detonation technologies as flawed systems necessitating additional research and redesign to achieve the desired—and promised—reliability and effectiveness.

This talk will detail the development of the Mark 6 Mod 1 Exploder in the interwar period through the examination of a museum artifact. Forgotten for decades in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, this rare, pre-war manufactured exploder will form the foundation to construct a study of the science, design, and engineering which underpin its complex components. By leveraging this piece of material culture, new insights will be gained to better understand the inherent flaws in the Mark 6 Mod 1 Exploder which contributed to its infamous performance in the Pacific War.


Continental Commandery
https://www.youtube.com/@continentalcommandery9990

[corsair91]

WW2 Commander of submarines Pacific, Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood
(COMSUBPAC) turned to his friend, Submariner Captain Charles “Swede” Momsen for
advice on resolving the US Torpedo problems.

The Operation Pacific Movie Torpedo exploder testing was in reality performed
directed by Momsen.


Charles ‘Swede’ Momsen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Momsen

Charles ‘Swede’ Momsen: Submarine Pioneer
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/charles-swede-momsen-submarine-pioneer/


American pioneer in submarine rescue

Inventor of the Momsen Lung personal escape breathing bag,
used to ascend from a sunken sub

The Momsen Lungs became standard equipment on submarines,
and all personnel had to be qualified in their use before becoming submariners.


Inventor of a rescue diving bell.

In 1939, USS Squalus submarine sank due to a faulty ventilation valve with survivors trapped in the control room and forward torpedo room, 240 feet deep.
The remaining crew was rescued by Momsen's diving bell.


Momsen's next task was to successfully salvage the Squalus.
The Squalus was brought back to port, refurbished, and recommissioned as the USS Sailfish.
She would fight and survive WW2 with 12 missions to her credit.


After Torpedo exploders, Momsen devised US wolfpack submarine tactics used in WW2


Momsen headed the design team for the concept test submarine
USS Albacore, in 1953 with a teardrop shaped hull.
(used in all later nuclear US subs after the 1st 2)

--------------------------

Submerged (2001) TV Movie
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286996/

A moment by moment account of the sinking and rescue of the crew of the submarine USS Squalus which was the first rescue of living crew on a submarine.

Sam Neill, Shea Whigham, Emily Procter

Sam Neill as Lt. Cmdr. "Swede" Momsen



Submerged (2001)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z4Kiu9uhUg

runtime 1:38:28
hard coded captions

--------------------------

Documentary - Saga of the Submarine Squalus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAq8gDScRgw

Hampton Historical Society
runtime 48:54

The Saga of the Submarine Squalus
showing the rescue, salvage, and rebirth of the submarine Squalus.

It was just an ordinary day on the seacoast of New Hampshire, May 23, 1939, when the Portsmouth Navy Yard-built submarine USS Squalus prepared for her 19th test dive six miles southeast of the Isles of Shoals. During this dive, the main induction valve failed to close and water rushed into the submarine, flooding the aft compartment. She sunk in 240 feet of water; 33 of the 59 crew members would be rescued. It was the greatest submarine rescue in the history of the United States Navy.

Hampton Historical Society
https://www.youtube.com/@hamptonhistoricalsociety8645