Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Mako formally advises Staff that Mark VI exploders were modified at his express orders to deactivate magnetic feature of exploders and to insure that exploder ring would unseat at four-pound impact. All torpedoes were set to run at four-foot depth in a calm sea. These actions, while contrary to published directives, were deemed essential and necessary to the war effort in view of disastrous experience with Mark VI exploders on Mako’s first war patrol. Commanding Officer states it is his belief that the aggressive attack on the surface at night confused the enemy and resulted in no repeat no retaliatory action. Mako is now on station as per patrol orders. If another opportunity presents itself for aggressive action against the enemy within the patrol area Mako requests permission to so attack.
Lieut. Cohen looked up from the message. “Sir, you want this sent in plain English? I mean, many of the enemy read English, Sir.”
“Mr. Cohen,” Captain Hinman said, “the enemy knows precisely what ships it lost. It knows how the attack was made. The enemy knows by now that we have had trouble with our torpedoes, too many enemy ships, have been hit by torpedoes that didn’t explode. So what do we have to hide from them? Now they’ll think we have our torpedo problem licked and the knowledge that we made that attack alone will probably shake them up and make them re-evaluate their defense measures. It should make them uncertain of what they are doing now and that will help us.” He took a sip from his coffee cup, eyeing the lean, swarthy man sitting across the table.
“I have other reasons, personal reasons, for sending this second message in plain language,” he continued.
“I want the other submarine captains on station to know how we made this attack. I want that damned hidebound Staff at Pearl to know they know! And I want to bring this exploder problem out in the open where the Staff at Pearl can’t hide it anymore!”
“I don’t quite understand, sir,” Cohen’s face was troubled.
“I keep forgetting you’re a Reserve, that you don’t know all the background on the torpedo exploders,” Hinman said. “You do know we had a lot of trouble the first patrol. Hell, nothing but trouble!
“Well, basically, the problem is this. The torpedo exploders have a magnetic detecting device built into them. The detector is supposed to pick up the disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field that occurs when a metal-hulled ship is moving through the water. When the disturbance is picked up the exploder fires the explosive charge in the warhead. The firing of the warhead can be delayed so that the torpedo, again theoretically, is under the target ship’s hull when the warhead goes off.
“This should be the perfect weapon for a submarine. Water cannot be compressed to any measurable degree — you should remember that from your physics courses in college. So if you set the torpedo to run at a depth that will take it beneath the hull of the target and the torpedo warhead explodes under that hull then the entire explosive force of the warhead would divert up through the air-filled hull of the ship and break its back. Theoretically, only one torpedo should be needed for each target ship. Our orders say we should fire only one torpedo at a ship unless it is a very large ship or a major warship.
“You know that on our first patrol we fired at ships and you heard the torpedoes running right through the bearings of the target ships.” Cohen nodded.
“Then I set the depth of the torpedoes at two feet so the fish would hit the ship. That’s the old-fashioned way of firing a torpedo, fire it to hit the ship and explode. And the torpedoes didn’t explode! The damned exploders are defective! They won’t work! Chief Rhodes and Ginty disconnected the magnetic circuits in the exploders and did some minor modifying to the contact part of the exploder and they work!” He sat back in his chair.
“But why doesn’t the Staff at Pearl order the exploders fixed, modified, so they will work?” Cohen’s face was puzzled.
“Because they won’t believe their perfect weapon isn’t perfect!” Hinman snapped. “They tell us that we’re not hitting our targets! Now, by God, they’ll know who’s wrong!
“And there’s one other reason I want that message sent in plain language. I want those skippers who get it to know that if you want to win this war you’ve got to be aggressive, to attack the enemy, not run from him!” He squeezed his hard hands around his coffee cup.
“Nate, we’ve got submarine skippers out here who are just plain afraid to attack Japanese ships if there’s an escort around! The tactics book they wrote before the war says that a submarine shouldn’t attack if there are two or more enemy escorts nearby. That’s all some of our peacetime submarine captains need to know! The tactics book says that all torpedo attacks should be made from a submerged position, even at night! Hell, the Germans have been shooting our convoys to ribbons in the Atlantic, attacking in wolf packs on the surface, running right in among the convoy ships!
“Some of these older commanders who have their sights set on four gold stripes and then an Admiral’s billet won’t deviate one inch from that book. They sight a convoy at night and go through the motions of trying to get far ahead enough of the convoy to submerge and God knows, in most cases it can’t be done! The convoys are faster than the submarines! They run away from them! Which suits some of our cowardly lions very well!
“Well, by God, they gave me a defective weapon and I made it effective! They gave me pussy-footing tactics and I changed them! We’re out here to kill Japs, to win a war! By Heaven, that’s what I’m going to do!” He relaxed suddenly.
“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. I shouldn’t flare up at you. You’re not Navy, you’re a Reserve. And your people, no offense meant, Mr. Cohen, your people don’t know much about war.”
Cohen stood up, the two messages in his hand.
“With all due respect, Captain, war is war. The Jew knows about war.
“Masada, sir, seventy-three A.D. Nine hundred and sixty Jews, half of them women and children, stood off the famed Tenth Legion of the Roman Army. The Jews were outnumbered by at least twelve to one. Yet they fought for a very long time and when defeat was inevitable the surviving Jewish soldiers killed their women and children and then each man was killed by another until there was only one Jew left. He fell on his sword! They chose death and honor rather than slavery!”
Captain Hinman’s nostrils flared, his face white. He drew a long breath.
“I stand rebuked, Mr. Cohen! I should have known better. I apologize, sir.”
“I intended no rebuke, sir, and I cannot accept an apology for something that was not offensive.” He picked up the curtain at the door and left the Wardroom. Captain Hinman stared for a long time at the green curtain.
Copies of Captain Hinman’s two messages were laid in front of each place at a long polished table in the submarine Staff headquarters in Pearl Harbor. The Staff members filed in and stacked their uniform caps on a small table and then moved to the coffee sideboard and drew cups of coffee and took their places at the table. There was a dead silence as each member of the Staff read the two messages.
“Well?” Capt. John F. Severn’s harsh voice rasped down the table. “Well? Anyone got anything to say? That damned practical joker has gone too far this time! If this is one of his jokes I will personally run him out of this Navy! You know him better than any of us, Rudd, he was your Executive Officer. Is this one of his jokes?”
Comdr. Robert Rudd raised his eyes from the messages and looked at Captain Severn.
“No, sir. I don’t think this is any joke. I’ve heard through the grapevine that he hasn’t been in a joking mood since Marie bought it at Hickam. I admit he used to be a happy-go-lucky man but I hear that isn’t so these days.”