Admiral Christie and the MK 14
 

Working my way through Blair's phenomenal SILENT VICTORY and am just shaking my head at the stubbornness of BuOrd in general and Admiral Christie...father of the magnetic exploder in specific.


Even when Nimitz himself ordered the deactivation of the magnetic exploder Christie went his own way and kept the Fremantle boats using the old crappy setup.


I'm wondering :: In later life did Christie ever admit to his failings, or have a comment on the general failure of the early war Mk14, or did he maintain to his deathbed his contention it was all the skippers fault?

I cant find anything either way on the net.

Just wondering.:03:

Christie was not one to question his decisions. He made them and they stood. There was no reason for him ever to comment on them again. They were done and that was it.

Christie was a very closed minded individual and should not have been promoted to his position. That was a grievous error in management.

Honestly, sounds like Christie was a nightmare to work for and his stubborn behavior on the magnetic detonator issue tells a lot about personality/ character flaws he had.

I've never read anything where he looked back and admitted he was wrong etc.

Same here

I must have read at least a dozen books about the Pacific Naval War, and have never heard of any evidence that Christie admitted he was in the wrong

Of course I am aware that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

PS
As you have said cj95, Silent Victory is a phenomenally good book :yep:
I have been interested in the US Submarine force's contribution to WW2 since I first played Silent Service 2 back in the 90's
Cannot believe it took me until this year to read Silent Victory
I would recommend it to anyone with any interest in the Pacific Submarine War :up:

I've owned Silent Victory since 2010 and haven't read it or even looked to see if it's autographed! THAT's dereliction of duty....

OMG RR

Read it NOW or I will throw you overboard :03:

I appreciate the replies.

I am ashamed it has taken me to this year to read it as well. It literally has an account of almost every single torpedo fired by every single sub in the Pacific war.

To some that may be dry statistics, but Blair's writing style makes the whole thing exciting and frustrating as you feel the anguish the poor skippers had with their crappy torpedoes.


.

Just ordered from Amazon Uk.

Be aware there are two volumes.

Don't be an idiot like me and order two copies of Volume 2:oops:

Just for the sake of conversation Silent Victory does come in one complete volume. Link is below.

Silent Victory

When I was a kid, I was a WW2 nut.
Spent many a day in the library reading books, while the other kids played outside.
One day I saw this thick book with a cool submarine picture on the cover.

Never looked back since.

Mine is all one volume.

Very eerily similar story to my own.

I was a huge Sci Fi fan as a kid (still am) and spent most of my days browsing the library's separated Sci fi section of books.

One day while looking at a shelf, for whatever reason I turned around to see what was behind me...the general fiction section.

There I also saw a book with a cool submarine on the cover.....it was HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.

I also never looked back. :up:

I have both the two volume hardcovers and the trade paperback with both volumes.

I also have Theodore Roscoe's United States Submarine Operations in WWII in hardcover and the paperback version titled Pig Boats. I picked the hardcover up at a used book store and inside the front cover is:

W.E. Dodd
U.S.S. Greenfish (SS 351)

And a the next page is inscribed:

To Val Dodd
on his 13th Birthday!
When you are old enough I hope you can begine where I will leave off.
Your Brother
Pete
January 4th 1957