yes, great book, I just started re-reading it now. The introduction is a bit excessive compared to the book itself.
The U.S. sub service did start the war saddled with unworkable tactics, but that was sorted out pretty quickly as skippers came back from patrol and shared what worked.
It was the same issue with the Mk XIV. Officially, the magnetic exploder was in use until summer 43. Unofficially and reading between the lines, you see that skippers were sharing a lot of info "off the record". Many skippers were setting their torps shallower/turning off the magnetic exploder and not recording it in their patrol log.
The skipper problem was a issue, since it generally took a few patrols until you could figure out if there was a problem, but the sub service was always careful in the choice of their skippers. Mush Morton and Dick O'Kane were exceptions.
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