Early war consisted of the brass sending submarines where they thought the Japanese would be and being wrong. Lots of subs came back empty-handed. Which was good.
The unlucky ones found targets, shot off their torpedoes and watched them pass harmlessly under their targets. Or they hit the target with a thunk but didn't explode.
Early war was hell. Then the brass blamed it on the sub commanders, saying they weren't aggressive enough. More than half of them lost their commands for reasons having nothing to do with their competence.
Then Lockwood's personal favorite skipper, Mush Morton came charging back to Pearl saying things we can't say here about his lousy load of torpedoes. He even saved half of them for inspection.
Finally the brass listened. Finally the brass tested. Finally solutions were found to some of the problems, which unmasked underlying problems. It was a mess.
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