Historical question- US sub commanders relieved during WWII

MrMojok69 · 09-28-19, 02:31 AM

I have read in several different places about a lot of US sub commanders being relieved in the early days of WWII. Relieved for nonaggression, passivity, and so on. The commander of the Wahoo, prior to Morton, for example. And some sources say that about 1 in 3 commanders were relieved during this time.

I also read a post on these forums where someone said they were sent to empty target areas, could find nothing to shoot at, then were relieved because they didn't sink anything. Then, they were replaced by another guy who was sent to another empty target area, and was probably relieved when he came back.

What is the real story here? I'm aware that the conventional US doctrine/thinking on submarine employment prior to WWII was not great (used as scouts/screening force for Big Gun task forces, attack only using sonar from 100' depth, etc.) But were there really so many bad US submarine commanders in those early days?

09-28-19, 02:31 AM	#1
MrMojok69 Loader Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 81 Downloads: 78 Uploads: 0	Historical question- US sub commanders relieved during WWII I have read in several different places about a lot of US sub commanders being relieved in the early days of WWII. Relieved for nonaggression, passivity, and so on. The commander of the Wahoo, prior to Morton, for example. And some sources say that about 1 in 3 commanders were relieved during this time. I also read a post on these forums where someone said they were sent to empty target areas, could find nothing to shoot at, then were relieved because they didn't sink anything. Then, they were replaced by another guy who was sent to another empty target area, and was probably relieved when he came back. What is the real story here? I'm aware that the conventional US doctrine/thinking on submarine employment prior to WWII was not great (used as scouts/screening force for Big Gun task forces, attack only using sonar from 100' depth, etc.) But were there really so many bad US submarine commanders in those early days?