“Red” Ramage was one of many top-flight submarine skippers at this point in the war. Reading the Nimitz’ diaries, you get the sense that the American submarine campaign is doing to Japan what the Germans were not able to do to the British. Our subs didn’t have an auspicious start in the war, due to defective torpedoes and too much “dead wood” in the conning tower. Not anymore.
Guys like Ramage, O’Kane, Morton and Dealey left a tremendous legacy for our “Silent Service.”
Yeah. I’ve been doing a little studying of my own in the last week of the submarine war in the Pacific, and you’re right. Basically the first half of the war was largely wasted, mainly because nobody would fix the damned torpedoes.
But our boys sure made up for lost time and opportunities.