AHC: William D. Porter blows up FDR:

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

One thing to remember: the torpedo was a Mark-15. Which had the same issues with reliablity that the submarine force's Mark-14, and the Mark-13 aerial torpedoes had. Even if it hit the Iowa, there's no guarantee that it would've gone off.

Would the very visible dud have caused a quicker fix of the torpedo problems?

[Snake Featherston]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

One thing to remember: the torpedo was a Mark-15. Which had the same issues with reliablity that the submarine force's Mark-14, and the Mark-13 aerial torpedoes had. Even if it hit the Iowa, there's no guarantee that it would've gone off.

Good point. Now that would really be an interesting POD.

[M79]

A really odd POD might be a president leaning over the rail when the dud hits, knocking him off the side to drown *and* letting the armed forces know that the torpedo is a dud.

[e of pi]

Originally Posted by Snake Featherston

Good point. Now that would really be an interesting POD.

It lloks to me like by the time the Willie D was conducting her antics, the program to fix the Mark 14 was already underway. Her inadvertant attack was in November, but the first of the new and improved (read: functional) Mark 14s were starting to come into service in September. So it'll highlight the issue, but it's basically already solved.

[hairysamarian]

Originally Posted by M79

A really odd POD might be a president leaning over the rail when the dud hits, knocking him off the side to drown *and* letting the armed forces know that the torpedo is a dud.

How is a dud going to knock anything off an Iowa-class BB? He wouldn't feel a thing; maybe he'd hear a noise.

[Matt Wiser]

The issues with the Mark-14 were being fixed by that time, but the Mark-13 and Mark-15 were never fully debugged. Not the first time that those going into combat have had to deal with weapons that didn't work, but imposed upon them by politically connected weapons makers. The contrast between the U.S. torpedo designers and the German is striking: those who designed and built the Mark-14 and -15 went on to high rank-among them, RADM Ralph Christie, Commander Submarines Southwest Pacific; and Fleet Admiral William Leahy, FDR's Chief of Staff and Chairman, JCS. In Germany, those who designed the G7a and G7e torpedoes, when confronted with their failures, were court-martialed and sent to prison.

Assume the torpedo is a dud and hits anyway. No explosion, just a small fountain of water. FDR would be commenting on the narrow escape, but would also wonder if all torpedoes are duds. He'd no doubt launch an investigation of the matter, and the complaints from all three branches of the Navy (Naval Aviation, the sub force, and destroyers) would come to the forefront. One might even see Congressional investigation-perhaps run by the committee headed by Sen. Harry S Truman (D-MO), which was ferreting waste and abuse in the war effort.

[Know Nothing]

Originally Posted by Plumber

Blowing FDR up is, but he could still die.

Sorry, I was making an unclear joke at one of the more infamous WWII timelines of AH.com. The writer used the Porter incident, and it was probably the least ASB aspect of the timeline.

[hairysamarian]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

Assume the torpedo is a dud and hits anyway. No explosion, just a small fountain of water. FDR would be commenting on the narrow escape, but would also wonder if all torpedoes are duds. He'd no doubt launch an investigation of the matter...

Has it occurred to anyone else what a strange situation that would be? Basically, the President of the United States would be hauling the Bureau of Ordinance onto the carpet to explain how they managed to fail to kill him and sink an American capital ship in the process. Twilight Zone, here we come.

[Matt Wiser]

He'd be asking some very pointed questions, no doubt about it. But the basic one would be "Are all of our torpedoes like that one? And if so, fix them, or I'll be looking for a new Chief of BuOrd." And some very unpleasant things for BuOrd would come up-their ignoring complaints from those in the field, hide-bound insistence on no further tests even when field fixes ID the problem, and so on.

[burmafrd]

LOL at the Iowa being in danger even if hit 3 times with our Torpedoes.