Q&A · 4:11:42-4:12:11

Giving US fleet submarines a stronger minelaying role

Extra mine capacity could improve early American submarine operations, provided the mines did not inherit the torpedoes' reliability failures.

Question

What if interwar US fleet submarines carried significant mine capacity in addition to torpedoes?

Short answer

They could seed damaging minefields during early Pacific operations, but only if the weapons avoided the reliability problems of American torpedoes.

Notes

Additional mine capacity could let American fleet boats leave dangerous minefields behind during early withdrawal operations. Those mines could threaten an opponent after the submarines had departed. A follow-up joke imagines the mines using the Mark 6 exploder as well, qualifying the expected benefit with the possibility of unreliable weapons.