31 Aug 1943

Hawaii
  • Under the direction of the irascible Commander Charles "Swede" Momsen and acting on orders from US Commander of Submarines Pacific Area Rear Admiral Charles Lockwood, submarine USS Muskellunge fired three Mark XIV torpedoes at the underwater cliffs of Kahoolawe Island, Hawaii to test the torpedo’s contact exploders. Two exploded and one did not. Momsen himself dove on the damaged but unexploded torpedo and rigged it for recovery. He then delicately dismantled the exploder device and revealed the design defects that had caused it to fail. ww2dbase [Mark XIV | Kahoolawe | DS]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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American soldiers test firing captured German MG42 machine guns, circa 1944-1945


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