The Congressman Who Accidentally Told Japan How to Sink American Submarines During WWII
23rd February 2026
May was trying to ease public anxiety. Families were frightened for their sons in the submarine service. He told the assembled reporters that American submariners were surviving at high rates. The reason, he explained, was that the Japanese were setting their depth charges too shallow. The enemy’s weapons were going off well above where the submarines ran.
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Clay Blair served as a submarine officer during WWII before becoming one of the most respected military historians of his generation. His 1975 book “Silent Victory” remains the definitive history of the Pacific submarine campaign. Blair documented Lockwood’s full assessment of what had happened.
After the war, Lockwood stated, “I consider that indiscretion cost us ten submarines and 800 officers and men.”…
Early in the war, he developed a working relationship with Henry and Murray Garsson, two New York businessmen with no background in munitions who wanted defense contracts. May used his position as chairman to push Army ordnance officials and federal procurement figures toward the Garssons.
The brothers secured substantial contracts during the war. Cash payments found their way back to May. A Senate investigating committee uncovered the arrangement in the years after the war.
The investigation found the Garssons had made excessive profits while delivering faulty ammunition to the military. Their 4.2-inch mortar shells were fitted with defective fuses that caused premature detonation in the field. Those faulty rounds killed an estimated 38 American soldiers.
Sounds like a typical Democrat Congressman—both careless and corrupt.