There is a story that a U.S. Congressman, Andrew J. May, D-Kentucky disclosed critical information at a press conference on 23 June 1943, perhaps in Hawaii. He had learned that the Japanese Navy set depth charges to explode at too shallow a depth. He disclosed this to reporters and the story was picked up by the wire services, published and eventually seen by the Japanese who made and adjustment and were much more successful for a time in the Pacific.
My problem is all of the online versions of the story lead back to two books and not primary sources. I have searched thoroughly over 100 US newspapers published in 1943. While I have a lot of hits on Congressman May, since he was an influential person during WW2, I cannot find a single bit of evidence that the story was ever published. The wiki site on May is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_J._May Can anyone help to verify(or debunk) this story. I should think Hawaii or Washington DC newspapers from 1943 or footnotes in Clay Blair's book entitled "Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan" The Naval Institute Press, would be good starting points. I don't have access to any of these.
Michael Tomasik
