Info about USN subs and IJN ASW?
 

I was wondering if you guys knew any sites or books with information about USN subs and IJN ASW. I’ve found a few sources, but I’ve yet to find one that tells me the standard doctrine of US subs, i.e. did they prefer surfaced night attacks or submerged attacks?

I’d also like to know more about the Japanese ASW. I’ve heard that it was nowhere near the level of the British, but it obviously had some effect, as 52 US subs were lost in the Pacific.

Also, did the IJN ASW ships actually have active sonar? If not, what’s that pinging noise in SH4 meant to be?

I'll have to do some digging to find the links to the pdf files I have, but they are mostly the reports given to USN interrogators by IJN officers post-war. There are also some after-action patrol reports from the US subs (different site) as to how they conducted their attacks. Early in the war, for some reason, the submerged sonar attack was the 'preferred' methodology, but that was quickly thrown away by most good skippers after encountering probably a 100% failure rate. Other than directives for being submerged during daylight hours early in the war (no radar), or using the magnetic pistols, it appears to me that US sub skippers had autonomy for conducting their attacks, so long as they got results. Local conditions and the ratio of the copper / zinc alloy content in the skipper's 'spheres' probably influenced whether the boat would be on the surface or submerged... :O: :salute:

I don’t know about the IJN, but a while ago I found this link of a USN Sub Skipper’s manual. I hope that helps.

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/...oct/index.html

... and the US sub reports were easy enough to find:
http://www.hnsa.org/resources/manual...atrol-reports/

I just can't find those pdf files of the post-war IJN interviews... keltos01 is the one that pointed me to them... full of all sorts of IJN info on their "ASW".


Edit: I did find keltos01's old post though - but the links are dead...
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...56#post1021356


Edit: here we go!:
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/rep/NTM/NTM.html
I'll leave it for you to get lost in the list of reports... :roll:

I take that back... No links to the old pdf files of the microfilm copies... Dagnabbit! sorry