[torpedobait]

This could be nothing, but I encountered an unusual radar-related problem last night. In the Balao on my way back to Pearl from my first patrol in that boat, I was startled by call from the watch crew that an aircraft was sighted. Sure enough the contact showed as a visible contact on the Nav map, but there had been no call from the Radar operator!

It was 02/16/1943. We were about 350 Nm NE of Wake Island; the contact was a G4M Betty which should have been detected by radar, but wasn't. I double checked to see if I had accidentally turned off the radars (SJ-1 and SD) but all were operating normally. Hitting the T key turned off the SD, and I turned it back on immediately. Had to crash dive to avoid the Betty, but he didn't see me.

Back on the surface about a hour later I was jumped by two fighters (didn't get the type), again only spotted visually, with no radar warning. I even went back through the messages to see there were no notices between the two sightings. Nothing.

After surfacing again and running for a bit, at around 16:10 another Betty appeared, this time reported both by radar and the watch at the same time! It was already only 5600 yards out and coming in fast, so I had to crash dive again.

I have never had the radar fail to detect a plane before it was spotted visually. It does tend to keep one on one's toes, for sure! Do you think it was just one of those things? I can't see why the radar would fail to detect any plane at about 8 Nm, quite a bit before it would come into visual range (about 5 Nm, more or less). Thought you might want to check it out in your copious free time!