Research Links and Discussions

[Gizzmoe]

Research Thread: Japanese Wartime Transportation Convoy History
Research Thread: IJN vs. Allied ASW

Please post links here that could be useful for our modders, like links about submarine skins, ships, armaments, tactics, convoy routes, sonar and radar systems and so on.

[Tigrone]

Discovered and posted by Captain_Jack:

US Periscopes and the Stadimeter
Interesting article at this link that Describes the American Persicope, Stadimeters, and the Approach Procedure. Has Graphic Aids too!

http://jtmcdaniel.com/periscope.html

[Crosseye76]

As usual, some great photos to be found at Navsource. I found a great one of USS Redfin, painted up with an aggressive "Sharkmouth" or "Dragonmouth"... note the bowplanes are painted also.

She probably never left port with it, But I'd like to take a skin like that out for a test drive !

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08272.htm

[Doc1234]

Link to USS Cod webpage.

http://www.usscod.org/

[Takao]

I came across this site while surfing the net, however its all in Japanese...
http://www.aa.cyberhome.ne.jp/~museum

A brief description from another website: This Japanese language site contains photographs and paintings of a number of Japanese merchant ships that were sunk. The index page will take you to lists of ships that were lost in a particular year. In the center of each line you will see a two-digit number in the midst of the Japanese characters. The line with the "16" in it leads to a page with ships lost in 1941. Likewise, "17" is for 1942, "18" is for 1943, "19" is for 1944, and "20" is for 1945. The enteries for "18" (1943) and "19" (1944) are subdivided. "1-6" and "7-12" indicate the first and last six months of 1943. Similarly, "19" (1944) is divided into quarters...The photos have a caption with a four digit number giving the month and day the ship was lost...The URL address will also display the ship's name, but it may be misspelled in English.



This site has many pictures of "Pre-Gato" US submarine classes.
http://www.rddesigns.com/subs/legends.html

[Charos]

"Historic Naval Ship Visitors Guide"
http://www.hnsa.org/index.htm

and more specifically

http://www.hnsa.org/sound/index.htm

Historical Naval sound and Video


Lots of original sound clips there will be awsome for modders - everything from battle stations to Sonar recordings from WW2 US Subs. You can download all the audio files listed there.

[tater]

http://combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm

Under individual ships are "TROM" (Tabular Record Of Movement) data for the ship. Dates, where they went, what they did.

tater

[Hitman]

Woooha....I could "unbury" hundreds of links I found when doing the research for the Pacific Aces mod ...but here are the more important ones for starters:

www.navsource.org TONS of pictures from real US war ships, nearly all are here together with emblems

www.valoratsea.com Hondo's web with lots of great stuff.

http://www.fleetsubmarine.com/ All you ever wanted to know about the fleet subs

http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/index.htm The Fleet Submarine Manual on line. The REAL thing!

[tater]

Subchaser data and TROMs:
http://www.combinedfleet.com/kusentei.htm

A small example from a single subchaser, the CH-14:

June 1943:
Returns to the Yokosuka Guard Unit. Escorts convoys to Chichi Jima and Saipan.
5 August 1943:
Arrives at Saipan in a convoy consisting of EIKO MARU No. 2, TSUNESHIMA, KENRYU and SANTO MARUs escorted by CH-46 and gunboat EDO MARU that is detached at Saipan.
24 November 1943:
Arrives at Saipan in a convoy from Yokosuka consisting of DAITOA MARU escorted by CH-14 and auxiliary minesweeper TOSHI MARU No. 8.
March 1944:
Owase. Escorts convoys in the Kumano Nada and Mie prefecture area.

Note that this is typical of japanese escort duty. 2 subchasers, 1 gunboat escort a convoy of 3 merchants. a subchaser and minesweeper escort a single ship. Thhey have data like this for many subchasers.

IJN Escorts:
http://www.combinedfleet.com/Kaibokan.htm

Example http://www.combinedfleet.com/Mikura_t.htm :

IJN Escort Mikura: Tabular Record of Movement
14 November 1943:
At 0800, MIKURA departs Yokosuka as the sole escort of convoy 3114A consisting of KEMBU and DAIDO MARUs.
27 November 1943:
At 0950, arrives at Truk.
5 December 1943:
MIKURA departs Truk escorting convoy 4205A consisting of submarine tender YASUKUNI MARU and fleet supply ship IRAKO.
7 December 1943:
LtCdr Ralph M. Metcalf's USS POGY (SS-266) attacks slower convoy 4205B sailing behind convoy 4205A at 14-03N, 152-20E. Convoy 4205B consists of SOYO and AKIBASAN MARUs escorted by kaibokan HIRADO and auxiliary submarine chaser TAKUNAN MARU No. 8. SOYO MARU is sunk and AKIBASAN MARU is demaged and escorted back to Truk by AKUNAN MARU No. 8. HIRADO searches for the submarine and then joins convoy 4205A as added escort.
10 December 1943:
The convoy arrives at Saipan.
12 December 1943:
At 0800, the convoy departs Saipan. SATSUMA MARU also joins the convoy.


...skips some data...


6 March 1944:
At 1130, MIKURA departs Truk with kaibokan AMAKUSA, subchaser CH-33 and minesweeper W-21 escorting convoy No. 4304 consisting of URAKAMI, SHIRANE, JUZAN and AWAJI MARUs.
10 March 1944:
At 1222, arrives at Saipan.
1 April 1944:
At 1100, MIKURA departs Tokyo as part of the escort of 26-ship convoy “Higashi-Matsu” No. 4, bound for Saipan, Guam, Truk, Yap and Palau. The convoy commander is Rear Admiral Kiyota Takahiko (former CO of NACHI) in destroyer SAMIDARE. The other escorts include destroyer ASANAGI, torpedo-boat HIYODORI, kaibokans AMAKUSA, FUKUE, OKI, CD-2, CD-3 and subchaser CH-50.
3 April 1944:
5 miles S of Tori-Shima. At about 1457, LtCdr (later Rear Admiral-Ret) Bafford E. Lewellen's USS POLLACK torpedoes and sinks TOSEI MARU at 30-14N, 139-45E. The escorts counter-attack POLLACK and drop 55 depth-charges without effect.
8 April 1944:
N of Saipan. At 0228 (JST), LtCdr (later Vice Admiral) Frederick J. Harlfinger's USS TRIGGER (SS-237) fires four torpedoes at the convoy, but fails to get any hits. OKI and SAMIDARE counter-attack unsuccessfully.
9 April 1944:
62 miles WNW of Saipan. At 1625, LtCdr (later Captain) Slade D. Cutter's USS SEAHORSE (SS-304) torpedoes and hits MIMASAKA MARU at 15-30N, 145-00E. MIMASAKA MARU is taken in tow by TOAN MARU. The escorts counter-attack SEAHORSE unsuccessfully.
10 April 1944:
At about 0100 (JST), MIMASAKA MARU founders. She is carrying over 1,000 Naval personnel, most of whom are rescued. The convoy arrives at Saipan, then is split into separate groups that continue on to their respective destinations.
17 May 1944:
At 0616, MIKURA with destroyer HATAKAZE, kaibokan MIYAKE, CD-16, subchaser CH-48, minelayer SARUSHIMA, mineseeper W-20 and auxiliary netlayer KOA MARU depart Tateyama, Japan for Saipan escorting convoy No. 3515 consisting of HAKUSAN, NIPPONKAI, TOYO, KINSHU, HINKO, REIKAI, EIKO, NATSUKAWA, SHOKAI, MEITO and CHIYO MARUs and UNYO MARU No. 8.

This is pretty cool, it seems like that for some of the ships that TROMs exist for missions could be created with historical convoys. I've looked art a bunch of these, it's rare to see a real DD in there, but a few are in that quote. Of course this is in '44 after they finally realized protecting their shipping might be a good idea. VERY cool info.

Thge larger ships like DDs all have TROMs. Most of the DD escort (hard to read every single one) seem to be like Truk to Palau, etc. Usually for the DDs the ships being escorted are not noted, or even the number, just "1-7 December:Escorted convoy from Truk to Palau." This does match my other reading that suggests that true DDs were usually only used for regular merchant escort in "front line" areas, at least in the early to mid war. As the war progressed the front "line" collapsed making general escort more likely.

Fascinating stuff.

[joea]

Japanese ASW weapons

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMJAP_ASW.htm

[tater]

http://www.combinedfleet.com/guadoil1.htm

This is an interesting article, and filled with some useful stuff. The oil usage of the ships at various speeds, and what that means in terms of the way you should see forces in SH4. Yes, you can come upon a DD or 2 on patrol someplace alone, but they should NOT be steaming along at 34 knots. They need to cruise at a more sedate rate, and only dash when required for battle.

tater

[Bill Nichols]

Here are 3 gems I've recently stumbled across:


War Instructions

United States Navy, 1944

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/...r_instruct.htm

(see especially Chapters 7 & 9)

=========================

Current Doctrine: Submarines

USF 25(A)

Prepared By
COMMANDER SUBMARINE FORCE, PACIFIC FLEET
FEBRUARY, 1944

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/...b_doctrine.htm


==========================

and...


U.S. Radar

Operational Characteristics of Radar
Classified by Tactical Application
FTP 217

1 AUGUST 1943

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/radar.htm

[Stuart Galbraith]

USN technical reports on Japanese equipment post ww2.

http://www.fischer-tropsch.org/prima...USNTMJ_toc.htm

[Mush Martin]

Heres a good site on the Sen toku's


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1367585/posts

[Gizzmoe]

I´ve unstickied the two Research threads and added the links to the first post.

Research Thread: Japanese Wartime Transportation Convoy History
Research Thread: IJN vs. Allied ASW