Research Links and Discussions
 

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.

US Periscopes and the Stadimeter from Captain Jack
 

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

Info for SH4 skins
 

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 ! :D :arrgh!: :D

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

U.S.S. Cod
 

Link to USS Cod webpage.

http://www.usscod.org/

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

"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.:rock:

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

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


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!

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

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

Japanese ASW weapons

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

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

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

Heres a good site on the Sen toku's


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

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