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Originally Posted by DigitalAura
What can you all tell me about the IJN sub characteristics and other cool info... I love that they were told only to shoot warships! WOW. Did they have inferior/superior submarines? Torpedoes? Crew management? How did their ROE differ?
I imagine they were also plagued with poor resources, but I'm curious to know how these things compared.
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Japanese submarines employed the best torpedoes available during the Second World War. The Type 95 torpedo used pure oxygen to burn kerosene, instead of the compressed air and alcohol used in other nation's torpedoes. This gave them about three times the range of their Allied counterparts, and also reduced their wake, making them harder to notice and avoid.
However, compared to German submarines, Japan's larger boats were relatively easy to sight visually and with radar, were notoriously slow divers and sluggish to maneuver underwater. They were easy to track on sonar, and easy to hit. Japanese hulls weren't built as stoutly as those of German U-boats, and therefore could not dive as deeply nor survive such rough treatment. Also, they lacked radar until the first sets were installed in June 1944, and never had sets as good as the Allies possessed.
Given their good range, speed, and torpedoes, Japanese submarines achieved surprisingly little. This was because they were mainly employed against warships, which were fast, maneuverable, and well-defended when compared to merchant ships. Japanese naval doctrine was built around the concept of fighting a single decisive battle, as they had done at Tsushima 40 years earlier. They thought of their submarines as scouts, whose main role was to locate, shadow, and attrit Allied naval task forces. This approach gave a significant return in 1942 when they sank two fleet carriers, one cruiser, and a few destroyers and other warships, and also damaged two battleships, one fleet carrier (twice), and a cruiser. However, as Allied intelligence, technologies, methods, and numbers improved, the Japanese submarines were never again able to achieve this frequency of success.
Compounding these deficiencies, Japan was at war with the United States and the United Kingdom, two nations embroiled in a vast conflict with hundreds of more nimble U-Boats in the Atlantic, and hence two nations which poured lavish resources into anti-submarine warfare (ASW) research and development. The result was that the large, shallow diving Japanese subs took a beating when they faced these Atlantic-tested technological advantages in the Pacific.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikimcbee
I think a limited 1942~43 campaign would be cool; IE Guadalcanal, Indian Ocean, US West coast.
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A strike on Hollywood would be in order as well.
