Quote:
Originally Posted by ColonelSandersLite
One final thought though. I noticed doing this research that 3 of the 4 submarines which ran aground where s-boats in 42. That's either one hell of a coincidence or there's some kind of reason for that. Anyone know?
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These strandings were mostly due to the nature of the hopelessly outdated charts US submarines started the war with. Not a few where labeled in the corner "from a survey by Capt. James Cook." (Cook did most of his surveys in the 1770s) The ancient S-Boats in question also didn't have decent fathometers and weren't equipped with radar yet. Of course, in the game our map and position are always GPS perfect and the only time we strand is when we are not paying attention to the little dots that mean islands.
Even when the Japanese fully instituted convoys in November 1943 they suffered from some woeful problems. Escort numbers were insufficient, radar radio and weaponry were all inadequate for the escorts available--not enough DC throwers, smaller payload depth charges. Coordination between escorts and the few land-based ASW aircraft was also extremely lacking.
One shocking aspect of the Japanese shipping system was the division among the Navy, Army and civilian services with the result that it was not unknown for civil merchantmen and service ships to sail outward together, the former empty and the latter full, and return with roles reversed. A fatal policy for a nation already short of merchant hulls.