Quote:
Originally Posted by CCIP
It's also worth mentioning that hydrophones were never a primary detection method for submarines in WWII. Everybody at the start of WWII relied on submarines to hunt down their prey by first spotting it on the surface, either by periscope or by lookouts on the bridge. This was especially true of the Germans, and all their successful tactics (most notably the wolfpack) relied on submarines being able to keep visual contact with their prey, without diving.
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With all respect I don't think that is entirely accurate since as I understand it, American pre-war submarine doctrine included provisions for submerged detection, approach and attack by passive sonar alone with active sonar just used for getting the final bearing and firing range.
The problem was that without the computer support for solving the target motion analysis problems that were developed post-war, the technique was theoretically sound but practically useless. As far as I know not one submerged sonar attack was successful, at least in the Pacific.