Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins
I did a really successful sonar only attack once. Hit five of six torpedoes.......on the USS Essex.
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I'd prefer sitting in Lockwood's office, explaining why my patrol wasn't so great; rather than sitting in Nimitz's office, explaining why CV-6 hasn't answered the phone since entering my patrol area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins
The problem was that early skippers learned that the dangers of exposing a periscope were vastly overrated if your were reasonably cautious. And there is no doubt that you feel more secure and target much more accurately if you use the periscope. That left them with no reason to use sonar targeting.
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I recall reading that the early skippers tried sonar only attacks at the beginning of the war. It's what they practiced before the war. Having an exposed periscope spotted during a training exercise was likely to result in a bad career path for the skipper.
They quickly learned that the sonar only method wasn't working, and moved to other methods that did.