Quote:
Originally Posted by Torplexed
However, the Japanese did rely on small ships like these for purposes of moving cargo. Mainly because late in the war, purpose built cargo ships were getting scarce and boats like these could operate in really shallow water and slip through the cracks in anti-shipping patrols.
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Of course, if the matter is purely 'game score', they are a pain, but in real life one should bear in mind that sub warfare is a kind of strategic warfare, that meaning you're there do deny freedom of sea transportation, to force the eneny to deploy their forces along a wider area, to harass morale, to block sealanes... in that point of view, even a tugboat is a valid targed. I beleive that towards the end of the war, Japan was in a sort of 'transportation crises' where by then a big chunk of their merchant fleet was sunk or immobilized, and small junks and saipans were all they could count on to supply islands and such. Probably fleetboat skippers were very busy with them in the latter years of the war.