Quote:
Originally Posted by Eesocks
And the Japanese convoy protection was inefficient for most of the war due to the IJN using the best escorts and crews for their surface fleet.
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Ironically, on those rare occasions when they were released from Combined Fleet work, Japanese fleet destroyers often displayed no greater competence at protecting merchant vessels than the lowly minesweepers, auxiliaries and subchasers which usually got the duty. Despite their elite status, their only practical everyday experience at ASW lay in screening warship task forces, which usually steamed at higher speeds that deterred submarine attacks and substantially simplified the destroyers' job. Not to mention that they tended to look down their noses at such tedious work.