Quote:
Originally Posted by fastbikkel
I travel underwater during the day, only surface at night.
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As a US World War 2 submarine skipper, this a scheme you should strive to avoid. You want to be on the surface as much as possible, especially in an ocean as large as the Pacific. Underwater you are essentially blind, you move at a crawl and then have to expend more fuel all night to recharge your batteries, slowing your patrol progress even further. Diving should reserved only for emergencies or attacks that require it. With air search radar you should never have to crash dive as you can detect an airplane at least 15 minutes before he's overhead. You should see every enemy convoy before he is aware of you. As long as you are on the surface, you have far superior situation awareness to determine whether to give battle or not. Happily, for the USN submarine force, most Japanese escorts didn't get fitted with surface radar until late in the conflict and even then it wasn't very good. You get radar almost from the start, so take full advantage of it.
Unlike their nuclear descendants, most WW2 submarine were essentially surface torpedo boats with a limited ability to dive.