[SOFLCS]

Historical yes in some cases, but American commanders could be overly cautious, at least early on, witness the the convoluted torpedo attack doctrine at the beginning of the war... I just finished reading Thunder Below! and it's interesting that the Barb, a very successful ship, engaged in surface paroling during the daylight hours, Fluckey put it this way "Though the tally shows more shells, bombs, and depth charges fired at Barb, no one received the Purple Heart and Barb came back alive, eager, and ready to fight again." and in another passage goes on to say "Having a quartermaster on watch in the conning tower with periscope raised, while on the surface, was paying off. It made us more visible to the enemy, yet doubled the search area we could cover visually." as well as
"The Barb, as usual, stayed on the surface". References to staying on the surface for long time periods, days even, abound in the book. Although some of the officers were quite amazed at his desire to patrol on the surface. Late war skippers could be quite aggressive, the Barb landed a demolition party on Japanese soil and blew up a train for pity sakes! Other subs would routinely bombard shore targets. I patrol on the surface, it's just more efficient, and I'd rather emulate a successful skipper like Fluckey than overly cautious ones.