Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins
Keep in mind it's not like you run on the surface with spotlights going and they can see where you are to shoot at you. It's like they're listening to an AM radio station and they know they're within 15 miles of a submarine somewhere. There's a difference between being all lit up like a party boat and running radar. You can turn toward the light and target on it. You can't do any such thing with the radar signal.
It's the difference between knowing a position and knowing it's somewhere in a circle of 15 miles radius. The latter is just about worthless information. It's true that you might have some sharper lookouts on duty with a sense of urgency where you might be a bit complacent if your don't know there's an enemy 15 miles away.
But it was war and there was a sense of urgency all the time. What you didn't know could and regularly did kill you. And the Japanese were masters of optical detection, especially at night.
And knowledge is not always helpful. Shinano was doing the right thing before they detected the radar signal and adjusted right into the loving arms of Archerfish. Without radar there would have been no kill. Sometimes the presence of knowing the enemy is out there but you have no idea what he's up to puts on enough pressure to force the mistake.
Leaking information in general is much less important than the character of that information and what you get in return for leaking it. Radar was the game changer for American submarines. It, more than any other factor, contributed to victory. That's why we should use it.
When Tang's radar broke, O'Kane sent a sarcastic message to Pearl that basically said "Damn, our radar is broke and now we won't sink diddly squat." He was telling the naked truth. He also said that lack of radar changed him from the hunter to the hunted.
Patton said memorably that the best way to deal with fear for your life is to make your enemy more afraid for his. My radar says "I'm here, I know all about you and you don't know squat about me until something goes BOOM!" Fear is appropriate here.
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Maybe I've been dodging
wasserbomben in the ATO too long! I know that the earliest Japanese radar detector was just a radio. But I assumed that later versions and shore-based models would provide bearing information, because it is so easy to do and completely mechanical. (It's just an RDF for radar frequencies.) With a bearing and rough range from signal strength, you have a crude position. That's way more information than "There's something out there."
Didn't the IJN have directional radar receivers?