Quote:
Originally Posted by Mav87th
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According to studies after the war using Japanese records, less than half the ships sunk by American submarines during the war were properly identified, as was necessary in a stadimeter based attack. Many Japanese ships were disguised so that their masthead and cabin heights were altered from their official numbers. Many of the ships shot at by American torpedoes did not even appear in the recognition manuals at all! "I don't see it in the recognition manual so I can't shoot it" was not acceptable to skippers or the brass. So they shot without the information they needed, sometimes hitting the targets.
Skippers requested the OTC mod but were refused because CapnScurvy wasn't born yet!
The Japanese went so far as to manufacture one line of ships that were half scale models of a ship they knew was in the US recognition manual. They were very crafty, considering their poor ability to produce new ships.
The Germans had it much better in the Atlantic, with Liberty ships being cookie cutter fairly identical ships that accumulated experience could nail down. But U-Boats didn't generally depend on target identification to shoot torpedoes, usually using constant bearing techniques that didn't give a horse's patootie what they were shooting at.
And the Germans pressed in for that short shot that the Capn hates so much. In combat errors happen and the best strategy is one that can toss all those errors in the trash. Get 500 yards/meters away and shoot a spread. Turn out the lights, the party's over.
As for "anybody can hit from there," once they get there, yes. But how many have the cajones to get that close. Americans were famous for taking 3000 yard shots that had a very low probability of success. That's why the U-Boats made better submarines look bad in the accuracy department.
But when the smoke cleared, American boats were
head and shoulders above the world, sinking 23 ships and 101,923 tons per sub lost, with the Germans left in the dust at only 3.6 ships and 18,565 tons per lost sub. outdated German sub quality, operational errors and just bad strategy, along with superior Allied ASW just produced an environment where the German subs had no chance, in spite of the fact that their recognition manuals were better.
Finally, simulations can't answer the question of what was. But they are great an answering the question "what if?" And "what if the recognition manual contained accurate information on every single ship on the ocean" is one of those legitimate questions. As is "if I had perfect information and reliable equipment, could I hit what I shot at?" OTC will be an available plugin for FOTRSU. I'd consider the mod very incomplete if OTC weren't available. Players deserve to be able to answer those questions.
Many, many skippers during the real war would have given anything to know those answers too. I believe that there were just enough unknown variables that many good skippers lost their commands because of wrong decisions of the Pearl and Australian brass. Some skippers, such as Joe Enright, even derated themselves for reason not their fault. Most of the time, factors beyond their control caused them to be successful or unsuccessful. I'm reading a book right now, "Tyger," about just that during ship to ship battles of the Napoleonic wars. In war, it is very likely you can do everything right and die.