Well, Blair's "silent victory" doesn't paint a very nice picture of the US sub effort till 44. One could be forgiven for getting the impression they were amateurs, and probably at least partly they were.
On the other hand, I'm reading through "Wolfpack - the american submarine strategy that helped defeat Japan" and I get the impression that Blair's book concentrates too much on actual results. Behind the scenes, they were trying. Developing tactics, wargaming for results, writing doctrines, etc.
It is not the first time I hear/read this of the US army/navy/air force during WW2. At first, they were so bad they everybody thought there is no hope for them (for example both the Brits and the Germans in Africa). But they adapted, learned and improvized faster than many others, and became a force to be feared.
|