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Originally Posted by DS
The Silent Hunter series was born in the PTO, and it is more than time to revisit the PTO in my opinion. I first got into submarine simulations with the first Silent Hunter, but I have played every submarine simulation that has come out since, and a few that pre-date SH1.
The U.S. Silent Service's war in the Pacific is rich both in terms of history and culture, and in terms of variety of mission types, environments, and operational considerations. While the u-boat war is also of interest to me, my simulation interests really lie with U.S. Submarines in the Pacific.
While the U-boats of WW2 were mostly aimed at merchant shipping in open and usually deep water (there were a few exceptions, I know), U.S submarines engaged in merchant shipping attacks, warship attacks, supporting naval and amphibious operations, special forces insertions/extractions, aircrew recovery, harbour penetrations, littoral warfare, reconaisance, evacuations, and even operated in conjuction with allied surface forces (what the large and fast "fleet" boats were built for). As such, I believe there is a wider variety of mission types and challenges for virtual skippers in the PTO.
Also, as previously stated, a Gato, Balao, or Tench class boat is a whole different kettle of fish in terms of size, fire power, and in the later years, even technology (PPI radar, and even air conditioning!). With the exception of the Type XXI, I regard u-boats as very heartily built and commanded, but slightly more primative boats (less speed, range, size, firepower, and equipment). That said, I love them for what they were.
The U.S. fleet boats for me though, had more pesonality (named vs. numbered, battle flags and unit citations for boats, as opposed to awards for officers and crews in the german navy), and accomplishments generally were associated more with the boat (skippers rotated after 4-6 patrols in the U.S. Navy) than with the skipper or crew, whereas the accomplishments in the U-boat service tend to be associated with famous skippers more than famous hulls.
Also, the submarine war in the Pacific is well documented through books and movies (Run Silent-Run Deep, Operation Pacific, Crash Dive, Torpedo Alley, and Destination Tokyo for starters)
For me, it is definately time to return to the PTO, and resurrect the stories of the USS Wahoo, USS Tang, USS Barb, and all the other boats that all travelled far and long from arctic to tropical waters, from the deep blue ocean to the painfully shallow waters of Tokyo Bay, and sank such a massive amount of shipping that Japan was strangled from the sea.
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