[tater]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

Radar - based on my reading, Samuel Morison's History of U.S. naval operations in ww2 and Clay Blair's Silent Victory, IJN ships never carried an effective radar, certainly not one that ever had any practical effect in any battle, does anyone one have solid evidence to the contrary?

One, Samuel Eliot Morison is a good overview, but it's the USN take on things from right after the war. Little or no japanese sourcing. That said, the IJN did have some effective radars later in the war, but there were bloody few of them. Convoy escorts (usually NOT fleet DDs) just didn't get such gear.

ASW capabilities - If you read through the documented encounters between the IJN and U.S. subs troughout the war, the IJN was at it's most effective at the beginning of the war. All their destroyers were equipped with sonar and they knew how to use it. However, from my reading it appears they never developped the team tactics used by allied escort, rather each escort would attack on its own. The IJN ASW effort became progressively worse as the war wore on and the crews became greener.

While true, the problem is that the escorts in question were virtually always escorting other warships, or merchants that were part of an invasion fleet. They knew how to use the tools they had, but they had no operational doctrine for ASW at all, really. No overall plan. Interestingly, their fleet CAP was similar. Throw some Zeros up, and they'd fly around looking for AAA fire to alert them to contacts (since few carried radios) and hunted on their own. This is in stark contrast to radar tracked, CIC tasked CAP in the USN.

[quote]U.S. intel - The U.S. Navy broke the japanese codes before the war and were reading japanese messages throughout the war. They kept close track of the movements of japanese ships and U.S. subs were often dispatched to intercept specific warships or convoys, so the superb intel we get in SH4 is based on fact, although it may require some tweaking.[quote]

Quite true, though depending on the year the number of convoys may be too high IMO.

RDF - The japanese had a very effective Radio Detection Finding network set up before the war which allowed them to keep close tab on allied warships. The U.S. knew this from intercepted messages, which is why U.S. subs used their radios sparingly, although I don't know how this could be integrated in the game.

Excellent point. Does sending a contact report attract attention? Any IJN warships should be alerted by their sigint section...

tater