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Originally Posted by Incubus
One reason I wasn't familiar on American boats is because ... and history-wise I think submarine skippers were under-credited. I'm surprised the Japanese didn't respect/fear them more- they could strike anywhere in the pacific, and the Japanese didn't have degree of naval intelligence the Allies did to hunt them down and kill them.
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Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!!!!!!!
You hit the jackpot! Another aspect of the difference between German and American strategy is the to the Germans, U-Boats successes were extensions of Nazi propoganda. That's a nasty way of saying they were proud of their accomplishments and crowed about them. When Prein successfully attacked Scapa Flow, upon his return he was a freakin' national hero, on a status with Charles Lingberg in the US! (More so since Lindberg was a Nazi sympathizer and kinda got de-heroified there, but that's another story.) Nobody in the entire world didn't know who Guenther Prein was a week after the event. Publicizing U-Boat victories was important to building morale in their armed services and making us feel bad. That part of it worked, but it also gave lots of useful information to the enemy. When Pearl Harbor was attacked and Americans didn't have a clue, all they had to do was pick up all that helpfully provided information, tweak it a little and TADA!!!!!! a warplan. (Thank you Adolph, it was right nice of you)
The American submarine program, in contrast, was top secret. When Captain Fluckey of USS Barb sank his train on the mainland of Japan (Japan? Mainland? can we use both in the same sentence here? Executive decision time here: YES!) the whole boat was sworn to secrecy. He couldn't even tell his family. That is why the Japanese didn't have a proper fear of submarines. We chose for them to remain ignorant, as far as we could do that. The Japanese were left to compile their own information. For a large part of the war, because of their ignorance of American sub capabilities, the maximum depth setting of Japanese depth charges was too shallow to reach a submarine at a quite comfortable depth of 200 feet. Did we tend to be a bit too secretive? Yes. Some wolfpacks were tried with the understanding that some radio traffic would have to be tolerated. Skippers were very reluctant to use radios until after the action. This resulted in cooperation to the extent that subs were in the same area and checked on each other daily, but actual coordinated attacks on the same convoy, such as the Germans were so expert at, were almost unknown. Actually the final effect was about as deadly, just not as dramatic.
So you hit on it. Undercredited? American skippers got no credit at all, outside the sub force! No fear by the Japanese? By design and part of the strategy. Intimidation and celebration were sacrificed as part of the cost of victory.