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Originally Posted by MONOLITH
I actually posted about using the scope underwater to dodge escorts, quite awhile ago.
And a lot of people just yelled at me saying it was too unrealistic. 
But yeah, it works.  |
It's using a tool available to a real submarine captain. Now if unrealistic means that we're seeing something impossible to see through a real periscope then I would have to grant the point.
However, if this is a decent representation of what you can see through the observation scope and just nobody thought to do this in RL, why then,
BALDERDASH! 
Orchestra, start the Navy Hymn softly in the background...
The entire history us the US Submarine Service in World War II (especially under Admiral Lockwood in Pearl Harbor) was one of innovation by brave individuals who threw away the rulebook, established procedure and regulations themselves in the quest for victory in the Pacific. First, captains ignored their training and established practice of firing torpedoes by sonar from 100' and dared to expose their sub and crew by conducting "unrealistic" visual approaches and firing. This was actual disobedience to orders, putting their sub at unnecessary risk.
Mush Morton ignored established procedure to go deep when attacked by escorts, and "unrealistically" remained at periscope depth to meet destroyers on their own turf. When he gained some confidence, Morton went whole hog, bullfighter style, by fully extending his scope and increasing speed to make a prominent wake feather so his foe could easily see and charge his boat. "A destroyer can easily avoid any torpedo fired at his bow. The bow cross-section is so small the chance of a hit constitutes unnecessary risk" was established procedure. Morton realized he was fighting men, not boats. These men in the heat of battle seeing a submarine right in front of them were so eager for the easy kill that they got tunnel vision, total focus on the coming kill that blinded them to offensive action by the submarine. When Morton invented the "down the throat" shot, it worked famously. It also threatened his career as a submarine captain for its "unrealistic" nature. But success will sometimes trump regulations.
Although under Admiral Christy you could definitely be crucified, under Admiral Lockwood enterprising captains "unrealistically" busted into their top secret torpedoes, disarming the magnetic detonator and going for much more difficult contact shots. Regulations and naval procedure said this was unworkable and even punishable conduct. We'll say "unrealistic". Then sank ships and kept their jobs long enough for far too many of them to die honorably in combat.
That is only three of the many more examples where individual daring and defiance of direct orders resulted in success, which was often adopted by other submarine captains at considerably less risk (once the innovator survived his blasphemy they were likely to do so also).
Success in battle is not the product of NASA-like rigid adherance to established procedures and blind obedience to orders. Success has always been and always will be due to the ingenuity of outstanding individuals who innovate much more freely than the US military was at first willing to tolerate. The German army realized this and put a high value on front line leadership, giving their officer corps much more latitude in action than our army. That is why the rule of thumb during operations planning was that one German division was worth three American ones. If we did not enjoy such odds, we did not conduct operations willingly.
It comes down to tater's assessment of what is realistic. He came from the Real Fleet Boat environment, where realism was making the capabilities of the submarine and enemy as close as possible to reality. Tater found that resulted in unrealistic action by the player. Since not many boats were sunk, Beery made it unlikely that the boat would be killed by a depth charge. Since our captains knew that, they took actions no submarine captain would have entertained in WWII, for instance, slugging it out with destroyers with their deck gun. For instance, waltzing into a convoy, taking on all the escorts and then finishing off the merchies at their leisure. Tater has concluded that the "unrealistically high" abilities of Japanese escorts in Trigger Maru result in much more realistic gameplay by the player.
Therefore I hereby and forthwith do declare that using the observation scope during an escort evasion is not only realistic, it is
uber-realistic!!!! imitation of the routine out of the box, on the spot, risky, individual "unrealistic" innovation that typified the successful submarine captain in both American and German submarine fleets. So I reverse the tables and say that if all submarine captains do not use this amazing innovation, it is THEY who bear the mantle of shame: they who are the real "unrealistic" captains!
or is it
?
Thank you orchestra. You may stop now.
Looking forward to all the love notes and encouragement you mentioned. I guess I raised my scope and increased speed to 5 knots. All destroyers may now charge to the attack. Please keep it fun!