[jazman]

I just now got to page 119-120 of my edition of Silent Victory (Bantam, 1976--yes, it's an old print I picked up used). My original question arose because I was skipping around, reading ahead, about the Asiatic fleet in general, but now I'm not.

In the discussion of Withers' endorsements after the first set of patrols after Pearl Harbor:

"The first endorsements handed down by Withers and his staff came as an unpleasant surprise to many submarine skippers, amounting, as they did, to a complete reversal of peacetime training practices."

about Argonaut: "Withers went a step further, suggesting that Barchet might have made a night surface attack, such as the Germans were finding so successful against Allied convoys in the Atlantic."

Triton: "Pilly Lent in Triton was upbraided in much the same language."

So it seems that there was an awareness of successful German approaches, but it was quite a different matter getting the commanders to act that way.