[Rockin Robbins]

If you ask a WWII sub sailor what realism was, their description will come much closer to Trigger Maru than RFB.

REMEMBER THIS USS BERGALL?

On the evening of Dec. 13, 1944 as Bergall (Hyde) was preparing to plant mines off Indo-China, she picked up a distant radar contact. Closing to 26,000 yards, the contact was tentatively identified as 2 cruisers, later determined to be a cruiser and destroyer escort. After attaining a firing position 3300 yards away from the overlapping targets, six bow tubes were fired. Moments later a tremendous explosion occurred, seemingly, breaking the Imperial Japanese heavy Myoku in two. Hauling clear to reload when the escort seemed reluctant to attack, Bergalll charged in for a second attack when, at 9000 yards, the escorting destroyer opened fire, one shell landing in Bergall's wake, another directly into her forward torpedo loading hatch, opening a large hole in her pressure hull. Retreating at full speed. Bergall hauled clear only to find that the damage was beyond repair at the scene, 2000 miles from the nearest friendly port, Ex- mouth Gulf, Australia. When reporting the problem to Admiral Christie Cdr. Hyde was ordered to rendezvous with Angler, Bashaw and Paddle, remove the crew and destroy Bergall. After carefully reviewing the situation, Cdr. Hyde decided to disobey this order and try to take Bergall home through Karimata, the Java Sea and Lombok on the surface. He removed one officer and 54 men to the Angler, destroyed all confidential gear, set demolition charges by her torpedoes and mines and got underway for Exmouth Gulf, Angler following closely, standing by to remove personnel from Bergall if danger threatened. Five days later, they arrived at Exmouth Bay on 20 December 1944.

If you were to ask Commander Hyde how harmless the Japanese Navy was, wonder if he'd give you a bunch of numbers compiled after the war which imply that Japanese ASW was half-hearted at best. Play stock or RFB and you're in nowhere near the appropriate amount of danger.

STILL REMEMBER THIS USS FLYING FISH?

On August 28, 1942, Flying Fish (Donaho) hit a battleship of the Kongo class. While setting up to fire at one of the escorts, a plane dropped a bomb close to Flying fish, forcing her deep, while the escorts delivered a devastating depth charge attack. Two hours later Flying Fish returned to periscope depth. While Donaho was scanning the horizon a nervous torpedoman in the after torpedo room accidentally fired a fish from No.7 tube with the outer door closed. For the following two days the crew worked to release the torpedo, finally being able to pull it back inside the ATR. Donaho then proceeded to the Truk area where he was attacked and seriously damaged by a patrol boat. On Sept. 4 he closed another patrol boat on the surface. It opened fire with a three-inch gun. Donaho cleared the bridge, then closed to 600 yards and fired a torpedo, which missed. As Flying Fish dove, she took a terrific down angle. Two Destroyers joined in the attack, dropping a total of 54 depth charges. Flying Fish, severely damaged, went to 350 feet. In order to maintain depth, Donaho had to hold the boat at an 18-degree up angle. The ordeal was over in four and a half-hours as the Flying Fish survived one of the worst depth charging of the war.

There's what the participants remembered: experiences you won't find in stock or RFB: fear. A simulation without fear is not realistic. I believe that realism is mearsured by the actions and emotions of the player, not whether the enemy obeys mathematically precise generalisms based on post-war analysis. Trigger Maru achieves this. Finally:

REMEMBER THIS USS HARDER?

The Harder's (Dealey) last patrol was conducted in July-August 1944 with Haddo and Ray in a wolfpack. After decimating a convoy on August 19th on the west coast of Mindoro and sustaining one of the worst depth charge attacks thus far in the war, they moved to the entrance of Manila Bay. On the night of Aug. 21 they picked up three targets on radar. Nimitz, in Haddo, suggested that the targets were too small to bother with, but Dealy insisted on attacking. The targets were ASW "Kaibokans" - the Harder sinking the Hiburi and Matsumwa, while the Haddo sank the Sado. Moving along the west coast of Luzon, on Aug. 22, Harder found a tanker, escorted by the destroyer Asakaze. Firing 4 fish, Dealey hit Asakaze, blowing her bow off. Two trawlers and another destroyer came out to tow the Asakaze to safety but she sank on the way in. Two days later another contact was made with another Kaibokan and the former 4-stack destroyer USS Stewart that was captured by the Japanese when abandoned in a marine railway in Surabaya in February 1942. The patrol boat 102 (Stewart) located Harder and commenced dropping a staggered pattern of depth charges, 6 charges in each run, the first at 150 feet, the second 180 feet, then 270, 360, and finally 450 feet. After the 5th run, oil and other debris began to surface. The water in this area was 900 feet deep.

Here is a ferocity not even achieved by Trigger Maru. And Harder sunk by an American destroyer captured by the Japanese. Get that: staggered patterns, 180, 270 360 and 450 feet in the same drop.

In stock or RFB you just find a layer, set it on silent running under 3 knots and go to lunch. The real sub jockeys would laugh that we call that simulation.

One more. Tell me if anything close to this happens in stock SH4 or RFB:

REMEMBER THIS USS PUFFER?

At 1100 on the morning of Oct. 9, 1943, Puffer (Jensen) hit a merchantman with two torpedoes while patrolling the northern end of Makassar Strait. The merchantman's escort was not detected, and Puffer fired a second time. Shortly thereafter distant depth charges were heard, and at 1145 six depth charges exploded close by. The concussion caused the conning tower hatch to unseat, admitting a shower of water. A sea valve plug in the ATR was loosened, admitting a thin, high-pressure stream of water. Gaskets were blown out of the main induction valve and the ventilation supply. Ten minutes later another depth charge exploded nearby, followed by four more, staggered in depth, fifteen minutes later. Depth control became difficult. The boat slowly settled to an alarming depth level, with a twelve degree down angle. The temperature reached 125 degrees in parts of the boat. Safety tank, negative, auxiliary, and after trim were all blown dry.
The ASW attack continued for a total of thirty-one hours. Many of the men were in a state of physical collapse. Stations had to be manned by volunteers.
Finally, Puffer surfaced directly from deep submergence at 1910 on October 10, 1943.

The real war is defined by the men who fought it, not dry statistics. These were the men of the United States Submarine Veterans of World War II who wrote each of the above accounts. They're mightily persuasive to me.