Doctrine question: when to submerge on patrol?

[VonBlade]

Originally Posted by TheSatyr

As for sonar attacks,those were quickly discarded after the first war patrols as being useless. And some of the skippers that tried to use it were removed from command

It's lucky this isn't Wikipedia because that sounds like the ultimate unsourced statement.

Submarine Captains aren't exactly ten-a-penny. And if Sonar was that frowned upon they wouldn't have installed it in the boat.
VB

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by VonBlade

It's lucky this isn't Wikipedia because that sounds like the ultimate unsourced statement.

Submarine Captains aren't exactly ten-a-penny. And if Sonar was that frowned upon they wouldn't have installed it in the boat.
VB

While it may be "un sourced" I think youll find that the participants of this forum are quite knowledgable.

Sonar has uses other than "attacks".

[VonBlade]

Absolutely. Sorry I seemed to have missed off all my "gentle ribbing" smileys from my earlier post.

Still sounds like a dubious statement, but I wasn't implying it doesn't have the potential of being accurate.

[Driftwood]

Early in the war most sub skippers ( a lot of whom got relieved) followed standard peacetime doctrine for US Subs, meaning you submerged all day and only surfaced at night to recharge batteries. All attacks were conducted submerged and even sound attacks (IIRC) were in the peacetime "tool kit" of sub commanders althought they were HIGHLY ineffective. Prior to hostilities breaking out Naval doctrine for submarine employment was primarily scouting for the surface fleet. It wasn't until the Silent Service became the only offensive naval capability available (post Pearl Harbor) that their role as a major offensive weapon began to be explored. And even then the different views of the major Sub Commands (Adm's Lockwood at Pearl and Christie in Australia) varied greatly on how best to employ our submarine force. So, in answer to your question, as the war progressed your more famous sub skippers (Morton, Dealey, O'Kane, Fluckey, Street, etc.) stayed on the surface (both day and night) to find their targets and then dove (during daylight) once in postion to attack. They stayed on the surface at night for attacks. As always tactics are driven by the situation at hand.

[TheSatyr]

Ultimate unsourced statement??? Try Pig Boats by Theodore Roscoe or Silent Victory by Clay Blair.

They were relieved for lack of aggressiveness...which is what making sonar attacks was regarded as by the high command...never mind that it was a major part of prewar doctrine.