[REL] Real Fleet Boat

[Beery]

Originally Posted by goose814

On the subject of decoys, here is an excerpt from the book "The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy" by John D. Alden:

"During the war considerable attention was given to so-called evasion devices that would help submarines escape attack. These consisted of various kinds of noisemakers, false targets, and the like which, when ejected from the submarine, were intended to distract or mislead the antisubmarine forces. A small manually operated signal ejector tube was installed, usually in the overhead of the after torpedo room, for releasing these devices. Later an improved hydraulic operated tube was developed. In peacetime these signal ejectors were used to release emergency radio buoys as well as evasion devices."

Gus

Yeah, but 'giving attention to them' doesn't necessarily mean that they were used in common practice, nor does it indicate that such devices worked successfully. To me it indicates only that such things were tested. We need the context of this paragraph in order to pin down the meaning of it.

In order to feature them in a realistic mod we need clear evidence that such things were used effectively throughout most of the war in combat on a routine basis. We also need to know the general attitude of commanders towards these devices - after all, if you're trying to evade depth charges the last thing you want to do is give more clues about where you are, and a noisemaker is a two edged sword in this regard - a cunning sub hunter is going to see it for what it is and use it to gain an advantage. Since the AI in the game won't do that, the addition of a feature that lacks realistic drawbacks needs to be approached with care.