IJN U-Boote

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by GerritJ9

Torplexed: thanks for the info, pretty much what I expected- but it won't stop us making a single mission, will it?

Oh by all means mod it if possible. Has to be more realistic than those people who mod SH3 so they've gotta a sleek Type XXI in 1939. I was just trying to clear up the fate of the interned crews. I'm sure they got repatriated to Germany eventually.

[scrag]

There is enough information to model pretty much any Sub in the IJN. Sure the interior detail might be sketchy but the external look would be no issue. What is sweet is the Japanese Submarine version of the BEST torpedo in the war the Long Lance. It would also be very cool to pilot a midget into Pearl or to launch Kaitans. A book called I Boat Captain is very informative about Japanese Submarine operations and just how effective our ASW (Particularly Radar aided gunfire) against there Submarine operations. Frankly the Japanese wasted a creditable and capable component away due to arrogance and incompetance (on the part of short visioned skimmer/aviation admirals). Shows you the huge difference from Nimitz (a bubblehead) and Yamamoto.

[GerritJ9]

The fault lay mainly with pre-war IJN doctrine, in which all arms were dedicated to the concept of the "One Big Fleet Battle" One result was an almost complete neglect of minesweeping and antisubmarine warfare; this cost both the IJN and the Japanese Merchant Navy dearly. The other result was that the IJN submarine arm concentrated on hunting and sinking enemy warships rather than systematically attacking Allied merchant shipping. The only REAL attempt to systematically destroy Allied merchant shipping was in March 1942, when Java fell and IJN submarines were active in the Indian Ocean. But even in this instance, one gets the feeling that the subs were mainly there to destroy the remaining Allied warships and Allied merchantmen were attacked because "There are no warships around around so we might as well sink that tanker/cargo ship that's creeping up on the horizon".
A systematic assault on merchant traffic off the US Pacific coast starting on Dec. 7th would have paid dividends- witness the slaughter operation "Paukenschlag" caused off the US Atlantic coast. But the idea didn't occur to ANY senior IJN admiral- they were, to a man, wedded to the "One Big Battle" concept and fortunately for the Allies remained so until the very end.

[Torplexed]

Yeah, the large Japanese submarine fleet was badly misused. In their defense a sustained assault on the US West Coast would have been difficult considering the distance from Kwajalein (the nearest I-Boat base) to the West Coast. However, they did something no other nation in WW2 did. They bombed the continental United States . On September 9 1942, Warrant officer Nobuo Fujita flew his float plane from the I-25, and conducted the only wartime aircraft-dropped bombing on the United States. Using incendiary bombs, his mission was to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest outside the town of Brookings, Oregon, with the ultimate objective of tying up U.S. military resources to the defense of the mainland, away from the Pacific Theater. It was also meant to be payback for Doolittle's Raid. The bombs did no serious damage tho. The forest was too wet.

When passing through the town last summer I took pictures of his 400-year samurai sword now on display at the Brookings library. It was presented to the town in a gesture of peace in the 1960s.



Here's the road up the mountain to the bomb site.

[Hitman]

Well if someone is interested on it, I have a good article about the IJN firing control system and computer (TDC), it is a report of the mission sent after the war by the US to study the technological advances of its former enemy.

Cheers

[GerritJ9]

Hitman, I would be VERY interested indeed. Please PM Me.

[scrag]

The work to get on the opposite side is done with the add on. Sure modeling needs to be done on the people and boats but in reality it is easier to actually command an I Boat. Modders?????
Oh and can we lose the US Diving alarm and go with the standard alarm for the U-Boats - I have no idea what a I Boats alarm sounded like - anyone else?