War in the Boats: My WWII Submarine Battles

[TorpX]

Thank-you for not spoiling the surprise about the girl.

I have a question that has been bothering me. After finishing the first chapter where Ruhe states at the end:

Sometime later S-37's sinking of a ship off Rabaul was confirmed by Japanese intelligence.

I take this to mean intelligence was provided by codebreaking of Japanese radio communications. I happened to have read Silent Victory recently and noted that Blair has patrol listings for the boats giving both "wartime credit" and "JANAC credit". I was naturally curious as to whether S-37 got the JANAC Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. It happens, it did not. Um...OK. The thing is, it did not get wartime credit either (at least according to Blair).

I should note here also, in the 2nd chapter, two torpedos were fired at what was thought to be a cruiser, and hits were heard, but they had to dive and evade. Later, they cruised through the area and detected a large oil slick and chunks of wood. He never states that this was a "confirmed" sinking, though Adm. Christie considered this patrol "successful". Blair's book gives no credit for any sinking on this patrol either.

In light of these differences, I wondering how seriously Blair's figures or JANAC's figures should be taken. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by TorpX

Thank-you for not spoiling the surprise about the girl.

I have a question that has been bothering me. After finishing the first chapter where Ruhe states at the end:

I take this to mean intelligence was provided by codebreaking of Japanese radio communications. I happened to have read Silent Victory recently and noted that Blair has patrol listings for the boats giving both "wartime credit" and "JANAC credit". I was naturally curious as to whether S-37 got the JANAC Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. It happens, it did not. Um...OK. The thing is, it did not get wartime credit either (at least according to Blair).

I should note here also, in the 2nd chapter, two torpedos were fired at what was thought to be a cruiser, and hits were heard, but they had to dive and evade. Later, they cruised through the area and detected a large oil slick and chunks of wood. He never states that this was a "confirmed" sinking, though Adm. Christie considered this patrol "successful". Blair's book gives no credit for any sinking on this patrol either.

In light of these differences, I wondering how seriously Blair's figures or JANAC's figures should be taken. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

That's interesting. I have yet to read Silent Victory. I'm gonna pull it off my shelf and find where it talks about the S-37....