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Old 12th Jun 2020, 10:16
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Originally Posted by tdracer
I've read several books about the US subs against Japan (my dad served in the Army Infantry in the Pacific so I have a natural interest in the Pacific part of WW II). The US subs were not particularly effective in 1942 - their tactics were still in development, and the torpedo's basically sucked. By early '43 they'd worked out most of the kinks, and the US subs had a field day against Japanese shipping (it's interesting to read that apparently oil tankers were considered bigger prizes than most of the naval ships aside from the aircraft carriers).
However by the end of 1944/early 1945, they had been so successful at sinking most of the available Japanese shipping, they were quite literally running out of targets.
Kiltrash, I toured the Bowfin first - I didn't find it at all spacious (I remember thinking I'd want to be an officer so I didn't need to share a bunk, but even the captain's quarters were cramped). That's why I was so shocked at the size of the U Boat in Chicago when I toured it - it was tiny!
The classic book on RN submarine warfare is Edward Young's One of Our Submarines. Later in the book he enters the Japanese war and as you say, at this time they were feeding on scraps.
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