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seydlitz_slith -> (8/19/2002 1:45:09 AM)
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by John Lansford
[B]However, I feel that the USN ASW capability is still underrated. I've had CV's escorted by 9 destroyers get torpedoed by submarines at least twice, and both times the sub got away completely undetected. I've yet to see either side's ASW air assets make a successful attack on a sub as well. In fact, I've sunk only two IJN subs even though I'm in December 1942, and one of the subs was sunk in Rabaul as the result of a bombing raid! [/B][/QUOTE]
I am playing two PBEM games with Strollen. In the first game, which is scenario 17, I am the Japs. It is approx turn 85. I know for a fact that I have sunk at least two US subs by using hunter killer DD groups and sending them to hexes where my aircraft have spotted subs. I have also damaged a further two, and possibly sunk one additional sub with my airborne ASW assets.
My success has not come from that game over-rating Jap ASW tactics. It has come from my specific concentration on sub hunting.
In fact, If a sub finds one of my convoys or task forces, it is often bad news for my boys. However, when I go out with the right equipment and specifically hunt for the subs, I have much better success. For me, the optimum tactic is to take 30-40 LBA and PA aircraft and set them to ASW patrol at 1000 ft. I will even take some of the floatplanes, especially the slower Petes, and set them to ASW instead of naval search. After I fix the location where the subs are operating, I keep the air assets up, and send in the hunter-killer group of one or two DD groups of 4-6 DDs. They sit on top of the contact and run it to ground.
Regarding ASW for the US, I have lost about 4 Jap subs, two on this past turn, to US ASW forces. In fact, if the Jap sub misses, often the consequences are not real good for my I-boat drivers.
In our other game, Scenario 19, I am the U.S. Looking from the other side of the coin, I have made submerged attacks on some of his Jap ships (missed the Shokaku but hit Haguro) and gotten clear away. Luckily he hasn't managed to engage me decisively with the Jap subs yet.
The important thing that everyone seems to be forgetting is that in this time period, you didn't have sonobouys, towed sonar arrays, or helos with dippiing sonars. You had hydrophones for passive listening and sonar for active pinging. The ability of these devices to work is directly related to the speed of the ships using them. The faster a ship is going, the less effective the ability to detect the sub prior to the attack will be. In fact, at anything over 11kts, the ability to detect drops down to almost nothing. That is why the Jap subs (and American) are able to penetrate and attack your task forces without being detected in advance.
Don
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