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el cid again -> In defense of Captain Orita (11/7/2005 11:34:28 AM)
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quote:
He would not have been qualified to make that judgement, since he was not informed as to the number of attacks launched vs the number of attacks that succeeded. That's one of the problems with anecdotes. They're not worth dreck.
In his first book (I Boat Captain) Capt Orita reviewed all Japanese submarine attacks - using data from Japanese sources. Decades later, he co authored a USNI book with an American Historian - and does the same thing with data from both sides. [See The Japanese Submarine Force and World War II - Boyd and Orita]. He is probably tied for first place as a person whose opinion is to be respected in Japanese submarine matters.
Note that the Japanese REPORTED a hit every time a kaiten was heard to explode. Being submerged they could not see the hit- so they assumed it. It was not until after the war they could get data from the other side.
The Kaiten concept was not stupid - it was a pioneer of the concept of the guided torpedo. During the war, Germany, the USA and Japan experimented with guided torpedoes - acoustic and wire - but the technology was barely up to the task. A Kaiten was an attempt to substitute a human as both sensor and guidance computer. Today, we often have humans in the guidance loop - but they are on the launching submarine and send signals along a wire to the torpedo. The Kaiten was anything but a completely decisive weapon - but it was dangerous - because if you got hit it had a big warhead. In addition to the sunk ships mentioned, there were a number of damaged ships.
I think I have figured out how to put the Kaiten in WITP - and am testing it now. I do not rate it as very likely to hit - it is a one torpedo spread - but you won't like it if it does hit.
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