entemedor
Posts: 65
Joined: 6/14/2002 From: Barcelona (Spain) Status: offline
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It's true that 58 Jap subs were sunk by DDs and DEs, but of these, how many in 1942? And in 1943? The vast majority were destroyed in 1944. Better radar, better sonar, better tactics and training... But out of the time-frame of UV. And sunk by aircraft... three plus one probable in the whole war. No wonder in our UV games we seldom see a sub killed from the air. We can't compare the battle of the Atlantic with the Pacific. In the Atlantic, more than 2/3 of U-boats destroyed by aircraft (not including carrier hunter-killer groups) were lost in the way in/way out of their patrol, this is, when crossing the Bay of Biscay (if based in France) or around the Shetland / Hebrides (if coming/going to Germany). Relatively small areas, patrolled day and night by British, Canadian, Australian and American aircraft. In the vast Pacific, there were no such easy 'kill zones'. As for surface gun attacks, there were a lot of them in the Pacific. The Japanese used large numbers of small vessels for coastal traffic and for its protection, even sampans and other sail types. US submarines killed them in huge numbers, but they are hardly mentioned in books; "US submarine operations in WW2" by Roscoe, for example, does not even list them in the official scores of the submarines. However, if you take a look at the Japanese side (for example "Warships of the IJN 1869-45" by Jentschura & Jung), you will learn how many auxiliary sub-chasers and minesweepers, tiny patrol craft etc were sunk by gunfire from US submarines. I will concede, however, that submarines in UV should submerge as soon as effective return fire is received. Excuse me for all this bla-bla-bla... The reason for it? Just to say that in my opinion, ASW operations for the period 1942-43 are reasonably well reproduced in UV. Although if anything is sure after reading all the posts in this thread, is that results vary enormously from game to game (good replay value for UV, then!). Last but not least, a petition! I want a list of successes by my individual submarines, just the way Top Kills are available for aircraft pilots. That would save me a lot of book-keeping... I just want to give some medals to my best commanders! Regards,
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