"IJN subs and allied merchant sinkings 1942-1943" Topic
4 Posts
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lapatrie88 | 30 Jul 2014 8:55 p.m. PST |
Tango01's recent postings about German subs in the Pacific and Indian theaters raises the question about the sparse documentation in English about IJN offensive submarine operations. Are there good books to recommend? Between June 1942 and Nov 1943 there were a good number of Allied merchant ships lost , documented by US Merchant Marine usmm.org and ozatwar.com. Several of these can be attributed to a handful of boats in Submarine Squadron 3 operating out of Truk (combinedfleet.com). The base in Panang also was active in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. It can be inferred that the IJN made an earnest submarine offensive during the period of balance between Midway and the invasion of Bougainville. Which historians have explored this thesis? |
Charlie 12 | 31 Jul 2014 5:41 p.m. PST |
None that I'm aware of. The sad fact is that the IJN's submarines performed far below what they should have, given the type of equipment and their numbers. |
lapatrie88 | 01 Aug 2014 4:38 p.m. PST |
Coastal, thank you for the comments. No argument from me that IJN had little to compare with German and US submarine achievement, although finishing off Yorktown , sinking Wasp and keeping Saratoga in port under repair did hurt the USN, all in this same period. There may be additional evidence that Japan did undertake a limited offensive against Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, a change in submarine strategy that would have made sense in that war situation. Even though the success was small, this effort ( if factual ), argues against the traditional generalization that the IJN completely neglected merchant targets because of the Bushido Code. There may be some interesting history here, that Japanese leadership were actively contesting the Allies for the initiative until late in 1943, and their submarines were part of this effort. There is a distinction between making no effort, and having an effort defeated by the enemy. Have picked up from Barnes and Noble: Carl Boyd, The Japanese Submarine Force and WW2 David Grogan, Operating Below Crush Depth. |
Chouan | 08 Aug 2014 6:05 a.m. PST |
The war at sea in the far east was a particularly bloody affair. At least if one were on a Merchant Vessel in the Atlantic there wouldn't be the risk of being machine-gunned or beheaded if one were torpedoed. link link link link |
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