In February of the 16th year of ZTE, Admiral Di Wolf of the Chinese Navy took over as commander-in-chief of the submarine detachment of the Pacific Fleet on the attack nuclear submarine Typhoon, which is a thought-provoking thing.

It is normal for the new commander-in-chief of the submarine detachment to regard submarines as flagships, because his troops are all submarines.

And another, Nimitz, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, also announced his inauguration on the submarine. Although Nimitz was born as a submariner, he regarded the submarine as his flagship, which was completely different from Di Wolf, and it was not out of personal feelings.

At that time, the large surface ships suitable for the flagship of the United States were either sunk under the water or sailed at sea for repairs back to the west coast. In this critical situation, the inauguration ceremony of the commander of the fleet had to be held on the submarine.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the only naval force available to the United States to counterattack Japan was submarines. On December 7, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations ordered unrestricted submarine warfare against the island nation of Japan. This "dolphin-style naval force" refers to the submarine force.

Rise up to the enemy and engage in a tacit and protracted war of attrition in order to cut off Japan's main artery, the sea supply war, and inflict heavy losses on Japan. Although the US submarine force suffered a series of misfortunes in the early stage of the war due to poor equipment, its contribution to seizing respite is incomparable with that of other arms.

The reason why the US submarine force has been able to achieve outstanding results is not only because of the commander's proper command and the technical proficiency of the submariners, but also because it has a complete set of tactics. This set of tactics is very flexible and has been continuously improved in the light of actual combat experience and changing operational characteristics. And the well-trained and combat-brave submarine force of the Japanese Navy. However, due to misuse and lack of foresight on the part of the High Command, most of the forces were not fully utilized.

One should not forget that the attack on Pearl Harbor was actually not the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier that fired first, but the pocket submarines that tried to enter the harbor first to act. As described in Chapter 7, a Japanese pocket submarine was sunk by a U.S. destroyer 70 minutes before the first carrier-based aircraft began to flank the attack. A total of five of these pocket submarines were sent to the site on specially modified I-type submarines and were part of the Japanese advance force.

The main tasks of this powerful submarine force were to conduct reconnaissance, report on the movements of enemy aircraft carriers and attack enemy ships attempting to flee the harbor. Although Japan has not achieved any results in using its pocket submarines this time, we can see from it its guiding ideology in using submarines.

Despite the success of German submarines in World War I and the great damage inflicted on Allied ships in the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II, Japan still did not recognize the role of submarines in disrupting sea lines of communication.

Not only did Japan have no plans to use its submarine forces to disrupt the sea lines of communication of its allies. There are no plans to use such forces to protect the country's sea lines of communication. One of the basic tactical principles of the use of submarines by the Japanese army was: Cooperate with the fleet with all your might. In addition, the Japanese Navy very much underestimated the potential power of US submarines, so when the Nagumo Mobile Force attacked Pearl Harbor, it did not touch the US submarine base.

Submarine activity at the beginning of World War II. American submarines are growing rapidly in real combat.

As mentioned earlier. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was almost simultaneously accompanied by a major attack on the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, Sulawesi, Halmahera, Malaya, and French Indochina, which were rich in oil, rubber, manganese, copper, and rice.

Due to the embargo imposed by the United States on Japan in July 41 of the twentieth century. Japan had no choice but to start using the 6.45 million tons of oil reserves. If Japan could not enter the Dutch East Indies, it would sooner or later fall into an oil crisis. Therefore, the following three things must be done: First. seizure of oil fields in the South Sea resource region; second, to rely on its own strength to carry out appropriate development; Third, ship the product back to your home country.

At that time, the allies were weak in the Far East and were helpless against the realization of the first two attempts of Japan, however, the Allied submarines could prevent it from realizing the third attempt. The submarine carried out an attack on Japan's sea shipping of oil and other strategic materials to the country.

The United States originally had two submarine forces in the Pacific Theater: one was the submarine force of the Asian Fleet, which was based in Cavite (in Manila Bay). The other is the submarine force of the Pacific Fleet, which is based at Pearl Harbor. At that time, the submarine force of the Asian Fleet had 6 S-class submarines, 23 large submarines, 3 submarine supply ships and 1 lifeboat. S-class submarines are relatively old, with small tonnage, poor living conditions, and a small combat radius.

This type of submarine does not have a name, only a number. As soon as a new boat is incorporated into the combat sequence, such submarines are withdrawn from the first line and incorporated into training units. Large submarines named after fish or other marine animals have good combat performance.

The submarine "Little Shark", built in 41 years of the twentieth century, is of this type, with a displacement of 1,500 tons on the water, a length of 95 meters, a combat radius of 1,200 nautical miles, 6 torpedo tubes in the bow and 4 torpedo tubes in the stern, which can carry 24 torpedoes, and is equipped with 1 80-mm gun and 4 machine guns on the deck. There were 8 officers and 80 soldiers on board. This is the basic type of submarine that the US military uses to fight the Japanese army.

The task of the American submarines, which were put into battle as soon as the war began, was to support the anti-landing operations in the Philippines. These submarines were ordered to reconnoiter the Japanese anti-submarine alert and anti-submarine means while cautiously advancing the defensive line. A defensive line was established around Luzon and a number of submarines were deployed to monitor and intercept the enemy.

During this period, the submarine "Sea Lion", which was being repaired in Cavite, was destroyed in the first air raid by the Japanese army. It was the first of 52 submarines lost by the United States during the war. At that time, in the Asian sea zone, the number of Japanese combat ships was overwhelming.

Therefore, for the Allied fleet, every combat ship was invaluable. After the sinking of the "Prince Vertu" and "Counterattack", the largest warship in the surface ship forces of the Allied forces in the Far East was left with a heavy cruiser.

Although the Allied submarine forces resisted, they achieved little success. In December, 28 U.S. submarines launched 31 attacks on Japanese landing convoys bound for the Philippines, firing 66 torpedoes. Only 2 Japanese ships were sunk.

The attack by the US submarine force did not go well. Although the US submarine occupied a favorable torpedo firing position, the torpedoes fired either missed the target or exploded prematurely. This shows that the US Navy's torpedoes had serious flaws in their design, so they did not destroy the Japanese transport ships and did not achieve the purpose of delaying the actions of the Japanese army.

On 21 December, the Japanese landing force landed at Inyain Bay in order to capture Manila. At that time, due to the lack of spare parts, none of the US submarines were able to participate in the battle to defend Inyain Bay. Under strict vigilance, the Japanese landing force skillfully made use of the natural conditions such as shoal waters and reefs in Renyain Bay to prevent US submarines from attacking and harassing it.

Only the S-38 submarine boldly broke through its cordon. Sink 1 transport ship about to enter the anchorage. The submarine "SEAL" carried out a torpedo attack on a small cargo ship bound for the landing area.

Due to the growing threat of Japanese troops to bases near Manila. The naval forces of the allied countries withdrew on their own initiative. John. The submarine forces of the Asian Fleet, commanded by Admiral Wilkes, were first withdrawn to the port of Darwin and later transferred to Fremantle off the southwest coast of Australia. Only the submarine supply ship "Canopus" was left in Manila Bay to ensure that the submarine continued to operate.

This submarine unit, in addition to continuing to carry out patrols. It is also necessary to take on the task of evacuation and resupply. Say. Submarines must assist the relevant units in the relocation of civilians and important military personnel to other locations. Evacuation of certain belongings from the besieged Bataan Peninsula and the island of Herod in Gori, as well as the delivery of supplies such as food, medicine, and ammunition for the dwindling garrison.

The first to carry out this task was the submarine "Seawolf", which delivered 37 tons of ammunition. Evacuated 25 army and navy pilots, some important submarine spare parts and 16 torpedoes on board the submarine supply ship "Canopus".

During the operation in the Java Sea, the submarine did not achieve much success, but the US military began to establish a submarine patrol area and began to improve submarine tactics.

In the early days, submarines usually carried out daytime attacks at periscope depths. In order not to be discovered by the other party, only the periscope is stretched out for a short observation. In this method of attack, only noise direction finding devices are used instead of echoing hydroacoustic devices to avoid revealing one's position.

The original periscope could not accurately measure the distance to the target, while the sonar could only provide the bearing of the target. As a result, submarine commanders often ignore the factor of distance when carrying out torpedo attacks. Soon a rangefinder was installed on the periscope.

The submarine captain also knew that by occasionally using sonar to determine the distance, he would not reveal his position. After being able to accurately determine the distance to the target, the US submarine can carry out a torpedo attack with more certainty.

At this time, German submarines had begun to use the tactics of night water attack, however, the US Navy still used daytime attack at periscope depth as the basic tactic of submarines. In order to make it difficult for aerial reconnaissance to detect, the hulls of American submarines were painted with black camouflage, which did not serve much camouflage for submarines operating on the surface at night.

In addition, without a periscope with good performance for night use, it is difficult for submarines to attack at periscope depth after dark. Later experience proved that the sides of the hull were painted with gray lacquer, which had a good camouflage effect on night operations.

With periscopes that perform well and are suitable for night use, submarines are prone to night attacks at periscope depths. However, it was not until the American submarines had become a mobile and flexible weapon that they had become a mobile and flexible weapon that they could attack Japanese ships day and night with great confidence until they had been equipped with a more accurate automatic torpedo calculator (TDC), equipped with a radar with good performance, and the quality of the torpedoes had been greatly improved.

The greater the scope of Japan's aggression to the south, the more chances there are that its ships will be attacked by US submarines. Nevertheless, from the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Battle of the Coral Sea, the losses suffered by the Japanese ships were not significant. During this period, only 3 Japanese ships were sunk by Allied submarines, and none of them were larger than destroyers. 2 submarines and 35 merchant ships. But after that, the American submarines mastered the laws of Japan's maritime shipping, and thus achieved great results.

The Japanese used submarines to support fleet operations, which was most typical in the later Battle of Midway. In this naval battle, the Japanese sent submarines to operate alone or in a curtain in the designated waters to reconnoiter the movements of the American fleet and intercept it.

At that time, the Japanese deployed two submarine reconnaissance vessels between Pearl Harbor and Midway, but the Japanese submarines occupied positions too late to detect and intercept the US aircraft carrier formation. In this naval battle. Only the I-168 submarine achieved remarkable results, sinking the aircraft carrier "Yorktown" and the destroyer "Harman".

The U.S. submarine forces deployed in the waters off the coast west of Midway also achieved little success. While the aircraft carriers of the two sides were fighting, the US submarine "Nautilus" fired a torpedo at the aircraft carrier "Kaga," but it did not explode, and it mistakenly believed that it had sunk the aircraft carrier "Soryu." During the night of the same day, the heavy cruisers "Mogami" and "Mikuma" collided with each other while maneuvering to avoid the submarine "Tamper". After the "Mikuma" was damaged, its speed was reduced and it became an assault target for the carrier-based aircraft of the US aircraft carrier.

China, which has always attached importance to the development of submarines, entered the war. A large number of submarines entered the Pacific Ocean. The development of Chinese submarines dates back to World War I. The first combat ship that China had, not a destroyer, but a submarine.

In World War I, Chen Shao exported China's first-generation submarines to Germany. It also added a lot of luster to Germany's submarine forces.

The type and displacement of the submarine. It has also gone through three generations. Not counting those improved types, the real three grades. From the initial Xia-class submarines of several hundred tons, to the Shang-class submarines of thousands of tons. Up to now, there are more than 2,000-ton Zhou-class submarines, and there are also Typhoon attack nuclear submarines with an underwater displacement of 5,000 or 6,000 tons.

Develop three generations by yourself, and the Red Police Base will come directly to the next generation. Recently, another submarine has been added to the submarine force, and the Chinese Navy has begun to build the first nuclear-powered submarine when it began to design and build the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. After many years of testing, the submarine is now approaching maturity and is also beginning to be mass-produced.

Compared with the U.S. submarine force, China's submarine force has been in use for a longer time, and the exchanges with the German submarine force are also very close, and China can also be familiar with many tactics widely used in the German submarine force. Moreover, China's submarine forces also have their own set of tactical tactics.

You must know that the British Eastern Fleet was buried under China's submarine force. It was also from that time that China's submarine forces really matured.

Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of the Atlantic, the two most famous classic naval battles since World War II, also secretly have the shadow of the Chinese submarine force.

Although China has not been in the war for a very long time, and its submarine forces may be a little worse than the United States in actual combat, after more than half a year of sea competition, China has basically won the game with US submarines in the Pacific Ocean.

Although there are many factors influencing this, especially in terms of intelligence and the gap in the level of submarines, this is the case on the battlefield, which is originally a test of comprehensive strength. The era of fair duels has long disappeared from the battlefield.

After the landing of the Chinese army on Guadalcanal, it entered an active defensive phase. The Brisbane-based Chinese submarine force, commanded by Rear Admiral Liu Lingfei, commander of the Southwest Pacific Submarine Force, established a submarine patrol area near the Bismarck Islands and New Guinea to attack Allied ships.

This submarine force was responsible for blocking the Allied bases in Rabaul, Kavian, Buin, Lae and Sarainga and preventing Allied reinforcements to the South Solomon Islands as much as possible. At the same time, the Chinese submarine forces at the submarine bases on Jeju Island and the Ryukyu Islands have tightened the blockade of Truk Island, which is known as the "Gibraltar of the Pacific Ocean."

In the battle for Guadalcanal, in addition to sinking the light cruiser "Tianlong", one old destroyer, and one large submarine, Chinese submarines also sank 79 merchant ships, totaling 260,000 tons. The Chinese submarines also skillfully sank an Allied heavy cruiser. This is the "Gagu", which had just participated in the naval battle of Savo Island and was returning victoriously with the formation. On the morning of the next day of the Battle of Savo Island, when the "Gagu" was about to return to Rabaul, the submarine Zhou-44, which was lying in ambush near the entrance to the harbor, launched a torpedo attack on it, hitting four torpedoes.

This successful attack more or less compensated for the losses of the Chinese army on the battlefield. More importantly, however, it made the Allies more cautious in their subsequent use of surface ships to carry the Tokyo Express.

The Allies also often used submarines to support operations in the Solomon Islands, but the task of submarines was not to try to disrupt the Chinese army's sea supply lines, but to concentrate all their efforts on attacking the combat ships of the Pacific Theater Attack Fleet. Now that Allied submarines have appeared in this area, China has no choice but to concentrate its forces that are ready to be sent to other waters in order to vigorously strengthen its submarine defenses.

For example, in April of the 16th year of Zhongxing, an escort convoy of the Chinese army sailed from the Philippines to Guadalcanal, and encountered a group of Japanese submarines from the Allied forces during the crossing. In addition to being on strict alert, this escort convoy also had two escort aircraft carriers and many cruisers and destroyers to cover it.

It may be inappropriate to call these Japanese submarine tactics wolf pack tactics, since they neither carry out coordinated attacks nor operate under the unified command of a single tactical commander.

An escort aircraft carrier of nearly 10,000 tons and a perimeter frigate were torpedoed one after another, and the time interval of the torpedo attacks was about 10 minutes. As a result, the frigate was heavily damaged, the escort carrier caught fire and burned, the personnel abandoned the ship and sank, and the frigate was badly damaged and sank before entering the floating dock.

On the other hand, the Japanese submarine forces lost nearly half of their submarines under the combined strike of anti-submarine destroyers and anti-submarine helicopters.

An important feature of this Japanese submarine attack is worth noting: they did not touch the convoy in the slightest. This is because the Japanese commander was convinced that only warships could represent combat effectiveness at sea, and only warships were worthy of attack.

After that, in the battle for the Solomon Islands, the Japanese submarine forces sank only two combat ships: the destroyer Jinan, which was sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, and the cruiser Xinjiang, which was sunk in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

The Chinese submarine force served as a strategic support mission in the battle for the Solomon Islands, that is, to set up ambushes near bases such as Truk, Palau and Rabaul to attack Allied surface ships entering and leaving these areas.

In addition, it was responsible for monitoring the Bismarck Islands and its nearby straits, as well as providing support to MacArthur's forces advancing along the Papua Peninsula. Such a deployment will enable the Chinese submarine not to enter the operational sea area at all, thus greatly reducing the risk of the submarine being accidentally damaged by its own surface vessels.

This is an important measure. As soon as aircraft and surface ships spot submarines, they attack them, often after the fight. Due to errors in identifying signals, at least two submarines of the Chinese army have been strafed and bombed by their own aircraft, and another five submarines have been shelled by their surface ships. Fortunately, no tragedy occurred.

Situations like this are common in the US submarine forces. Because the threat of Chinese submarines is too great, once the sonar finds a suspicious target, many US warships are highly nervous. According to incomplete statistics, after China entered the war, as many as 34 of its own submarines were injured in the US anti-submarine forces, of which 28 were directly sunk. This figure is more than twice the total number of Chinese submarines they have sunk.

There have been a number of exceptions to the use of submarines by the Chinese military, namely the dispatch of a Zhou-class submarine to the port of Tulagi in May when the battle for Guadalcanal was in full swing and the situation was critical. This was the only time in the Pacific War that China used a submarine as an oil tanker.

As a wolf who has spent half his life on submarines, after the start of the war, a new submarine force code was issued.

Because the submariner is the hardest of all the arms, there is no one. Taking into account the tense situation of the war, in order to soothe the spirit and state of the soldiers, they can bring out their best energy after the next voyage. After all submarines return from patrol duty, they must be able to provide their crews with adequate rest and necessary recreational life. Therefore, both officers and soldiers have to go to sanatoriums or special hotels for recuperation after their shifts.

In this way, the crew returning from duty at sea is not responsible for the affairs of their own boat until the submarine begins to prepare for the next mission. Even the captain of the boat does not have any legal responsibility for the boat during this period, but the submarine officer outside the combat formation is responsible for carrying out the repair and maintenance plan of the boat.

After the equipment maintenance and personnel recuperation were completed as planned, the original crew members of the boat immediately returned to the boat, went to sea for a few days to review the old subjects for training, and then set sail to carry out patrol duties. Practice has proved to be very beneficial for the crews to maintain high morale at all times in order to complete their combat missions. (To be continued......)