Why Japanese Feared American Submarines More Than Anything Else2

Описание: Why Japanese Feared American Submarines More Than Anything Else

The story of how American submarines became the most feared weapon in the Pacific began not with dominance, but with failure. On December 7th, 1941, as Japanese planes roared over Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Asiatic Fleet’s 29 submarines waited off the Philippines, untested and ill-equipped. Within hours, Admiral Thomas Hart issued one of the most consequential orders in naval history: unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan. Every Japanese vessel—merchant, military, or civilian—was now a target. But the American submarines were woefully unprepared for the brutal efficiency that order demanded. Their primary weapon, the Mark 14 torpedo, was defective. It ran too deep, exploded prematurely, or didn’t explode at all. For 18 months, American submariners fired torpedoes that thudded uselessly against enemy hulls. They called it the sound of betrayal. In those early months, Japanese sailors mocked the enemy’s incompetence. They believed the Silent Death was little more than a rumor. But war has a way of turning irony into terror.
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Why Japanese Feared American Submarines More Than Anything Else