US WWII Submarine Service?

Question

I've seen several movies about WWII in the Pacific lately. But to me, the service who did the most to win the war in the Pacific was the American Submarine Service.

U.S. submarines sank almost all of Japan's freighters and about half their war ships. It was because of the submarine service that Japan couldn't get raw materials to replace the carriers and planes they lost at Midway and other battles throughout the war.

It's known that U.S. submarines sank several troop and supply ships which were being sent to re-inforce Guadacanal, Iwo Jima and Saipan and if these ships had gotten through these battles may have turned out very differently.

It was because of the US submarine service that Japan couldn't get more airplanes to the Phillipines and with more air power the battle at Leyte Gulf could have turned out differently.

Do you think the U.S. submarine service gets the recognition it deserves in modern movies and books about WWII in the Pacific?

Answer 1

Yes, the subs are what really won the war in the Pacific. The fact that the JIN ended up using their subs as freighters shows just how much the Japanese supply lines were degraded. The Japanese themselves realized it was the subs that beat them, they were the ones who had no food.

Answer 2

The us submarines did do a lot off good things in ww2, including cutting off the supply lines for the japaneese. But to say that they won the pacific war is to neglichie two other major forces in that war: Fast carrier force and us marines. But the bottom line in winining ww2 is that america had an outstanding production capacity meaning that they could sqeeze out carriers, subs landing ships and soldiers at a rate that tored down all of the oponents. Johan

Answer 3

During the 40's-70's there were lots of WW2 US sub movies that were good and they got full credit for there achievements. It would be nice if they would make some new movies but not as stupid as U-557. There were plenty of real life action without stupid stories from the Hollywood deadheads. as for battles turning out differently I don't think so the pilot shortage was the Japanese air forces biggest head ache and resulted in them throwing in totally green pilots that were quickly picked off by our vastly better trained and better equipped pilots. There pilots were doomed as soon as we fielded the Hellcat and Corsair fighters. The Japanese navy yards were to few to compete with the USA but they could have put more ships out if they had the material and fuel. However this only would have given us more targets. You have to remember we really were handicapped by very bad torpedo's in the early part of the war. This was the only part of the war where the Japanese had any chance at all of wining.

Answer 4

That is one of the reasons they are called the silent service. Yes they did do a lot and yes we did lose a lot of submarines as well. But they were just one part of the whole operations planning. Most of the time they operated independently of the other Naval forces either alone or in Wolf packs on occassion.

The most important contribution they made to the war effort is the least reported and the least known. That was of intelligence i.e. spying on the Japanese Fleet movements, Like number of ships and types of ships. and keeping our fleet imformed to the position direction and speed of the Japnese battle fleets and strike forces.

Answer 5

The Submarine Service was instrumental in WWII... they accomplished their mission of "Sea-Lane Control", and also served as intel-gatherers and as aircrew lifeboats...

But, it also takes the Fast Carrier and Amphib groups to accomplish the OTHER missions of Power-Projection and Assault.

But YES... the Silent Service did great things early in the war that weren't as well covered in the press.

And it's RARE you'll ever hear me say nice things about my "Bubblehead" shipmates since my career was in ASW and Submariners consider all ships "targets".

God Bless the Greatest Generation, and the Bubbleheads that followed them