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| - In the long history of submarines being used in warfare, which goes back at least to 1775... how many times do you think a submerged submarine has sunk another submerged submarine? 500? 200? 100? 50? 10? Actually, just once, during Operation Caesar in World War II, when HMS Venturer sank U-864. Good thing for the Allies too, since the U-864 was transporting advanced technology to Japan. But if you were to believe Hollywood, it's a regular occurrence. No matter what war, or what type of subs are involved... they will be fighting underwater. Examples:
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| abstract
| - In the long history of submarines being used in warfare, which goes back at least to 1775... how many times do you think a submerged submarine has sunk another submerged submarine? 500? 200? 100? 50? 10? Actually, just once, during Operation Caesar in World War II, when HMS Venturer sank U-864. Good thing for the Allies too, since the U-864 was transporting advanced technology to Japan. But if you were to believe Hollywood, it's a regular occurrence. No matter what war, or what type of subs are involved... they will be fighting underwater. During World War I and World War II, submarines were almost entirely episodically submersible torpedo boats, obliged to run on the surface using their air-breathing engines (mostly diesel-electric propulsion systems) for higher speed, greater endurance, and to charge the batteries that allowed them to maintain steerage and very slow speeds underwater. While surfaced, submarines were just as vulnerable to torpedo attacks made by submerged enemy submarines as any other vessel, but because of their lower profiles (small conning towers, decks almost awash) were difficult to detect visually, and thus rarely attacked by enemy submarines. Of the 52 submarines lost by the U.S. Navy in World War II, at least one - the USS Corvina (SS-226) - was confirmed torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine while running on the surface, while the Japanese lost five submarines to American submarine attacks. Three of the Japanese losses, all of them small RO-class boats, were credited to the USS Batfish during a single three-day period in February 1945. Two U-boat kills were also credited to American submarines, one being during WWI. Neither was confirmed. However, whilst the crew of the HMS Venturer only had paper, pencils and decent maths skills to plot a firing solution, modern subs have computers and advanced homing torpedoes - had the Cold War turned hot after the 1960s (not before then), there certainly would have been underwater submarine battles--and in fairness, that is when a large number of such sub battles are set (thank you, Tom Clancy!). NATO and Warsaw Pact submarines followed each other about all the time. Current American naval doctrine is to have each carrier battle group (structured around a Nimitz- or Gerald Ford class supercarrier) accompanied by two nuclear attack submarines (SSN) which include enemy sub-killing in their tasking - these are generally known as "Hunter-Killer" submarines. Examples:
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