United States Navy

During the Washington Conference of 1920, the Americans took a hard look at their Navy. They had a Navy second only to the British, and like the Royal Navy, they had to protect interests in two oceans. Yet voluntarily they gave up building several ships and scrapped others.

Starting on the day of the Pearl Harbor raid, the US Navy fleet submarines designed in the 1930’s had a standing order: sink whatever you can of the enemy’s military and merchant fleet. Yamamoto had a different standing order for his boats: save your torpedoes and go for the capital ships. Both strategies had very different implications for their navies.

On March 1, 1942, a US Navy PBO Ventura sank U-656 off the Canadian coast. For three critical months, the United States had no success against the U-boats, while the East Coast was increasingly unsafe for American ships.