Скачать или смотреть The Destroyer Escort That Sank 6 Japanese Submarines in 12 Days — USS England’s Hedgehog Secret

Why USS England became the deadliest submarine hunter of World War 2 — and erased 6 Japanese submarines in just 12 days. This WW2 story reveals how a “failed” British weapon called Hedgehog turned anti-submarine warfare into a mathematics problem… and made escape impossible.

May 19, 1944. Lieutenant Commander Walton B. Pendleton stood in USS England’s Combat Information Center north of Bougainville as sonar held a steady contact: Japanese submarine I-16. England was only a Buckley-class destroyer escort—smaller than fleet destroyers, built to escort and survive. But on her bow sat the weapon most captains didn’t trust: Hedgehog, twenty-four forward-throwing spigot mortars that only exploded on direct contact. Depth charges had “worked” for decades. Fleet officers said Hedgehog was unproven. Early success rates were miserable.

They were all wrong.

What Pendleton proved that night wasn’t about bigger explosions. It was about never losing sonar contact during the attack—striking forward instead of dropping charges behind and blindly hoping the sub stayed there. One kill became two. Then three. Then the NA patrol line began collapsing: RO-106, RO-104, RO-116, RO-108, RO-105—one after another—until England’s patrol became the Pacific Fleet’s most ruthless anti-submarine spree.

By the end of May 31, the lesson was clear: Hedgehog wasn’t luck. It was method. Track, predict, fire, confirm. And once the fleet copied England’s timing and firing solutions, Japanese submarines couldn’t outrun the math. The tactic spread through the Pacific in 1944 and shaped how navies think about submarine hunting long after WWII ended.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: This is entertainment storytelling inspired by WW2 events and publicly available sources. Some details may be simplified or dramatized for narrative and discussion. This is not an academic reference. For verified history, consult professional historians and archival records.