There was nothing wrong with the quality of Uboat crews and the Japanese navy in the early stages of the war. Take the Battle of the Java sea for example. True they lost confidence after Midway.

Since this was 1941 it must include what was left of Vichy. Strasbourg managed to escape from the besieged port with four destroyers. The allies came worst off at Dakar since HMS Resolution was so heavily damaged that it had to be towed to Cape town.

Although the Italians capital ships were ineffective (in the later stages fuel was a factor) they did require a British Mediteranean fleet to be present, and the Decima Flottiglia MAS were very effective, sinking two British battleships amongst many other exploits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decima_Flottiglia_MAS

Originally Posted by perseus

There was nothing wrong with the quality of Uboat crews and the Japanese navy in the early stages of the war. Take the Battle of the Java sea for example. True they lost confidence after Midway.

Since this was 1941 it must include what was left of Vichy. Strasbourg managed to escape from the besieged port with four destroyers. The allies came worst off at Dakar since HMS Resolution was so heavily damaged that it had to be towed to Cape town.

Although the Italians capital ships were ineffective (in the later stages fuel was a factor) they did require a British Mediteranean fleet to be present, and the Decima Flottiglia MAS were very effective, sinking two British battleships amongst many other exploits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decima_Flottiglia_MAS

I really don't think Decima MAS can be added to the naval pool though despite the excellent work they did they were no real threat to the Allied fleets as a whole.

I really think that if you look at the number of Allied ships sunk by the surface fleets of Germany, Italy and Vichy France you will still have a couple of fingers left over to count the number of competent Japanese naval commanders.

I have deliberately left Uboats out of this mix as they were primarily engaged in merchant sinkings and outside a couple of lucky breaks early on before escorts were available they were ineffective against combat vessels.