If you haven't seen it already, take a look at this article posted on the Naval History and Heritage Command site. It's a transcript of a letter from Capt. Lyman A, Cotten, commander at Base 27 (Plymouth, England) to Capt. Arthur J. Hepburn, commander of the subchaser base at New London, CT.
There is a lot of great detail about subchaser operations, and the technical issues the chaser crews were dealing with. Cotten mentions damage to the Tubes during the overseas voyage and other needed repairs, and talks about the seaworthiness of the boats. He also notes that the chasers acted as an entirely U.S. force, unlike the destroyers (which acted more or less under the command of the British navy).
Some of the more interesting notes are on tacticts: Cotten notes that the very early plan for six-chaser units had been abandoned in favor of units of three chasers, which would be the norm for the duration of the war. He also mentions the ongoing work of adding the radio telephone in the chaser fleet. While the chasers were the smallest commissioned vessels in the U.S. Navy, they received this new communications technology earlier than many larger warships, due to their need for rapid ship-to-ship communication in hunts and pursuits of U-boats.
And he mentions his first experience on a chaser: "Have been able to get out for one hunt only on a Sub Chaser. It was most interesting, but, I am compelled to say, most uncomfortable."
It's well worth taking a look. Thanks to Dennis Conrad for sending in the link.
--Todd Woofenden, editor
Added this month:
Added to the Chaser Models >> Kits section is the Dumas model (which was oddly missing). See that page for links to some completed kit project pages. And please let me know if I missed other examples. Also, as mentioned last month, it would be nice to add box art images, if someone has the packaging for this model.