World War I losses shaped later ASW practice

Extra Japanese destroyers might have exploited American reluctance to zigzag early in the war. American commanders had a reasoned belief that fast ships were difficult submarine targets and did not yet possess the same institutional warning as the Royal Navy. Britain had lost the cruisers Aboukir, Cressy, and Hogue to submarines in a single World War I disaster. That experience drove the Royal Navy to fit hydrophones, ASDIC, or equivalent detection equipment where possible and to make zigzagging habitual. Remembered losses can shape later construction requirements and operating doctrine even when the original ships and circumstances have changed.