They took American "scrap" and fitted them with some underwater streamlining after the war, no mods to the working gear itself and outperformed the Type XXI on the surface and submerged.And this with an actual battle tested fightable submarine, not some wet behind the ears wishful thought that never saw combat. After all the Type XXI was just copying the World War I shape of the American S-Boat. We abandoned better underwater performance for good reason and the results showed the Americans were right.
American scrap was better than an untested and not ready for prime-time Type XXI, much less any other German U-Boat. They could have streamlined the fleet boat for increased underwater performance any time, but it would have made it a much less effective fighting machine by encouraging the ostrich strategy of fighting a submarine. Diesel submarines are surface craft that can submerge for the shortest possible amount of time when it's absolutely necessary. When fought that way they are maximally effective. The best submarine for that purpose by far is the American fleet boat.
By the way, I am surprised that your name passes the smell test here at SUBSIM. It sure doesn't pass mine.
Last edited by Rockin Robbins; 03-21-09 at 05:11 PM.
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