Topp does not agree
In a famous interview where he said the Type XXI and Type XVIII would not have turned the tide of war. I agree. They would have been sitting ducks just waiting for someone to say goodbye. Training was impossible. Achieving numbers was impossible. US planes had droppable sonobuoys, which took DDs right out of the picture. The slave labor necessary to build anything was beginning to feel bold enough to engage in meaningful sabotage. The war was over. The vast majority of good U-Boat crews were dead. Isolated success would have had the same effect as the ME-262: nothing.
And like Ducimus said. The Walther was a bomb. All that would have been necessary was a near miss, the likes of which would merely have shaken other subs to make the sub itself into a very effective depth charge. The Walther design was as flawed as the ME-163 Komet. Kaboom! They were nice looking toys with more bark than bite.
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