I wonder why...
 

the Allies didn't just have the merchant ships with different mast heights so that the U-boats wouldn't be able to tell the exact distance of the ship. Or why not have all the merchant ships sail in zigzag all the time? Now, I've never read any books on submarines or have any knowledge of naval warfare, so can anyone enlighten me on this? :doh:

Sailing zig zag uses more fuel
Fuel was at a premium
Convoys sailed from A to B at the fastest speed of the slowest ship in the convoy

Even plotted turns were a nightmare trying to get all ships in sync at the same time

As to mast heights - well they were different
There were hundreds of types of merchant ships on the seas in WW2
The game only has a fraction

Given the size of many convoys, the huge area of ocean covered, the differences in nationalities and language, it was a huge challenge just to keep all the ships steaming in their lanes on a straight course. Zig-zag courses were a nightmare to co-ordinate, especially in bad weather and limited visibility, and with radio communication blackouts and often only a handful of escorts to handle things.

J.S. Balz writes:

You're all a bunch of nitwitz. Allies Zag-zigged while we tried to figure their zig-zagging. We lost war. Keiz Klozet.

KptLt. Johan Sebastian Balz the Magnificent :smug:

That's probably how the majority of convoy stragglers were generated. Zigged when I should have zagged.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm still a bit puzzled.

So does that mean they had info on all the Allied ships into a book or did they have some other way of finding the distance?

They probably had something quite similar to the ONI manual the US navy used.

http://www.history-on-cdrom.com/0c1c20c0.jpg
http://www.history-on-cdrom.com/0c2c20a0.jpg

As intimated earlier....general Class names/types only.
However, in the case of prominent and 'one off' vessels eg: Queen Mary, they would have precise details :arrgh!:

There is a book specific to uboats for ship identification
Similar to the US ONI ones
If only I could remember the name :damn:

GWX Recognition Manual :lol:

:roll: Sigh

Humour him

I think one of the German equivalents was called Weyers' Flottentaschenbuch. Warships of the World...sorta similar to Jane's Ships.