from another forum .. and I seen the same program
Just saw a new National Geographic Explorer that found the U480 and solved the mystery. How could the German sub operate with impunity in the English Channel?
The secret? Stealth technology! A multi-rubber coating with air pockets applied to the hull prevented the "Ping" from destroyers from finding the sub. There were six built and none were descovered.
U480 was sunk by guile. The sub returmed to its prior successful hunting territory. The English diverted the convoys to another route, however, they left the lane markers intact and planted a mine field. U480 acted exactly as expected and the rest is history.
The multilayered rubber coating required laborous preparation and application. It sounds very much like the coatings applied to modern stealth aircraft, although the materials have certainly evolved. Apparently, the German secret never was determined although through "The Bomb," some code breaking device, it was determined that something was making the sub "invisible."
It's always a cat and mouse game and I wonder what the above water sailors knew and when they knew it?
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