Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
The first convoy left Capetown for Gibraltar on September 3. By October there were up to 16 convoys at sea at any one time.
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Hmm, i wonder which ships were sunk then ? Compared to all ships heading to or from England convoys were the exception as far as i read, in 1939 and the first half of 1940 ?
You may be right, but in most of the accounts that have been published the few convoys that were, were scarcely defended, if at all.
Seldomly a real destroyer, but often just harbour tugs and hastily repaired ships of all kinds, pressed into duty. Up to 1941 seldomly a corvette, but those were slower than the U-boats, which would just outrun them on the surface.
What rendered the ASDIC useless was that the boats were going in surfaced, at full speed like a "Schnellboot", so ASDIC was pretty useless and few ships had radar - even then a U-boat closer than 1000 meters was invisible on a radar screen, so the boats were relatively secure at night.
Most accounts well into 1940 show U-boats halting single freighters, still under the prize law (giving a warning shot, control papers, and then let a neutral go, or sink a british vessel). I admit England reacted much faster however, than it had in WW1. After 1940 usually only fast ships like modern freighters or troop ships sailed alone, relying on their speed and the U-boats being interested in the convoys.
Greetings,
Catfish