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Originally Posted by Letum
The tactics would be vastly diffrent to U-boat tactics as such a large sub could not hide underwater from a destroyer.
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This presents another problem - you cant safely stay on the surface if there are aircraft about and you cant dive if there are warships about - what happens whern both are present? 
It would be hard to defend such a craft from attack, however in open ocean it would be hard to defend against.
Its fun to imagine a modern day size sub or even larger, armed to the teeth with flack guns and 4-6 8inch main guns making 20+ knots with a snorkel surfaceing at long range in front of a convoy and letting rip. |
I couldn't agree more about the change in tactics. This U-cruiser would definitly need 2-3 U-boats as "u-escorts"
to keep the destroyers busy. You would require a lot of close (and almost blind) combat coordination, which would need both advanced training and communications.
It would be useful up to the second happy times, shelling lone ships in American waters
Later on it would get worse, because it would be:
- More "visible" to radar
- Easier to spot on the surface
- Bigger target for planes
After 1943 (if any of them went that far) the deck guns would be removed and converted to u-freighters
