Quote:
Originally Posted by mallyob
2) Underwater "chaff", much like the aluminium foil strips used to confuse aircraft radar at the time, these would be shot from differing points on the boat, (little missiles), set to detonate at different times, the aim would be to confuse the sonar systems of any hostiles and allow time for the Uboat to effect an escape!
|
A similar device did exist from about mid 1942 onward called "Bold" it was a canister which contained a chemical which would react with sea water and create a cloud of bubbles. This cloud of bubbles would cause a sonar return often confused for a submarine.
as for the upward firing weaponry - the reason this was never deployed was probably not because of lack of technology, they could have easily developed a buoyant charge that would float to the surface and explode either on contact with an attacking destroyer or magnetically influenced by proximity, however the risk in deploying such a device probably outweighed the rewards.
not only would you have to time the release / launch of such a weapon system
perfectly to cause damage to an attacker, you would have to launch it while being completely blind, doing so only based upon sound and you would have to strike a relatively small and maneuverable target which was moving at close to 30 knots.
Additionally, a miss could potentially result in revealing to the enemy the accuracy of his assumption of the u-boat's position thereby helping your attacker narrow down your location with even greater precision.
Finally, i would guess that roughly half of all u-boat losses were attributed to depth charges, the other half of those losses attributed to rockets and bombs dropped from aircraft, so a weapon system designed to launch vertically at an attacking destroyer really only had about a 50% chance of ever being deployed by a u-boat... let alone being used successfully.
By the conclusion of the war the German's were just beginning to understand the limitations of the u-boat as well as identifying their own tactical and logistical failures... not only understand the limitations but also make attempts in earnest to correct their shortcomings.
the real technological advances needed to make the u-boats more formidable came not in the form of offensive weapons systems, but rather in the form of deeper diving capability and air independent propulsion systems that could see the u-boat capable of being submerged for many days - if not weeks at a time.
unfortunately for the u-boat men, these technologies were only being investigated and somewhat developed as the allies closed in on all fronts. The war was long since over before any of these corrections and developments could be implemented to an existing fleet or built into new classes.
good luck with your book, it sounds interesting