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Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey
You still have one problem. Hitler had forbid any attacks on neutral shipping.(Especially American shipping.) Plus the U-Boats very nearly brought Britain to it's knees during the first "Happy time." So don't say that the U-Boat force wouldn't have defeated Britain when most every historian say that if Hitler had put more into his U-Boats the war could have turned out very different.
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Hitler knew that in order to have any chance to strangle Britain, he would have to sink neutral shipping. Historians base their positions on a quote from Churchill saying that the only thing he feared was the U-Boats. But what Churchill said, was said for public consumption. We cannot rely on the truth of his position, as it was a strategic ploy.
Churchill's long-range war plan was to secure victory by bringing the US into the war. The best way to do that would be to encourage Germany's use of U-Boats, and that, in fact is what he did by crying wolf(pack). I don't know why nobody has questioned the accuracy and purpose of his statement there, but somebody needs to. I say this was a classic case of misdirection used by a master of the craft. And it's still working on us today!
That is also why Churchill talked Roosevelt into the lend-lease program with all those obsolete four-stacker destroyers. It put us into undeclared war with Germany with American ships and sailors in peril. How long before a German sub, under attack from a ship it was forbidden to retaliate against said "better alive than dead" and sank one? These too were pawns in Churchill's victory plans. He didn't just have plan A. He also had plan B, C, D & E.
This included an alternate British government installed in New York City in 1938. It included cultivating a very close relationship with Roosevelt, causing him to do things forbidden by the constitution, against the laws, discovery of which would have suddenly and surely brought about Roosevelt's impeachment and conviction. Yes, Roosevelt had to break the law to save western civilization. And he threw in with the correct side! It's a miracle!
No, without sinking neutral shipping there was no way to starve Britain. A small minority of their supplies were on British bottoms. Actually threatening to succeed meant actually ensuring defeat. So Hitler pulled the trigger anyway. Just like he did in the bunker. Think about it!