Quote:
Originally Posted by Cybermat47
Type VII U-boats did take part in Operation Drumbeat, but they weren't as effective as the Type IXs.
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They weren't
QUITE as effective
! The shipping sunk in the Americas Campaign amounted to 25% of all shipping sunk by the Ubootwaffe in WWII and was the most successful campaign of the war for the short duration and effort expended...184 patrols to American waters resulted in losses of 22 uboats: 10 IX's and 12 VII's with 200 of the 1000 ubootwafferin surviving. 34 new IX's, originally opposed by Donitz, made this naval campaign possible. The 80 patrols by IX's accounted for 384 of the vessels sunk: 63% of total for 2 million gross tons- 65%. The 104 patrols by VII's accounted for the other 225 vessals 37% and 1.1 million gross tons 35%. Overall the IX's averaged 4.8 vessels for 25,100 tons per boot compared to an average of 2.2 vessels for 10,686 gross tons per patrol by VII's. Only 6 patrols had no sinkings! Given the fuel problems at the extreme range of the VII's operational limit, and a max of 1.456 eels (fully loaded?) vs the greater range and 1760 eels (fully loaded?)of the IX's(had an 300 eel edge) the VII's
lived up to billing. However the 3.1 million gross tons combined hardly dented the Allied shipping pool of 30 million tons in any strategic decisive fashion that Dönitz sought to achieve. Churchill's alleged worry about the Uboot menace was, in the long and short of it-
hype.
Hitler's U-Boat War: VOLI