[Aktungbby]

My recollection is scanty but Hans Goebler, "Steel Boats; Iron Hearts book should be on your required reading list along with Michael Gannon's Black May and the two volume: Clay Blairs' Hitler's U-boat War . Bottom line: is a wonderful forum dedicated to "died of a theory" emulation of a lost cause! ie That a 'Master Race' existed and offset war against the American/British combined navy was winnable.

The U-boats sank 2,800 Allied merchant ships in the Atlantic, but that was only a tiny percentage of the entire Allied merchant fleet.

Strategically, the German submarine force failed to achieve its objective: to blockade and isolate the British Isles in the hopes of forcing the British out of the war, thereby thwarting both the Allied strategic air assault on Nazi Germany and the invasion of France. Meanwhile, Allied destroyers, corvettes and planes sank almost 800 U-boats. Ninety-nine percent of Allied merchant ships in the Atlantic convoys reached their assigned destinations. In 1942, Blair writes, British, American and Canadian shipyards produced about 7.1 million gross tons, a million more gross tons than were lost to U-boats during the same year. The sinkings failed to significantly dent the Allied merchant ship pool of about 30 million gross tons. approx. 5% total

An excerpt from Goebler's book dealing with the suicide of the U-boat's cowardly martinet kapitän http://www.feldgrau.com/interview7.html

Soon the enemy ships were almost directly above us. And yet, still no orders, still no Skipper. Where the hell was Zschech? Before we had time to ask, BOOM!… we were thrown off our feet by a giant depth charge explosion. The whole boat was rocking crazily as the control room air filled with broken glass and flying objects. I grabbed for any hold I could grasp... they never dropped just one. BLANG!!! The lights went out and the pressure hull rang like a church bell with the concussion from the second charge.

Finally, Zschech came down the ladder from the conning tower. His expressionless face, illuminated by the florescent paint on the air ducts, was ghostly white. We all stared at him, anticipating some orders for maneuvers, but still he said nothing. Instead, he walked zombie-like through the forward hatch into the radio room. As he passed me, I could see his wide-open, unblinking eyes shine in the half-light.

Two more charges exploded in quick succession. They were a bit farther off than the others and we dared to hope that the worst was over. Then, WHOOOM, the biggest explosion ever, nearly turned the boat over. Men were sent sprawling to the deck in heaps.

Strangely, the Fuhrer did not lie when he said "at sea I am a coward" the last place to be so when you are conquering a world which is 3/4 water....the German naval campaign of the two world wars was a political and military disaster...under both the petulant Kaiser and the Bavarian corporal...