I saw an interesting show on the History Channel this afternoon that might have some bearing on this...Anyway the show talked about unusual weaponry the allies tried to impliment during WWII, and one section discussed the threat from German U-boats to allied shipping. The width of the Atlantic ocean combined with the limited range of airplanes at the time allowed the Germans to operate with little interference as long as they stayed so far off the coasts. The lack of planes almost certainly is related to ability of a sub to operate near the surface without detection.
On a side note...from 1941-1943 the Brits, Americans, and Canadians attempted to solve this problem by creating a floating "ice ship" or "ice island" that could be used to launch planes etc with proposed walls constructed of 40 feet of ice which would make it impervious to torpedo attack. They did extensive testing and were able to develop a composite ice(made with wood chips and other media) that was reportedly stronger than steel and could be milled into specific shapes. The whole thing eventually got scrubbed because as the war progressed they discovered creating and maintaining such a massive ice chunk was impractical and air technology was advancing and thus promising to end range issues.
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USS Hammer
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