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Originally Posted by kiwi_2005
For the Germans it was pointless cause the war ended! If the XXI was cruising the atlantic around 1941 onwards i think the battle would of been decided...:hmm:
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This isn't as out in left field as it might seem at first. The British R-Class had performance between a Type XXIII and XXI back at the end of WWI. The technology to do it was there, but the doctrine wasn't.
First, on the British side, the R boats were envisioned as anti-submarine submarines. The problem was that sensors, like passive sonar and ASDIC, hadn't caught up. The British never made the doctrinal leap to understand the advantages of using them in a conventional anti-ship role.
Likewise, the doctrine on the German side was stuck in WWI, despite the idea of the Wolfpack. Submarines were primarily surface ships that could submerge if they *HAD* to. They didn't need decent underwater speed or endurance, because they hadn't needed it in WWI.
I actually think that Germany would have been better served if they had looked at the R Class that the British had, and developed the doctrine around high speed submerged boats. They had the advantage of working from a clean slate, it would have been relatively painless for them to do so when starting up the Ubootwaffe in the 1930's. Trying to do it in 1943-44 after several years of war, while you are geared up to make designs that are basically just improved UBIII boats from WWI is much harder.