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You guys are forgetting that the U-boats war was fought against Great Britain and not the USA, and that the whole strategy was based on the realities of 1939 - 1941, when Germany still had a chance to defeat Britain with swift action as it had with France. From 1942 onwards, I agree, Germany had missed her small chance and it was a lost cause once Britain and the USA were geared up for war, and with Russias neverending supply of cannonfodder.
Had Germany build and concentrated a maximum number of boats as well as her whole airforce to the siege of Britain, while she was struggling with the most basic ASW measures, and the USA was a teethless giant, this had a realistic chance of completely disrupting Britains imports, forcing Churchill out of power and getting an armistice in 12 months. That was the plan, and it was not impossible in '40 and '41, but it was never carried out. Instead Hitler conducted the Atlantic campaign more like a propaganda war that would give him of a big number of war heros and propaganda material for very little investment.
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Agree COMPLETELY
A decided and brutal U-Boat blockade (With enough U-Boats) at the beginning of the war would have effectively strangled England and forced a negotiated peace. The USA would have been too slow to react in 1939, but the thing is, Hitler always believed (And failed) that he would be able to keep Britain out of his crusade against the Soviet Union. That's the reason he never approved to invest resources in U-Boats, but instead diverted them to panzers and surface ships (More useful against the USSR than submarines).