Percentage of ships sunk on WWII?

[rfunes]

Originally Posted by benetofski

rfunes,

An interesting question!

Perhaps if I give you a brief reply and then give you a link might fill in the gaps!

During the early part of the war, the German blockade was surprisingly effective - mining convoy routes - around the British Isles impacted upon the food and raw materials necessary for Britain to sustain it's war effort.

If my memory serves me, U-boots were being laid at typically 1 per week by 1940 (Deutsche- Werke, Kiel) and this number later increased significantly when the Blohm and Voss (and other) Yards started cranking them out at about 2-3 /week!

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/...campaigns.html

http://www.battle-fleet.com/pw/his/atlantic.htm

Wow, this first link is gold !!!

It says that the total tonnage sunk by u-boats during the whole war is equivalent to the total tonnage of ALL England merchant ships in the beginning of the war!

Impressive !!!

And the logistics problems the allies had because the u-boats (33% loss of time in the Atlantic travels, due to the convoys lanes and speeds) is also an important fact I never thought.

Although in the end, it was a strategical loss.