Silent Victory - tactics discussion

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

But you extended the "Happy Times" to 1943, and we all pointed to 1942, which falls within the specified time frame. In fact, the Happy Times were over by mid-1941, and the "New Happy Times" started with the attacks on the American coast in 1942.


The Naval High Command also wanted to delay the start of the war for several years. Would that have made a difference? As was pointed out, If the Germans had more u-boats it's entirely likely that the British would have taken a different tack as well. Conjecture is always fun, but there is no way of knowing exactly how any scenario would have played out.

Looking at the numbers involved, i.e. merchants sunk per u-boat at sea, merchants sunk vs merchants at sea etc., I don't think Britain was exactly "brought to her knees". Wartime propaganda is a wonderful tool. Positive propaganda can inspire people, and negative propaganda can drive them to strive harder. I've read several books on the Battle Of Britain from during and immediately following the war, and they insist that on one hand Britain was "on her knees" and on the other the Germans never had a chance, often in the same book and sometimes in the same chapter.

Propaganda certainly played it's role, but we're also judging based on hindsight.

The question still remains, what resources would you trade uboats for that would've had the same effect....., another BB? We know early German command still thought the big ships were more important than Uboats, what a mistake.

Think if Germany would've put those resources into uboats, not declared on America and continued it's campaign against Britian, instead of turning against Russia, the Uboats would've brought Britian to her knees. Who knows, but I see no other resource for the buck that did as much damage as Uboats did