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Countermeasures
Posted by: SuperKraut ()
Date: July 03, 2001 09:32AM

<HTML>An interesting idea which would have had a significant effect on both the air war over Germany and the Battle of the Atlantic. The British did not have enough aircraft to prosecute the air war against the cities and cover the convoys in the 1940-42 timeframe so it was either much or all of one and little or nothing of the other.

It took the RAF around 1 ½ years to get their night bombing act together, a time used by the Luftwaffe night fighters to do the same. If the beginning of night bombing had been postponed to 1942, then it would not have become effective until 1943/44. The result would have been less chaos in the German economy in 1941/42 and a reallocation of resources (especially 8.8 cm AA/AT guns) to the eastern front.

Giving convoys full daytime air cover in 1940/41 would initially have reduced the efficiency of the U-boats. The question is what does Doenitz do about it.

- Does he equip the U-boats with heavy AA and lets them shoot it out with the aircraft as he tried in 1943? That ploy would not have lasted very long.

- Does he rely only on lying in wait in front of a convoy? Rather inefficient with the small number of U-boats he had.

- Does he increase the battery capacity and electric motor power of the U-boats so they can shadow the convoy by day underwater? Cut a VII in half, install a new section to gain enough space to at least double the battery capacity, throw in the E-motors from the IX, get rid of the guns, clean up the top of the hull and in ½ a year you get a U-boat which can run 8 knots underwater for around 16 hours. Note that drag reduction is very important. Since convoys in those days rarely ran faster than 8 knots, the U-boat would be able to keep up during daylight. This concept would also force sonar R+D and lead directly to a proper full time submarine design.

Regards,
SuperKraut</HTML>

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Subject Written By Posted
Was RAF OKM\'s secret weapon? Gavin 06/30/2001 10:27AM
RE: Was RAF OKM\\\'s secret weapon? Rainer Kolbicz 06/30/2001 10:19PM
RE: Was RAF OKM\\\\\\\'s secret weapon? Tim 06/30/2001 11:19PM
RE: Was RAF OKM\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s secret weapon? Torlef 07/01/2001 05:44AM
RE: Was RAF OKMs secret weapon? Rainer Kolbicz 07/01/2001 07:35PM
German Radar SuperKraut 07/01/2001 09:13PM
Cavity magnetron SuperKraut 07/01/2001 09:16AM
RE: Cavity magnetron kurt 07/02/2001 02:55PM
RE: Cavity magnetron SuperKraut 07/02/2001 08:59PM
RE: Was RAF OKM\\\\\\\'s secret weapon? gavin 07/03/2001 08:07AM
Countermeasures SuperKraut 07/03/2001 09:32AM
RE: Countermeasures gavin 07/04/2001 08:31AM
Bombing survey SuperKraut 07/04/2001 01:26PM
RE: Bombing survey Dietzsch 07/04/2001 02:58PM
Night fighters SuperKraut 07/04/2001 09:01PM
RE: Night fighters Walter M. 07/04/2001 09:32PM
RE: Night fighters SuperKraut 07/05/2001 06:20AM
RE: Night fighters Walter M. 07/05/2001 09:47AM


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