Were german subs better then allied subs in ww2 or did they just have numbers?
dont know much about it.

German subs were good overall and they did come out with some very advanced models close to the end of the war but the British and the US did have several good classes of subs. US subs operated in the Pacific and basically shut down Japanese naval traffic.




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Below site is a great overview of British Submarines and tactics

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/history.html

Unlike German and American submarines that mainly fought wide-ocean campaign, British submarines operated regularly in shallow water, densely populated with mines and defended by strong anti-submarine forces. The nature of these operations extracted a heavy price, and one in three submariners were killed. Despite these losses, the Service never lacked for volunteers, and stories of submarine exploits are legendary. Malcolm Wanklyn in Upholder, Tony Miers in Torbay, and Tubby Linton in Turbulent were VC winners and personified the skill and courage of all the crews. Clandestine operations figured largely in the tapestry of operations, with Alistair Mars's Unbroken being a leading exponent. 'Baldy' Hezlet's five hits out of eight torpedoes fired, in Trenchant when he sank Ashigara, will remain forever a world record. By the end of the war RN submarines had sunk or damaged by torpedo and gun two million tons of shipping, including 78 warships, 38 of which were submarines. In addition to the destruction of the enemy, submarines were tasked with surveillance and reconnaissance; cargo and troop carrying; mining; harbour penetration; air/sea rescue; and finally the vital task of training our own anti-submarine forces."

German subs, especially at the end of the war, had advanced propulsion systems. But in electronics they were hopelessly behind American subs. Radar, communications equipement, targetting computers, etc..

The question is not German Sub vs Alled Sub but rather German Sub vs Allied Destroyers (DD).

At the beginning of the war German U-Boats had a great advantage both techology and tactics wise.

Allied tech developments in detection and weaponry helped narrow the gap but most importantly it was the breaking of the enigma code that gave a fatal blow to german U-boats.

The allies often knew the when and the where and they were prepared for it.

This is demonstrated by the fact that those U-Boat aces who operated alone and for long partols without signaling to Berlin continued to enjoy success.

But as the war was progressing and Germany desperatelly needed to stop the flow of hardware and men accross the Atlantic, U-boat tactics needed to become more efficient. Thus the "wolfpacks" emerged. The sub that spotted the convoy followed it and signaled others who all met at a rendezvous point for the ambush.

That combined attack was very efficient kill-wise. OTOH it meant more communications between U-boats. Which proved fatal for them.

In the end the casualty rate was so great that simply Germany was not able to put as many subs in the water as the Allies could put convoys.

Cheers,

Miltos

AIEN ARISTEYEIN!

The most advanced U-Boot of WWII was the Type XXI but unfortunataley for the Germans it came too late.


U-3008 in American service

Ex-German submarine U-3008 of Type XXI was taken over by the US Navy after 1945 and used as a test vessel. Photo from 15 April, 1948.



This was the boat that perhaps could have won the war in the Atlantic for the Germans had she been in the water maybe 2 years earlier. She was the first real combat submarine that was meant to dwell in the deep and not just retreat to it once in danger.

These boats had much better crew facilities than previous classes, much more silent underwater, freezer for foodstuffs, a shower and a basin and little things like that. Also they had hydrolic torpedo reload system that enabled the commander to reload all 6 tubes in something like 10 minutes which was even less than it took to reload one tube on the VIIC normally.

3-times the electrical power of the VIIC gave the boat enormous underwater range compared to the older types and this boat could submerge far beyond the Bay of Biscay from the French bases so the Valley of Death was a thing of the past for them really. It took the boat 3-5 hours to re-charge the batteries with the Schnorchel once every 2-3 days if travelling at moderate 4-8 knots and was thus much less in danger from aircraft which sank about 56% of all U-boats lost in the war.

If the boat carried TMC mines she could also carry 14 torpedoes.

Technical information for type XXI

Displacement:
(tons) 1621 (sf)
1819 (sm)
2100 (total)
Length: (m) 76,70 oa
60,50 ph
Beam: (m) 8,00 oa
5,30 ph
Draught: (draft) 6,32 m
Height: 11,30 m
Power: (hp) 4000 (sf)
4400 (sm)

Speed:
(knots) 15,6 (sf)
17,2 (sm)
Range:
(miles / knots) 15500/10 (sf)
340/5 (sm)
Torpedoes: 23
6/0 (bow / stern tubes)
Mines: 12 TMC
Deck gun: No deck gun
Crew: 57-60 men
Max depth: ca. 280 m
(919 feet)
sm = submerged, sf = surfaced, ph = pressure hull,
oa = overall, hp = horsepower.

http://uboat.net/types/xxi.htm

"This was the boat that perhaps could have won the war in the Atlantic for the Germans had she been in the water maybe 2 years earlier."

not a chance !!

U-boats barely managed to sink 1% of all traffic going on in the atlantic, that's not something to write home about !


Don't try this at home lads
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