<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by C.Evans:
He was serving on destroyers from late 1939 to late 42, then was transferred to uboats. He was on uboats till the ending of the war. He was part of Luths crew when they claimed the uboat from the shipyard.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
there is no doubt destroyers played an active role in the first half of the war...but the fact is that by the end of the war the missions a german destroyer safely carry out were small...i'm sure the German navy wouldn't just nonchalantly send out a destroyer into the deep atlantic at that stage...they wern't stupid.

DDs did make long voyages, but how long, I dont know.

Take the Narvik, operation as an example. DDs were used as attack ships, for bombardment, troop ferrys and escourt ships and evauation ships. True they werent very successful, but they were there. Im citing this as only one example for lack of time.

Well destroyers did play a support role in Narvik...but first off there were much more than just one...plus Navik was coastal AND allied air power was not as strong at that point making an operation like that possible.


I think the point people are trying to make is that sure MAYBE in the beginning of the war it was possible for a destroyer to have SOME KIND of mission in the atlantic...but at the time for this particular destroyer to be in the atlantic is plain too unrealistic even for chance. Almost like throwing away a perfectly good ship...heck at that time even the majority of u boat operations were pulled in closer to England.
And in my opinion if a some subs needed supplies they would use a supply sub or a bigger ship...for maybea destroyer could do alittle for one sub but not many.
Using a destroyer for searching makes no sense because that was the u-boats job...the split up till one of them found a convoy...then radioed the coordinates..then a wolfpack formed...there would be no need for a destroyer to this mission.
OH and as for the previos discussion about captured german ships...don't forget about possibly the most famous captured german surface ship...the "Prinze Eugene"
She was an escort to the Bismark in 1940 or 41 (i forgot) she was taken by the americans as a war prize and then taken to Bikini Insland part of the Marshal Islands...and there was sunk in the atomic tests there...along with other famous ships such as: Nagato, Nevada, Saratoga, and several other smaller ships from other navies...i'm sure some u-boats must have been there too.