Did read that the convoys were sent away from the known locations of Wolfpacks according to the info from Ultra and this seems to prove this:

From D Wragg Sacrifice for Stalin

" Jack Mallman Showell maintains that around 800 U-boats never got within range of the enemy, and one third that did, about half attacked fewer than five allied ships.Most of the damage suffered by allied shipping was inflicted by 131 U-boats."

Any opinions?

__________________

That is generally correct. Of course the details are much more complicated. There were long periods when the British were unable to read the Enigma intercepts well enough to understand where the Uboats might be patroling. Early in the war, into 1942 the equipment for finding the key used for the message was fairly slow & could not keep up with the intercepts. There were also problems with picking up the necessary radio signals. The Germans were sending thousands of Enigma coded radio messages on a busy day & analylists had to sort out the important ones for priority in decoding, and of course many messages were not intercepted due to equipment & weather ect...

Worse the Germans would periodically improve their encryption sets, and it would take the Allies weeks or months to catch up & alter their own decryption equipment/methods to match. In early 1943 the Germans simultaneously broke the current British convoy radio code, and added a fourth rotor to their Enigma machines. This contributed directly to the final crisis in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Allies were in trouble until the British issued a new code & devised a method for decrypting the new four rotor machines.

One of the reasons some Uboats never sighted British convoys was that they were sunk first. Admiral Donetiz insisted on frequent reports from the Uboats, including weather reports which had to have location. When the British were able to decrypt one of these fast enough they culd saturate the location with ASW patrols & find the Uboat. Uboats were also frequently given by radio detailed patrol orders and changes with locations and routes spelled out. Naturally the British took advantage of these whenever they could.

The person to reveal the Kriegsmarine actions definitely seems to be Mr Joe Desch.

Among the greatest enemies of German U-boats during World War II was the ingenious mind of Joseph "Joe" Desch and the codebreaking machines he designed, which were built at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio. It’s a surprising tale even to many war scholars because for 50 years after the war, no one working on the top-secret project uttered a word.

http://www.progressiveengineer.com/P...05-2/Desch.htm

Debbie Desch Anderson, who was born in 1950 and didn’t know during her father’s lifetime of his war contributions, responded to a challenge her father issued before his death in 1987. "Dad used to say, ‘Honey, you’ll never figure out what I did.’"

Desch’s contributions were also noted by President Harry Truman, who signed Desch’s 1947 National Medal of Merit citation. "By his brilliant originality, superb skill, and immeasurable perseverance, he contributed essentially to the effectiveness of important technical developments of great significance in the successful conclusion of the war," the citation reads. "Mr. Desch’s technical skill and fine professional judgment reflect the highest credit upon him, and upon the scientific tradition of the United States."

__________________

Much of Donitz' tactics failed to take into account improvements in technology. Radar and HF/DF were just two of many. As U-boats were expected to attack on the surface in packs once the British had more than a mere handful of escorts with a convoy and all had the above devices, the Germans were hit. A U-boat that transmitted using radio (either to report in or to coordinate their actions tactically) was going to be located. Radar made surface attacks suicide as a surfaced boat was quickly going to be run down.

Based on the combined efforts of the Bombes operating in Washington and the Ultra project in England’s Bletchley Park, Rust says up to 54 U-boats were destroyed.

------------

Also from the source mentioned above.

I think this refers to the fact, that several U-boats were found by the bombes which revealed the location. From the book " The secret in building 26 " by DeBrosse and Burke it seems the planes then found and destroyed these U-boats without using the radar so the U-boats had no other warning method than the men watching for planes in the sky...

I´m not 100% sure but if the 54 boats is the figure for the subs sank by the bombes alone then that´s quite a deed.

__________________

I just stumbled upon an artistic rendering of a Type XXI fitted with and raising what appeared to be a V2 Rocket. I tried to upload the pic but it is over the KB limit. The pic had the rocket launch forward of the bridge. Anyone ever hear of this as a serious to do? Or is this just an artists' wild imagination?

__________________

What do you think? The US with all their resources took until 1953 to get up an operational submarine with the Regulus missile, which was a POS...



For a proper vertical launch missile they had to wait for Polaris...

__________________

Towed missile launches for larger weapons illustrated here:
http://www.prinzeugen.com/V2.htm
There were experiments conducted and 'suggestions' made but it was apparently only succesfully trialled with Wurfgrenats, a long way from a V2.
Cheers,
Adam.

__________________
"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

What I meant to inquire by "serious to-do" was whether or not this was seriously studied by German scientists as feasible. I got the pic off of another site that showed some of (some nice color/action pics) the secret project jet planes that were serious endeavors. It was the first time I'd seen such a rendering (sub + V2).
Even though the Wurfgrenats were a long way from V2's I would still like to know how the unguided vertically launched rockets from submerged U-Boats were made to "point" in a certain direction toward enemy fortifications.

__________________