AW1Steve
Posts: 14507
Joined: 3/10/2007
From: Mordor Illlinois
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Chickenboy
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ORIGINAL: margeorg
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ORIGINAL: Chickenboy
Dr. Hal, et. al.,
Although my previous post was in levity, the up-gunned U-boats of the Kriegsmarine were a formidable concern of the Allies in the mid-late war in the Atlantic. They shot down several large 4EB-sometimes those very ships that simultaneously claimed them in turn. A blimp would have represented the ultimate "soft target" that rationalized their 'stay on the surface and fight' orders.
Hmmm,
I have some different info. In 1943, the Kriegsmarine experimented with augmented AA weponry on U-Boats. Six of them traded their 1 x 2cm and 1 x 8,8cm guns for 1 x 3,7cm and 2 x 2cm quadruple-mounts (Flak-Vierling). Boats converted this way were called "Flak-Falle" (AA trap). The concept was to stay afloat during an aicraft attack and trying to shot down the attacker. This concept horribly failed with 5 boats being sunk by aircraft, and the sixth one returning to France badly damaged (the whole nautical personell on the bridge was killed during the attack, and the boats doctor had to bring the boat back with his limited navigational skills).
After this failure the Flak-Falle concept was given up.
Yes, but the Flak-Falle boats were a failed experiment in a handful of Type IXs if memory suits. Mid-late war armament on the vast majority of Type VIIs was a significant upgrade from early war. So much so that thin-skinned patrol aircraft were generally ill advised to initiate a slow, low level drop over a U-boat 'fighting it out' on the surface. Many instances of such attacks going dreadfully awry for the bomber and the bomber crew.
The idea of a programmatic routine wherein a dirigible attacks into the teeth of an upgunned U-boat is laughable. In a tragic sort of way.
@AW1Steve-were there *any* instances of dirigibles getting even a partial credit for a u-boat kill? Here's one that went "the wrong way" for the dirigible crew against a type VIIC.
http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/naval-aviation-centennial-blimp-vs-u-boat/
Other than great loitering time, there were much better airborne ASW platforms out there.
I have NO IDEA. And frankly , don't really care. WW2 ASW for aircraft was not really about killing U-boats. And aircraft might carry 4-8 depth charges. A destroyer 80-200. There's just not much killing power there. If they killed a sub , great. That's gravy. Their mission was to SUPPRESS sub attacks. In CORD-OPS they assisted surface ships and provided a great force multiplier. They patrolled ahead of the convoys , sighted the subs and held them down while warning the convoy to go around. In the case of area defense, they were superb.An example was the STRAB (Straights of Gibraltar). Once aircraft had MAD , the patrolled the STRAB , in a boring , difficult way , requiring several aircraft to cover each other when turning (and MAD becomes useless). Blimps could leisurely patrol back and forth. The STRAUB was thereafter closed to U-boats.
And while I have no idea (and can find no-records of how many subs blimps sunk or assisted in sinking , one statistic I've heard continuously trumpeted (and never successfully challenged) is that no ship escorted by a blimp was ever sunk by a submarine. 
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The ZPK blimp - 
But seriously. BTW , in the Bay of Biscay , the big killer wasn't Depth charges. It was rocket and gun fire. Depth charges work best against a submerged sub, not one in water too shallow to dive in. 
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