stockwellpete -> RE: The U-Boat War Pt.1 (1/7/2021 6:47:46 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Tanaka quote:
ORIGINAL: stockwellpete Thanks very much for posting this. Just had a very interesting hour and a half listening to it. So German subs sank a greater tonnage of shipping in WW1 than in WW2! I didn't know that.[:)] Not reflected in this game [8D] When I play as Central Powers against the AI I sometimes inflict over 100 MPP's worth of damage in a turn on the Entente with my submarines. Obviously this is the exception rather than the rule, but it would be interesting to add up the total MPP loss in a game for the Entente from convoy raiding. I think the figure might be surprisingly high. What that figure would convert to in tonnage of shipping lost is unknowable, but submarines can be very effective between 1914 and 1916. They tend to get hunted out of the war later on in 1917 and 1918. The YouTube film also said that mines were the biggest danger to submarines. In Stevenson's book he talks about the adoption of the convoy system by the Entente in 1917 as being really decisive in the submarine war. He stresses the point that it was only after the USA entered the war that the convoy system was really secure as they had lots of destroyers and light cruisers available for escort duty. In the game at the moment Entente anti-submarine warfare can be very effective even if the USA is still neutral. Maybe that is something to look at? Stevenson also says that once the convoy system was in full swing the Germans withdrew their submarines to coastal waters rather than continue with their attacks on merchant shipping in the Atlantic. Also, the YouTube film says that submarines also had an important mine-laying role, which I did not know. In the game there are three levels of research each for Submarine Warfare and Anti-Submarine Warfare. I appreciate this is abstracted to a considerable degree, but from the film I can perhaps see three areas where submarines were improved during the war - deck gun/bigger deck gun, torpedo size, and general technical improvements - but I am not sure what the advances in Anti-Submarine Warfare were, apart from the introduction of the convoy system. Any ideas?
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