The type XXl........A war winner?

[Andy H]

About XXI production from 'The Wages of Destruction' by Adam Tooze:-

"The UBoat construction engineers at Blohm & Voss had doubted from the start wheather inexperienced, inland construction firms with limited naval experience would be capable of delivering U-boat sections with sufficent accuracy for them to be assembled into pressure-tight submarine hulls. They were right. In the hull sections delivered to the assembly yards, there were deviations of up to 3cm. There were persistent leaks both around the transmission and the snorkel. Imprecision in the assembly of the complexsteering system led to repeated rudder jammings. Most seriously, and most predictably, when the prefabricated sections of the outer hull were subject to extreme pressure, uneveness in the welding resulted in potentially lethal fractures."

"Thus a prefrabicated U-Boat which had taken 175days to manufacture took another 120 days to repair before they could be passed fit for action."

"Of the 80 MkXX1 delivered by the end of 1944, non were fit for operations and only four were ready for action by the end of January 1945."

[phylo_roadking]

CY, now do you see my point elsewhere about wasted resources? An entire useless class of U boats, or a complete weapons system in the shape of the GZ?

which would have been cheaper in terms of men and materiel???

phylo

[Andy H]

CY, now do you see my point elsewhere about wasted resources? An entire useless class of U boats, or a complete weapons system in the shape of the GZ?

which would have been cheaper in terms of men and materiel???

phylo

With all things being equal I would plumb for the XXI having a greater impact IF all the bugs were sorted.

[phylo_roadking]

Commissioned mid 1943, delievered in sections late 1944, only four out of 30 completed by May 1945.... CY, can you honestly say that would have been a better use of resources? over TWO years of the KM's construction budget and resources??

phylo

[Andy H]

Of the 80 MkXX1 delivered by the end of 1944

well if the 80 were fully ready without all the extra work that was historically needed, I would still say yes against 1 completed and operational GZ