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Originally Posted by FOG3
If you say so.
The Battle of Tsushima was between pre-Dreadnoughts and had as much to do with the Russian's failings in discipline, skill, and otherwise as anything else. In the Naval campaigns after that Battleships were like movie stars a lot of glamour, a lot of invested resources, very little actual work. The WW1 naval action was dominated by the submarine, and if the Germans had just been a little better at it they would have strangled the British to death. As is they effectively tore Britain from her throne opening it for the US. WW2 Atlantic was subs, Pacific was Carriers and PT boats.
The Dreadnought concept was a bad idea from day one, and sucked valuable resources from other necessary things such as invested resources to create safe berthings for the Grand Fleet. They learned the wrong lessons from the Russo-Japanese war when they thought those things up.
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The Battleships circumnavigated the globe, Showed the flags of their respective countries, Invoked diplomacy,industry and trained thousands and thousands of would be sailors to become men. That tradition is much lost today. Yes they complain about the manning aspect but the tradition and training recieved onboard is irreplacable and cannot be found in today's modern navy nor those seamen ship skills ever found again without great diffaculty.
When one weighed a countries industrial standing in the world they almost always looked at that countries navy and capital ships such as the battleships never once at submarines nor aircraft, tanks or any of the like. It was always the battleships pure and simple. That fact is reiterated by all of the leading minds of the time. Engineering marvels.
You state that WWII Atlantic was subs. What about all those subs that were hunted to extinction. I could very easily post the numbers of subs built/launched against those destroyed. The number alone will astound you.
Germany could in no way shape or form keep up with the shipping being produced in American yards for the majority of WWII and at the same time support a multi front war effort.
The prized electric boats being produced by the ending of WWII were absolute junk according to many analysts. They were produced in so many different factories that quality alone was an absolute joke as many components would not even come close to alignment. The snorkels on the Type VII''s as well according to most reports were also failures as well as a majority or their sonars and radars. Their flak guns (37mm) were under constant repair and jammed constantly under pressure. Their torpedos were also not of the best quality, many failures on both the electric and air propelled versions as well as the magnetic pistols. Many of the supposed improvements to the newer boats such as hydraulics for the dive planes,periscopes and torpedo doors were located outside the pressure hull putting them even at further risk from even the slightest depth charging or aerial attacks and not repairable without surfacing endangering the boat and its crew.And then ofcoarse the looping torpedoes that sank some of their own submarines for the allies. So unpredictable that it was standard practice to dive the boat immediately after launching or risk destruction by error.
Hitler called his Uboat force his first line of defense. Well after gaining valuable ASW training and equipment that first defense was smashed beyond repair,forcing them to evacuate occupied France bases for Norway and even then they were running out of places to go so it was back to Germany for safety. Not only Britain, but also America, Canada, Aussies and many more were involved in hunting them down and it became a science Yes, a science. And in the closing months/years of WWII not very many could escape the much improved ASW measures and those that did surrendered.
Many places such as the Med, Straights of Gibraltar, Bay of Biscay among others were well know to the best Uboat skippers as graveyards for Uboats. Many attempted, Many,many lost in those waters.
With being able to travel maybe 60 miles a day and taking three weeks in alot of cases to reach their patrol zones (which left only a week to patrol owing to fuel concerns and the return trip) the fact that the Allies were reading their cyphers on a daily basis and being there waiting with loaded guns when they surfaced for fueling,repairs,charging the batteries or replentishment. Germany also lost many boats to mines. For the amount of time they spent laying minefields they didnt sink many Allied ships at all.The amount of money used for submarine building/testing /repairing was about as comparable as building the capital ships or battleships.
Further, Donitz awarded RitterKruez's by the dozens to skippers that claimed to have sunken a record number of both warships and merchantmen for a vast amount of tonnage but when the number of sinkings and ships reports were examined at the end of WWII it showed that the Uboat campaign numbers wise was nowhere near what the Uboat skippers had reported. Basically Donitz was the candyman on Easter sunday with alot of hungary children. In short, half of the RitterKruez holders (even the ones bearing the crossed swords,oak leaves and or diamonds) were far from deserving them and many never even sank a ship but that didnt stop Donitz from awarding them to keep up moral in a failing Uboat campaign based on unconfirmed reports.
It was nothing more then a bandaid for a seriously bleeding victim. Germany was out of time, the very lifeblood of good decision making.