U boat counter measures

[Tony Wilding]

German Submarines had a fantastic success rate in WW1, U63 *Sank almost* 200,000 tons of ships, bearing in mind most ships were a lot smaller than WW2 freighters so many more Ships sunk, she survived the War, could do 16 knots surfaced , same as type 7,s the most used type of WW2, In fact not much different, *in view of the success rates then it suprises me no advance was made in detection or destruction of them between the Wars, i would have thought lessons would have been learned, they almost wiped us out again. i wonder why defence against such a deadly weapon was ignored. initially the tactics used in WW2 were the same as WW1, *Untill the Hedgehog *contact Mortar bomb was invented the kill rate was not good.

[E.Martin]

German Submarines had a fantastic success rate in WW1, U63 *Sank almost* 200,000 tons of ships, bearing in mind most ships were a lot smaller than WW2 freighters so many more Ships sunk, she survived the War, could do 16 knots surfaced , same as type 7,s the most used type of WW2, In fact not much different, *in view of the success rates then it suprises me no advance was made in detection or destruction of them between the Wars, i would have thought lessons would have been learned, they almost wiped us out again. i wonder why defence against such a deadly weapon was ignored. initially the tactics used in WW2 were the same as WW1, *Untill the Hedgehog *contact Mortar bomb was invented the kill rate was not good.

May 1943 was the start of the demise of the UBoat due to the efforts of the Great Captain Walker RN and his team,also the Atlantic gap had been closed so the convoys had air cover all the way across the Atlantic.
Brings to mind what Churchill said."Give us the tools and we will finish the job"
Between the wars Captain Walker had specialized in anti submarine warfare,the music played on his ship
when leaving harbour was "A hunting we will go"

[Tony Wilding]

Captain Walker was a brilliant man, *his 3 ship tactic of tracking really worked, *and the FWD *firing Hedgehog Mortar Bomb only *exploded on contact, which signified a definite Kill. but *that was 1943, in 1939 *still had the same tools as 1918, * a WW2 Destroyer *was far advanced *from one *of WW1 design, apart from Anti *Submarine measures,, ?

[j.sabourn]

Have sailed with ex submariners from the war years on M.N. vessels, the info. I got from same was that most Uboat or any submarine attack at that time were surface attacks. The picture given out with the old Uboat commander cap askew swinging on the end of a periscope were few and far between. Nowadays of course it is a different scientific world and such attacks from the surface would be suicidal. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Tony Wilding]

the normal escape method after an attack was to dive, most U Boats could dive to greater depths than thought by the RN, The underwater detection system was ASDIC or Sonar, not much improved from WW1, The Depth Charge was much the same as WW1, These are the two areas that were virtually unchanged, in view of there success in WW1 I would have thought in the 20 plus years later underwater detection and destruction would have vastly improved, it seems no lessons were learned.

[j.sabourn]

Tony I think most of the advances and technology advancements are kept under wraps. Running a lot of same used to be done from HMS Vernon. No doubt the RN has other think tanks and establishments by now. Secret stuff is always that. Wikkileaks would probably have a field day if they got their hands on it. Cheers John Sabourn