“If there is any new threat to the British it is that the Germans are able to use submarines so small it only takes five or ten men to run them”
Any basis to this? I never heard about mini-U-Boats.
Sorry if I forgot to ping any of our naval experts. I should start interest/expertise ping lists. Just what I need - another project.
I think that this is just rumor. The Japanese had the best/most mini submarines, but even they were not very effective.
If I recall, the Germans had [at a later stage of the war] something like the Italian manned torpedo. I think they tried to use them against the Remagen Bridge. I’m unaware of any mini-subs [and the U-boats aren’t an arwea of particular expertise for me].
At this stage of the war, the Japs have mini-subs, and the Italians may have the manned torpedo. In 1942, the Brits will develop a manned torpedo [flop] and midget submarines [X-craft, a success] in their efforts to sink TIRPITZ.
Maybe abb would know. I’ll see what I can find out.
I haven’t seen references to German mini-subs this early. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/1997/06/stuff_eng_detail_biber.htm
http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/uboats/minisubs/index.html