Or even more significant, what if Germany had paid attention to Gen. Billy Mitchell’s air attack demonstrations and invested in development of aircraft carriers for the North Atlantic? While the Luftwaffe failed to destroy England’s ability to fight from the air, they might have succeeded in destroying the Royal Navy, a vital asset to keep supplies from America flowing.
America and Britain had plans to build a massive aircraft carrier made from pycrete, virtually indestructable to even the largest at the time shells or torpedos.
As long as it remained in the north atlantic it could regenerate itself from melting by using on board piped refrigeration. I saw plans of it some years ago.
That would have been a colossal waste of money.
The larger problem was fuel. They didn’t have enough fuel to run the fleet they had. They would have been better off with a smaller surface fleet and more tanks at the start of the war, particularly in 1941.
Nazis had lots of stupid ideas.
The P1000 Ratte - a 1000 ton tank with a battleship turret mounting 11 inch guns.
The Maus - A 128 ton tank with 128mm main gun and a 75mm coax.
The Panther - An over-engineered copy of the T-34. It was too complicated to manufacture quickly, so there were never enough.
On and on and on...
Germany had “plans” for lots of things, including the massive transatlantic bomber the “Amerika” which never got off the drawing board.
You are right about the U-boats. At any given time, perhaps only 30 operational boats in the Atlantic/North Atlantic wreaked havoc. Still, Jutland was a technical victory in which the German low self-confidence put them in harbor, not the results. Moreover, the U-boat attack at Jutland was not coordinated with the surface fight or the Brits would have lost big. It’s a classic example of a guy who doesn’t have confidence, and who is winning but doesn’t “think” he’s winning.
Germany had “plans” for lots of things, including the massive transatlantic bomber the “Amerika” which never got off the drawing board.
You are right about the U-boats. At any given time, perhaps only 30 operational boats in the Atlantic/North Atlantic wreaked havoc. Still, Jutland was a technical victory in which the German low self-confidence put them in harbor, not the results. Moreover, the U-boat attack at Jutland was not coordinated with the surface fight or the Brits would have lost big. It’s a classic example of a guy who doesn’t have confidence, and who is winning but doesn’t “think” he’s winning.
The Germans kept them mostly bottled up in port rather than risk a fleet-fleet engagement with the British. When they did venture out, they did in small battle groups.
Bismark was most successful at commerce raiding but ultimately was defeated because of this poor strategy. Graff Spee was lost because it was a single raider boxed by a marginally more capable British fleet of cruisers and bluffed into being scuttled. Tirpitz never did anything but move throughout protected ports and was eventually sunk at anchorage in a fjord in Norway.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau may have been the exception because they did work in unison and did significant damage to the British before they were trapped in individual sorties.
unfortunately for Germany and fortunately for the rest of the world. “Hitler’s plans” exceeded the Germany’s production of steel and other materials and exceed its source of raw materials required for the enormous amount of planned ships, Army vehicles, and aircraft. His starting of the war at least 5 years before the Army and Navy leaders had planned for it to begin and to be fully equipped, also was fortunate for the rest of the world.
Britain had quite a number of those stupid little Swordfish torpedo planes. You you, just like the one that bagged the Bismark.