[Semper Paratus]

The German strategy of using heavy warships to disrup sea born supplies was a miserable failure. If the resources were put into more U-Boats the Battle of the Atlantic would have been very different.

[Old Sarge]

"was a miserable failure"

To say nothing of a risky scheme... (G)

I have agreed with the U-boat alternate war for a long time. There was a quote from Grand Admiral Doenitz, something that, if there were fifty more U-boats on station in 1939, Britain would've starved.

[Tallguy]

The German strategy of using heavy warships to disrup sea born supplies was a miserable failure. If the resources were put into more U-Boats the Battle of the Atlantic would have been very different.

I think that what the German Navy was trying to do was force the allies onto the horns of a dilemma: U-boat attacks force the merchant marine into convoys, but the convoys in turn are easy pickings for a heavy surface raider (like Graf Spee). There were attempts to disrupt the arctic convoys from occupied Norway in this manner. The strategy might have worked if the communications between surface and sub-surface raiders had been more effective AND the British not had sufficient battleships to accompany the convoys. Neither was the case, as it turned out.

[Axenolith]

Finishing the Graf Zeppelin and Peter Strasser wouldn't have hurt either!