[FreedomPoster]

>>Those events happened despite the submarine and the airplane, or have we forgotten the Battle of the Atlantic or the fact the US Navy sunk 60% of the Japanese merchant fleet, effectively shutting down Japanese industry?

Most of the sinking of the Japanese merchant fleet, was done by our submarince fleet, not our surface fleet. I don't think that example does much to refute Mr. Jeeves points.

I would commend Silent Victory to you.

[Wombat101]

My point was not which type of ship did the sinking, merely that those vessels were sunk. And they were sunk just as much by surface ships and surface ships carrying aircraft as much as they were by submarines.

The other point was that even in sub-infested waters, surface ships and surface ships carrying aircraft managed to neutralize the submarine threat.

The argument was made in response to the poster's contention that surface fleets were a useless anachronism. The conditions that prevailed in 1940-1945 are still factors in naval warfare today.