KG_Jag
03-22-2010, 11:29 PM
From the latest FRAG newsletter from Shrapnel Games:
The First World War was a conflict which laid the foundation for all conflicts to follow. It was during the war that the tank, machine gun, aircraft, and submarine all made their marks on the minds of military strategists everywhere.
While the aircraft carrier would later change the way naval warfare was fought it was the submarine that had the greatest impact immediately after the Great War. During WWI almost all navies had submarines but only the Germans truly used them in a truly effective manner. Launching 373 submarines, the German submarine arm sank 5,708 ships at a loss of 178 of their U-boats. Most other navies simply used submarines for scouting, not as a major offensive weapon.
Due to their lethalness when the war ended with the Versailles Treaty Germany was expressly forbidden to build any submarines. While they could not build new ones, the treaty had no rules against the Germans using their knowledge to build submarines for other nations, andadditionally there were no stipulations against building submarine parts. Only whole subs.
In 1922 Germany set up a corporation in Holland named Ingeniuer-Kantoor voor Scheepsbouw (I.v.S). I.v.S. was to design submarines for various nations, such as Finland and Turkey. Now, it just happened that I.v.S. was associated with the German arms manufacturer Krupps, and coincidentally all the information that passed through the home office of I.v.S. in Holland somehow managed to also flow back to Germany.
There were other ways the Germans were side-stepping the Versailles Treaty. Obviously before a sub could be sold to someone it had to be put to sea and tested for seaworthiness. Who better to test the sub than members of the German Anti-Submarine School (cheeky monkeys, those Germans, naming a submarine school an anti-submarine school)? And so students from the school went to Holland and test drove the submarines, resulting in of course real world experience. Soon the Anti-Submarine school was filled with highly experiences submariners.
Remember how the treaty didn't say anything about parts? Well, back in Germany the naval yards had to keep lots of spare parts laying around for all these subs being sold from Holland to other nations. After all, no one is going to buy a sub if when it breaks down it couldn't have been repaired, right? The fact that there were enough spare parts usually laying around that entire subs could be constructed from them was obviously just a fluke. Just like how many of the parts were for subs not even being sold but rather future designs. And those new sheds built at the Kiel
yards that would allow six subs to be thrown together at once? Nothing to see, move along.
In March 1935 Adolf Hitler formally renounced the Versailles Treaty. At this point the British and French were beginning to realize that Germany was rearming, but had no idea of just how rapidly this could be achieved. Hitler promised the British that he would keep the German submarine fleet at only 45% strength of the British submarine fleet which at the time numbered at 59. This was acceptable to the British as obviously building up the U-boats would take years, and in the meantime the Royal Navy would continue to grow.
Not so. In June 1935 the first German U-boat was launched from the Kiel Navy Yard. By the end of the month, thanks to all those spare parts in German naval yards, Kiel was putting a new U-boat out to sea every eight days!
Initial boats, the Type I and II, were coastal boats. Karl Donitz had been put in charge of the U-boat Fleet and saw the need for a blue-water force that could operate in packs, and thus the Type VII class boat was created. By the end of 1935 the U-boat arm was well under way to becoming a formidable force, and when war broke out in 1939 the Germans went to sea with 46 U-boats.
U-Boat Flotilla Designation/Home Area
1st/Germany, France after its fall
2nd/Germany, France after its fall
3rd/Germanry, France after its fall
4th/Germany (training unit)
5th/Germany
6th/Germany, France after its fall
7th/Germany, France and Norway after their fall
8th/Germany (training unit)
9th/France
10th/France
11th/Norway
12th/France
13th/Norway
14th/Norway
18th/Germany
19th-27th/Germany (training units)
29th/France, Italy
30th/Black Sea
31st/Germany (training unit)
32nd/Germany (training unit)
33rd/Germany, Far East
1,162 U-boats were built during the Second World War. Only 156 were left at the end of the war (not all were lost to enemy action, as 221 were scuttled by their crews upon learning that they were to surrender).
The First World War was a conflict which laid the foundation for all conflicts to follow. It was during the war that the tank, machine gun, aircraft, and submarine all made their marks on the minds of military strategists everywhere.
While the aircraft carrier would later change the way naval warfare was fought it was the submarine that had the greatest impact immediately after the Great War. During WWI almost all navies had submarines but only the Germans truly used them in a truly effective manner. Launching 373 submarines, the German submarine arm sank 5,708 ships at a loss of 178 of their U-boats. Most other navies simply used submarines for scouting, not as a major offensive weapon.
Due to their lethalness when the war ended with the Versailles Treaty Germany was expressly forbidden to build any submarines. While they could not build new ones, the treaty had no rules against the Germans using their knowledge to build submarines for other nations, andadditionally there were no stipulations against building submarine parts. Only whole subs.
In 1922 Germany set up a corporation in Holland named Ingeniuer-Kantoor voor Scheepsbouw (I.v.S). I.v.S. was to design submarines for various nations, such as Finland and Turkey. Now, it just happened that I.v.S. was associated with the German arms manufacturer Krupps, and coincidentally all the information that passed through the home office of I.v.S. in Holland somehow managed to also flow back to Germany.
There were other ways the Germans were side-stepping the Versailles Treaty. Obviously before a sub could be sold to someone it had to be put to sea and tested for seaworthiness. Who better to test the sub than members of the German Anti-Submarine School (cheeky monkeys, those Germans, naming a submarine school an anti-submarine school)? And so students from the school went to Holland and test drove the submarines, resulting in of course real world experience. Soon the Anti-Submarine school was filled with highly experiences submariners.
Remember how the treaty didn't say anything about parts? Well, back in Germany the naval yards had to keep lots of spare parts laying around for all these subs being sold from Holland to other nations. After all, no one is going to buy a sub if when it breaks down it couldn't have been repaired, right? The fact that there were enough spare parts usually laying around that entire subs could be constructed from them was obviously just a fluke. Just like how many of the parts were for subs not even being sold but rather future designs. And those new sheds built at the Kiel
yards that would allow six subs to be thrown together at once? Nothing to see, move along.
In March 1935 Adolf Hitler formally renounced the Versailles Treaty. At this point the British and French were beginning to realize that Germany was rearming, but had no idea of just how rapidly this could be achieved. Hitler promised the British that he would keep the German submarine fleet at only 45% strength of the British submarine fleet which at the time numbered at 59. This was acceptable to the British as obviously building up the U-boats would take years, and in the meantime the Royal Navy would continue to grow.
Not so. In June 1935 the first German U-boat was launched from the Kiel Navy Yard. By the end of the month, thanks to all those spare parts in German naval yards, Kiel was putting a new U-boat out to sea every eight days!
Initial boats, the Type I and II, were coastal boats. Karl Donitz had been put in charge of the U-boat Fleet and saw the need for a blue-water force that could operate in packs, and thus the Type VII class boat was created. By the end of 1935 the U-boat arm was well under way to becoming a formidable force, and when war broke out in 1939 the Germans went to sea with 46 U-boats.
U-Boat Flotilla Designation/Home Area
1st/Germany, France after its fall
2nd/Germany, France after its fall
3rd/Germanry, France after its fall
4th/Germany (training unit)
5th/Germany
6th/Germany, France after its fall
7th/Germany, France and Norway after their fall
8th/Germany (training unit)
9th/France
10th/France
11th/Norway
12th/France
13th/Norway
14th/Norway
18th/Germany
19th-27th/Germany (training units)
29th/France, Italy
30th/Black Sea
31st/Germany (training unit)
32nd/Germany (training unit)
33rd/Germany, Far East
1,162 U-boats were built during the Second World War. Only 156 were left at the end of the war (not all were lost to enemy action, as 221 were scuttled by their crews upon learning that they were to surrender).