In fact, in the environment of World War 1, it is entirely possible to use submarine artillery to destroy 3 to 5 merchant ships in a day, and the most ferocious thing is that a certain submarine kills 14 merchant ships in one day! Obviously, this achievement could not be achieved by relying on fish, after all, the largest number of torpedoes possessed by German submarines in World War 1 was only 18 torpedoes, so this achievement could only be achieved by naval guns. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

To a certain extent, the criterion for measuring the high hunting efficiency of a submarine is not to see whether the torpedo is accurate, but to see whether the naval guns are used well enough, so that some submarines in the late World War 1 were actually equipped with 3 150mm guns, or 2 150mm guns and 2 88mm guns! This firepower is already stronger than many gunboats!

In general, neither the Allies nor the Entente were ready to fight a major submarine war in World War 1, the former was initially unaware of the great lethality of submarines, and the latter, in addition to not being able to expect it, was not technically well prepared, which can be attributed to historical limitations.

Did Germany have submarine tactics before World War 1? Of course, there were, but in 1910, German submarines were more suitable for defense than offensive or breaking diplomatic relations, and the first plan for submarines drawn up by the Germans arranged for a total of 12 submarines to defend the Helgoland Bay area, six of which were patrolling the inner line, about 5 nautical miles apart, and the other 6 patrolling the North Sea. Because the submarines were relatively small at that time, it was difficult for them to go on patrol for more than a day at a time, so in order to maintain this scale, the Germans had to prepare 24 submarines! And in the original plan, 12 more submarines were at the base at all times.

If we want to talk about private research on submarine warfare, then the time will be much earlier, and especially among them is the German Vice Admiral von Brown. Schleinitz's ideas are the most avant-garde and complete. As early as August 1908, the vice admiral claimed in a journal called the German Survey that submarines were a tool that could cut off the import of British necessities.

And in May 1914, Captain Bloom of the German Kiel Submarine Test Department also put forward a report, in which he believed that the most important task of German submarines in the war was to break diplomatic relations at sea with Britain, and he also came to the conclusion that if Germany needed at least 222 submarines if it wanted to ensure that all 48 sea areas around the British Isles were under the blockade of submarine forces! And this number clearly exceeded the reality in Germany at that time.

At the outbreak of World War I, the number of French submarines was the first in the world, with 79, and Britain was the second in the world, with 73, and only 28 German submarines could be used, of which 4 were the oldest and could only perform training missions. Another 24 ships can go to war. Russia and Italy each have 22 ships, the United States has 18, Japan has 12, and Austria-Hungary has 5 .......

At the same time, the quality of German submarines was not good at the beginning, and most of them could not even go to the west coast of Britain to fight, because the surface displacement of this type of submarine was only more than 400 tons, and the range and weapons carried were far from enough to carry out such a cruising mission. So at first, the submarines of the Germans were mainly aimed at the warships of the British Royal Navy, and the most dazzling achievement at this stage was naturally the record of the U9 submarine cleanly destroying 3 old British armored cruisers.

After the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, the Germans finally began to discuss the resumption of their unrestricted submarine warfare, which had been suspended for a time since September 1915.

But by this time the number of active submarines of the Germans had already reached 134! Even with the restrictions on the attacking ships, in December 1916 German submarines still managed to sink 154 ships, with a total tonnage of 487,000 tons! And then, in March 1917, the results of submarine warfare reached a new level, in this month, German submarines sank 355 merchant ships, with a total tonnage of 549,000 tons!

April 1917 was a month that must be remembered by the entire history of submarine warfare in the world, in which German submarines turned the waters around the British Isles into hell! On average, one out of every four ships leaving the British Isles dies at sea! This month, 458 merchant ships were sunk, with a total tonnage of 841,000 tons! And this record has never been broken!

The only time this record was made in World War II was in November 1942, a month in which Britain and the United States lost the most ships, losing 822867 tons of merchant ships, of which 729,000 tons were sunk by submarines. And by this time, the ships of neutral countries no longer dared to sail to England.

If the submarines in World War 2 only made the British feel a great threat but it was more difficult to kill, if there was no United States in World War 1, then German submarines really had a chance to force the British out of the war. After all, there were no free wheels in the 1st World War, the Americans' industry was far less powerful than in the 2nd World War, the cost of destruction was much lower than the cost of construction, and the most important thing was that the anti-submarine technology was really not very mature in the 1st World War.

Even in 1918, from January to November, the Allies lost 1,283 ships of all kinds in the presence of full escort. The total tonnage reached 2,920,000 tons. German submarines were sunk by 69 ships, 2 were damaged and detained by neutrals, and one sank itself. Although this loss seems to be very large in the first battle, it is nothing compared to the second battle!

Even after excluding the large losses of submarines before the collapse of Germany in the second half of 44 to 45 years, the losses of German submarines in the middle of World War II are still very staggering, in October 1942, that is, before the German submarine set the record for the highest attack in World War 2, the Germans were sunk 16 submarines in this month, and this loss was simply a drizzle relative to the subsequent losses, in May 1943, in one month, Germany lost 41 submarines!

The number of submarine losses in the first war has never been too high, except for a few months when the submarine losses exceeded the 20 mark, and the number of submarine losses at other times was generally less than 10 ships. Even after the United States and Britain adopted a comprehensive escort, the losses of the German submarine force did not rise too significantly while maintaining a high level of vitality, which shows that anti-submarine warfare was very difficult at the same time. But when it comes to World War 2, it's different!

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