Quote:
Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey
You sure about that? From what I've read most of the top scoring U-Boat aces during WW1 only used the deck gun and needing something like 36+ shells to sink a ship seems excessive. For example Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière who sank the most tonnage of any U-Boat commander in either war with 453,716 tons sunk only used his torps 74 times and hit on 39 of them.
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Capt. de la Periere was a unique case, because he had a master gunnery officer on board who was freakishly accurate, and could sink smaller ships with about 2 shells. Also, he once loaded about 1000 shells for his sub. From what I've read this would not have been typical of most U-Boats. Typically, they would have had no more than a few hundred shells on board, plus deck officers with average marksmanship.
I guess I should clarify that larger merchants will take dozens of shells (especially if you are on one of the old, kerosene-powered U-Boats with only a 50mm gun). In WOTK there will be lots of smaller vessels like coasters, sailing ships, and trawlers that are less than 2500 tons - these can definitely be sunk with a few shells.