Quote:
Originally Posted by Xall
Awesome progress guys, always amazed whenever I come back to check how the mod is going.
A question of curiosity ~ How would you list the best WW1 Uboats?
They all seem pretty good, which would be the best 3?
Because I would most likely not know which one to pick  |
Beery is right; the U-31 Class was extremely successful. However, my opinion is that they were mostly successful because of where and when they were deployed. It just happened that the U-31 Class was frequently deployed to the Mediterranean, where defences were weaker than around the British Isles. U-31 class boats U-35, U-34, and U-38 racked up huge kill totals there - in all likelihood, if they had been stationed in the channel for instance they would not have sunk as much tonnage.
Also, the U-31 Class was fortunate enough to be in service in 1914-1915, when Allied antisubmarine techniques (convoys, depth charge attacks, widespread sonar, good mines, etc) were not available.
On paper, the U-31 Class was a decent but not great design as built. It suffered from several problems:
-Germaniawerft diesels (very unreliable,& inferior to the MAN diesels - on paper top speed was 16.4 kts; in practice it was about 11 kts early
in the war. Lots of breakdowns and aborted patrols.)
-Low torpedo loadout (only 6 torpedoes)
-Not enough torpedo tubes (2 bow and 2 stern tubes; not really enough for attacking a convoy or task force). Although adequate for single merchantmen early in the war.
To their credit, by the end of the war the U-31 boats were much improved - reaching design speed with improved Germaniawerft diesels and carrying from 9-10 torpedoes due to improved stowage.
I'd say the top 3 oceangoing boat types were:
U-66 class (12 torpedoes, 4 bow & 1 stern tubes gave a good salvo)
U-87 class (12-16 torpedoes, 4 bow & 2 stern tubes; 105mm gun well-supplied with rounds)
U-93 class (12-16 torpedoes, 4 bow & 2 stern tubes; 105mm gun as built; better top speed than U-87 class at about 17kts.)
Generally, these boats performed worse than the U-31 class simply because they served in more dangerous waters, and were built at the same time the Allies were improving ASW tech.
In terms of cruiser subs, the U-139 class were far better than the U-151 class - they had armor, up to 24 torpedoes, 6 torpedo tubes, more reliable diesels, comfortable crew quarters, and better seakeeping.