What if Germany had implemented a policy of mass producing E boats to dominate the Channel? They were apparently very hard to intercept and sink because f their speed, and proved quite effective against Allied shipping. They could follow a policy of asymmetric development in military terms, since they only needed to dominate the Channel, whereas the British fleet needed global projection. Would Sealion have been feasible with a fleet of hundreds of torpedo boat?
E Boats for Sealion
- Thread starter Alan
- Start date
Not much, S-boats are ambush predators, sneak up to an target undetected, launch torpedos and get away as fast as possible. If they have to defend an invasion fleet is negates a lot of there stenghts, They just become little boats with tiny guns facing a Royal Navy that goes beserk.
Short version - No.
Long version - No because once there are a number of them gathered together they become air targets, either for fighter sweeps or bombers, or from naval bombardment. The net result is they are a drain on manpower, decent engines, fuel and ammunition.
David Flin
Gone Fishin'
Not if they're going to protect anything. Not if the RN actually responds to a different build profile by Germany. Not unless they can solve the manpower problems.
To a limited extent but large concentrations are also a "target rich environment" for planes. Especially in ports.
What isolated parts of the RN (no other allies matter in sea lion)?
The RN fleets will be steaming at full speed towards action at 20-30+Kn and many of the RN "fleets" individually outnumber the entire KM continent available by significant margins, any E boats simply hit the screen of DDs and kill a few and are overrun and wiped out in turn?
The RN may need global projection. But protecting England takes absolute priority, even if it means temporarily abandoning everything else.
marathag
Banned
The KM spending more on Boats(and taking the materials for construction) means fewer Panzers and Aircraft, so Germany won't be strong enough to knock out France in two weeks, and is no position to even launch a SeaLion, being stuck behind the Maginot Line.
Invading SE England, That's a 'Step Five' problem, when they need to deal with Steps One thru Four to even get to Five.
And Step Four is defeat the RAF over SE England, recall, that was the Battle Of Britain
Invading SE England, That's a 'Step Five' problem, when they need to deal with Steps One thru Four to even get to Five.
And Step Four is defeat the RAF over SE England, recall, that was the Battle Of Britain
No it was a Destroyer HMS Gloworm that rammed the heavy cruiser Hipper
HMS Glowworm (H92) - Wikipedia
In the same campaign the Royal Navy sent one of its best Battleships up a narrow 1 mile wide Fjord to blow a flotilla of German destroyers to smithereens. So the often quoted "The RN wouldnt dare send Battleships into the Channel to defend against Sealion" doesnt hold much water.
Well, my point remains that the British would fight tenaciously against landing attempts.No it was a Destroyer HMS Gloworm that rammed the heavy cruiser Hipper
HMS Glowworm (H92) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
This is actually a thing?
If everything else goes arry the madlad plan to set the channel ablaze with oil could be very interesting....horrendous for the Germans of course.
How the hell do you hide a build up of a ton of Eboats in the channel ports when Britain had several plans otl to kill the barges?
These things get slaughtered in every scenario I can think of, Mariana turkey shoot except with motor boats
How the hell do you hide a build up of a ton of Eboats in the channel ports when Britain had several plans otl to kill the barges?
These things get slaughtered in every scenario I can think of, Mariana turkey shoot except with motor boats
What if they're used as transports? They're better than Rhine barges. For that very reason, they will be used as transports, which will make them ineffective as raiders. If there's anybody who would gladly have a weapon do two jobs badly when it could do one job well, it's Adolf Hitler.
The E-boats can even tow some Rhine barges. That will give Goebbels extra material for his speech about how barbaric it was for Perfidious Albion to shoot defenseless German soldiers adrift in the Channel.
The E-boats can even tow some Rhine barges. That will give Goebbels extra material for his speech about how barbaric it was for Perfidious Albion to shoot defenseless German soldiers adrift in the Channel.
No it was a Destroyer HMS Gloworm that rammed the heavy cruiser Hipper
HMS Glowworm (H92) - Wikipedia
In the same campaign the Royal Navy sent one of its best Battleships up a narrow 1 mile wide Fjord to blow a flotilla of German destroyers to smithereens. So the often quoted "The RN wouldnt dare send Battleships into the Channel to defend against Sealion" doesnt hold much water.
I would never say "Wouldn't dare", but "Wouldn't need to". They have a lot of light cruisers and destroyers that would be more than up to the task of tearing apart defenseless transports. Said light ships are also far more appropriate for dealing with whatever escorts can be mustered than anything heavier.
A single british cruiser ( I believe at the sealion window they had 56 active cruisers) could easily sink at near zero risk to itself entire flotillas of e-boats in daylight
eboats where good night ambush hunters or for daring one off hit and run raids against very light ships, not taking on the British fleet in open battle
Luftwaffe air to sea capabilities in 1940 where 95 percent worthless so the British ships could operate right off the French coast and blast the embarkation ports to shreds once they all retired there to hide; the germans hadn't installed any defensive guns yet or meaningful minefields, some of the smaller British ships could probably steam INTO the harbors and blast the barges and assembled materials at point blank range, even in daylight
eboats where good night ambush hunters or for daring one off hit and run raids against very light ships, not taking on the British fleet in open battle
Luftwaffe air to sea capabilities in 1940 where 95 percent worthless so the British ships could operate right off the French coast and blast the embarkation ports to shreds once they all retired there to hide; the germans hadn't installed any defensive guns yet or meaningful minefields, some of the smaller British ships could probably steam INTO the harbors and blast the barges and assembled materials at point blank range, even in daylight
To paraphrase Churchill' view of the Royal Navy - It takes 3 years to build a warship, it takes 300 years to build a tradition. When a Navy has the saying "Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes" attached to it, it gives you an idea of their definition of "by any means necessary". Besides, Destroyer captains would love the opportunity not to be the smallest boat in the battle for once.
Between main guns, even only 6" guns, and 2lb secondaries, the E-boats would get shredded by anything bigger than an MTB.