Inspired by the other thread, which was about ww2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_Deutschland
Let's say it's late September 1914 when Falkenhayn meets the right people and comes to fully support the idea of using U-Boats to bypass the blockade. An order of two boats is made on October 1st 1914, in order to ascertain the feasibility of the idea (this would be almost 13 months earlier than OTL).
They're finished March 1st, 1915, going by the OTL build schedule, and after a 3-month shakedown begin their journey, as OTL. By late July 1915 they're back in Germany with their cargo.
At that point, the decision is made to dedicate about half of all U-Boats built to this kind of mission, and build them accordingly.
This would mean about 25 boats in 1915 and around 50 in 1916.
Let's say the scheme to build some in America comes to fruition, and we get a further 10-20 boats from there, as well as half o dozen more from places such as Austria-Hungary or Denmark.
How much of a difference would around 80-90 such boats, each carrying 750 tons of high-value cargo across the Atlantic per trip, do for the CP war effort?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_Deutschland
American submarine pioneer Simon Lake visited the Deutschland while she was in Baltimore, and made an agreement with representatives of the North German Lloyd line to build cargo submarines in the US, a project which never came to fruition.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_to_the_SeaErich von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff(Oberste Heeresleitung OHL) since 14 September, concluded that a decisive victory could not be achieved on the Western Front and that it was equally unlikely in the east. Falkenhayn abandoned Vernichtunsstrategie (strategy of annihilation) and attempted to create the conditions for peace with one of Germany's enemies, by Ermattungsstrategie (strategy of exhaustion), to enable Germany to concentrate its resources decisively to defeat the remaining opponents.
https://uboat.net/wwi/types/shipyards.htmlU-boat construction by year
1906 (1)
1908 (1)
1909 (2)
1910 (4)
1911 (5)
1912 (5)
1913 (6)
1914 (15)
1915 (51)
1916 (108)
1917 (87)
1918 (90)
Let's say it's late September 1914 when Falkenhayn meets the right people and comes to fully support the idea of using U-Boats to bypass the blockade. An order of two boats is made on October 1st 1914, in order to ascertain the feasibility of the idea (this would be almost 13 months earlier than OTL).
They're finished March 1st, 1915, going by the OTL build schedule, and after a 3-month shakedown begin their journey, as OTL. By late July 1915 they're back in Germany with their cargo.
At that point, the decision is made to dedicate about half of all U-Boats built to this kind of mission, and build them accordingly.
This would mean about 25 boats in 1915 and around 50 in 1916.
Let's say the scheme to build some in America comes to fruition, and we get a further 10-20 boats from there, as well as half o dozen more from places such as Austria-Hungary or Denmark.
How much of a difference would around 80-90 such boats, each carrying 750 tons of high-value cargo across the Atlantic per trip, do for the CP war effort?