Strike on Scapa Flow deadlier?

Days before Gunther Prien struck Scapa Flow, sinking the Royal Oak, Admiral of the home fleet Charles Forbes ordered most of the fleet to disperse to safer waters.........but what if he hadn't?

Also, why only one U-Boat? Why not several?

What if there were FAR more targets Prien, and several other U-boats also sneaked in along with him?
 
Well, for one, even if there was several huge ships, U boat could fire limited amount of torpedoes. There are 4 tubes on submarine. Once torpedoes are fired, and target hit, enemy knows you are there. It takes around half an hour to reload the tubes. By that time you'd better be as far away as possible from there.

Second problem is inserting more subs into the harbor. Prien was very gifted commander. He was one of the few people who could pull this off. Approach into Scapa was blocked by numerous sunk ships, anti sub nets and stuff like this. It is not like the subs can follow each other closely. Even if we assume it is possible (and it is not), risk increases with each additional sub.
 
The OTL raid was sometihing like Adler17's thread... not ASB, but damn...

The chance, that several subs could do that at the same time, is like winning the lottery x time in a row.
 
I'm asking about what happened if it were FAR more devastating....

also, there are infinite choices in the multiverse. in one of them, several submarines sneaked into Scapa Flow;)
 
Prien's attack would have been dismissed as ASB had it not actually happened, so having a small unit of U boats is out of the question, Doenitz realises this, which was why only one boat was dispatched for the raid. Staying long enough for a further salvo is also too risky to be considered (another real life ASB here is the Oak's crew not even realising they'd been attacked), therefore the only way this strike can be more deadly or just different is a different selection of targets.

Given tidal contitions, weather and time, it can't be any earlier or later unless the war began earlier or later, so a deadlier strike on Scapa can't be a PoD in and of itself.
 
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I'm asking about what happened if it were FAR more devastating....

also, there are infinite choices in the multiverse. in one of them, several submarines sneaked into Scapa Flow;)


Well, lets make some use of my deus ex machina: the HF is home, 1 modern BB, 1 CV, 1 BC sunk, and one heavy ship is heavily damaged, drydock for months.

Consequences? No real inpact on the atlantic battle, the RN can still overwhelm any surface raiders - hell ,even raider groups - and the u-bbots not really endangere by heavy units anyway.

In my opinion, the lasting consequences would be not that severe either: maybe the RN took some risk in the med - the italian navy was defensive even before taranto if i remember right - maybe they dont send reinforcements to the east - good move, after all.
 
Prien's attack would have been dismissed as ASB had it not actually happened, so having a small unit of U boats is out of the question, Doenitz realises this, which was why only one boat was dispatched for the raid. Staying long enough for a further salvo is also too risky to be considered (another real life ASB here is the Oak's crew not even realising they'd been attacked), therefore the only way this strike can be more deadly or just different is a different selection of targets.

Given tidal contitions, weather and time, it can't be any earlier or later unless the war began earlier or later, so a deadlier strike on Scapa can't be a PoD in and of itself.

He did fire a second salvo, did he not?
 
Rumor has it that he actually fired 7 torpedoes, only 2 of which exploded. If there were more U-boats, the likelyhood of collisions would increase, the chance of someone alerting defenses increased. Had there been more targets, there would have been more potential observers awake to give the alarm. Had there been more targets, there might also have been active anti-submarine patrols. Life is a crapshoot. Risk vs Gain.
 
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