Howard Berkowitz wrote in message ...
In article , "Dave Kearton"
wrote:

"Howard Berkowitz" wrote in message
...
| In article ,

|
|
| So how is Rumsfeld avoiding combat if he's flying ASW duty, but he and
| his squadronmates were part of a strategic deterresnt against Communist
| forces?


| ASW pilots that sank subs in WWII rarely were shot at in the
| Atlantic theater -- the weather, distances and aircraft reliability
| were
| far more an issue. So is attacking a submerged sub seeing the
| elephant?
|
|


Very minor nitpick Howard.


ASW crews in the Atlantic were routinely shot at in the latter part of
the
war and some were shot down by their quarry.


From late '43, the anti submarine weapons became more common and more
effective. U-boat crews often felt they had a better chance of
survival
if they stayed on the surface and engaged the aircraft at over 2,000m
with
20mm and larger.


I am aware of Doenitz putting extra AA on some subs, and especially the
Bay of Biscay, but my impression was that while subs hit a few planes,
so many subs were lost quickly that Doenitz quit this quickly. I'm
certainly willing to be corrected on this.


Trying to shoot up aircarft was a waste of time. The balance of
stress was with the U-boat. They were raw, tired, paranoid, and then
bingo a big plane with a light blasts them.

The aircrew would be the least stressed. They were the people picking
the moment. Convoying the U-boats together might ensure a hit but was
as likely to lose a U-boat. A U-boat for a plane was a bad swop.

The solution had to be the tracking of coastal command aeroplanes the
same way the Germans tracked bomber comand aircraft. However the
Goring was not a team player. IFF (British) could be detected and used
by the Germans.