"robert arndt" wrote in message
om...


U-4709 was bombed while being built

No, it was scrapped on May 4, 1945.

My source has it bombed in the shipyard, either way it never went to sea.


Had these boats been produced in number and launched a year earlier
the Allies would have had a tough time countering them.


Over a 100 type XXI's HAD been launched, the Germans couldnt
make em work. Boats that dont work and adhesive that doesnt
stick arent war winning weapons.

Keith

Not true. The Type XXIs were revolutionary for their time and had the
normal teething troubles. Prefabrication and transportation
difficulties added to the problem.

2 Operational patrols when a pool of 118 boats was available
is WAY beyond normal teething troubles.

My sources also indicate the Alberich coating was primarily
for sound deadening and was used on at least one type VIIc
boat (U-1105)

Alberich was not a problem, the
adhesive was and that (as already explained) had been corrected by Feb
1945. No Type XXI was destroyed due to Alberich failure and even those
without the covering were still stealthy with the V-belt drive as
PROVEN by postwar Allied tests.

Given that the Alberich coatings were succesfully used on the humble type
VIIC and that a v-drive belt seems to have been a developmental dead
end your assertion looks a little weak.

The Type XXI was a truly remarkable machine for the time, better than
anything the Allies had.


IF it had worked it might have been however the less revolutionary
fleet boats the USN built while less advanced were actually able
to go to sea and sink large numbers of enemy ships.

The Germans would have done much better to make a modest
improvement to the type IXC by removing its deck gun,
streamlining the hull a little better and fitting larger batteries.
As it was the type VII and type IX boats had to soldier on
while the defective type XXI's swung at anchor.

Note that its hardly accurate to characterise type XXI's as
undetectable unsinkable super weapons since the folowing were
lost at sea

U-2503 - badly damaged by RAF aircraft - scuttled
U-2521 - sunk by RAF aircraft
U-2524 - badly damaged by RAF aircraft - scuttled
U-3519 - sunk by mine
U-3520 - sunk by mine

So we have 2 successful boats and 5 losses, U-boat men didnt have
very good odds, even in a type XXI

Keith