{"product_id":"u-boats-in-action-squadron-signal-publications-warships-1","title":"U-Boats In Action Squadron\/signal publications  Warships #1","description":"\u003cbody\u003e\n\u003c!-- HTML Generated by Auction Wizard 2000 - http:\/\/www.AuctionWizard2000.com\/ --\u003e\n\n\n\u003c!-- AW2KLOT#:134112 --\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width:98%;padding:2px;margin:auto;border:5px outset #673434;background-color:#FDF3D0\"\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"border:1px inset #673434;margin:5px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width:100%;border:0px;padding:5px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"padding:5px\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:center\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial Black;font-size:1.5em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration: underline;\"\u003eRailroadTreasures\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial Black;font-size:1.5em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial Black;font-size:1.5em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration: underline;\"\u003eoffers the following item:\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:1.0em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003c\/td\u003e\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\";padding:5px\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:center\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eU-Boats In Action Squadron\/signal publications  Warships #1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:center\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eU-Boats In Action Squadron\/signal publications  Warships #1\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eBy Robert C. Stern\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eSoftcover 49 pages\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eCopyright 1977\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eIntroduction: The U-boat War\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eThe story of the U-boat campaign in World War II is a drama of rise and fall,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eand almost rise again. The German U-boat arm rose from the ashes to become the Third Reich's most effective weapon against the West. For a\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003efew brief months the U-boats seemed to be winning the Battle of the Atlantic, bringing England slowly but surely to her knees, until May 1943 brought a sudden reversal of fortune and the anguish of a losing struggle fought with diminishing resources against a materially superior enemy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eThe Versailles Treaty, in an effort to render Germany incapable of waging another World War, prohibited her from possessing submarines, which had so nearly defeated England in WW I. Yet it took less than three years for the Reichsmarine to secretly circumvent this restriction. In July 1922, the \"Ingenieurs-Kantoor voor Scheepsbouw\", a Dutch ship design and construction firm, was acquired to act as a cover for the clandestine Submarine Development Bureau. The acquisition was made using so called \"Black Funds\", (monies deliberately over-appropriated by the German Armed Forces for secret use, ie: the same source that financed the Reich-swehr's secret armor development in Russia). Among other, more innocent projects, the Dutch-based firm oversaw the design and construction of the boats that were to be prototypes for the U-boat classes that Germany took to war.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eThe rise to power of Adolph Hitler spurred the German Armed Forces into feverish, if still secret, expansion. The first official U-boat establishment was the \"Unterseebootsabwehrschule\" (UAS) set up in October 1933. Officially an anti-submarine warfare school, it served mainly as a gathering point and planning center for U-boat personnel. Plans soon emerged for the development of a clandestine U-boat fleet, in similar manner as G6r-ing's secret Luftwaffe, during 1934. Parts were ordered abroad for U-1 through U-24, to be smuggled into Germany in early 1935.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eSecrecy, however, was not necessary much longer. On 16 March 1935, Hitler publicly renounced the military provisions of the Versailles Treaty. U-boat construction now proceeded openly and at breakneck pace. This was further legitimized by the signing, on 17 June, of the Naval Agreement which allowed Germany 45% of Great Britain's submarine total, or approximately 45 boats (twice the number then being planned). U-1, a type IIA coastal U-boat, was commissioned just 12 days later. Such was the pace of construction that by January 1936, 12 boats were in commission. By June, 24 had been launched (U-1-U-20, types II A\u0026amp;B; U-25\u0026amp;26, type IA; U-27\u0026amp;33, type VIIA). In September 1935, the first operational structure, 1. Untersee-bootsflottille \"Weddigen\", was set up under Kpt. Karl Donitz. A veteran of WWI U-boat service, Donitz was quickly plying Grand Admiral Raeder with theories as to why the U-boat had failed in the Great War and how it could succeed in the next. Already he had developed the strategic insights into how a submarine offensive could defeat a maritime enemy, and the tactics this required: Tonnageschiacht (Tonnage War) and Rudeltaktik (Wolfpack Attacks).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eThe theory of Tonnageschlacht is an exercise in logic. In order to defeat England (the presumed enemy of a U-boat War), Germany must sink more merchant shipping than the enemy can replace, for long enough to economically strangle her. Therefore, the real (and only worthwhile) target of the U-boat is the merchant ship, and the only tactical question is how to sink the greatest number with the least loss of U-boats. Donitz theorized that Germany's WWI boats were ultimately unsuccessful because merchant convoys were only a secondary target and, more importantly, because once a convoy was sighted, any attack was unco-ordinated, made by the sighting U-boat only, submerged and in daylight. Yet, as Donitz was aware, a submerged U-boat was a slow, nearly blind, inefficient weapon.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eThe Rudeltaktik was a plan to overcome these weaknesses. Donitz envisioned packs of 6 to 9 boats, spread out in a sweep formation, working across the Atlantic. Once a convoy was sighted, the sighting boat proceeded to act as a beacon to the rest of the pack. Once gathered, the pack would attack on the surface at night, when a U-boat's low profile made it practically invisible and its surface speed of 15 kts made it faster than a convoy's average of 7-9 kts, and as fast as most anti-submarine escorts. The U-boat was to submerge only to escape pursuit after an attack. Daylight was spent moving ahead of the convoy on the surface for the next night's attack.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eTo make this work, Donitz wanted a large fleet of medium-size, maneuverable, reasonably inexpensive boats (the type VIIs). He fiercely opposed the construction of large, expensive, long-range, \"fleet-type\" raiders favored by most other navies. By his figures, 300 medium boats were the minimum required to give successful results (100 on station, 100 in transit and 100 training or refitting).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eConsidering the pace at which U-boat construction began, this goal did not appear unattainable. Yet, haggling over which type of boat to build (the naval staff favored fewer, large U-boats) and deliberate deception by Hitler (his approval in 1938 of the Z Plan, a long-range naval construction plan calling for only 129 U-boats by 1946, disapproving a short-range plan that would have made more, sooner) put Donitz' aim of 300 boats far beyond reach. By the time the Z Plan was dropped in late summer 1939, the damage had been done. Even though a new plan was then adopted, projecting 300 boats by mid 1942, Germany went to war with just 57 U-boats, with only 26 being the ocean-going type VIls and IXs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003e39 of these boats were at sea, on station around England, when war broke out. But after the initial attack, rarely were more than 7 boats in action at any time. The boats, of necessity, acted individually. Yet successes did come because England proved to be equally unprepared for the war. Convoys were in effect only 100 miles west of Ireland, escorts were so few in number that at times only two were available for each convoy and air surv-eilance was effective only in the Channel-North Sea area. The Rudeltaktik was tried experimentally for the first time with a pack of three boats in October, being found to work. Before all U-boats were withdrawn from the Atlantic in April 1940, 224 ships of 1.3 million GRT were sunk.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Calibri;font-size:1.13em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eWeseriibung (the invasion of Denmark and Norway), for which the U-boats were needed to help protect against Royal Navy interference, proved to be a frustrating, if educational, experience. Faulty torpedoes, particularly the magnetic detonators, cost the boats many victories, but corrections were put in hand. It proved most valuably that another of Donitz' contentions were correct. The 1940 vintage submarine was simply too slow and vulnerable to be effective, with consistency, against well-protected war-ships.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.0em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eAll pictures are of the actual item.  If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad.  Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:center\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.13em;color:#CE0000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eShipping charges\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.0em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003ePostage rates quoted are for shipments to the US only.    Ebay Global shipping charges are shown. These items are shipped to Kentucky and then ebay ships them to you. 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Paypal is accepted. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:center\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.13em;color:#CE0000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eTerms and conditions \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.0em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eAll sales are final. Returns accepted if item is not as described.  Contact us first.  No warranty is stated or implied. Please e-mail us with any questions before bidding.   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:center\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:1.5em;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;\"\u003eThanks for looking at our items.   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003c\/td\u003e\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\";padding:5px\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align:center;width:99.9%;margin:auto\"\u003e\n\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003c\/body\u003e","brand":"RailroadTreasures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44241080090820,"sku":"333857889769","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2232\/7333\/files\/57_0860c20a-c631-41ca-97ba-9333cf9c2e52.jpg?v=1727904711","url":"https:\/\/railroadtreasures.com\/products\/u-boats-in-action-squadron-signal-publications-warships-1","provider":"RailroadTreasures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}