re: #468 Romantic Heretic

The Kriegsmarine had planned on 300 ocean going submarines; 100 on station, 100 in transit and 100 hundred resting and refitting. They had, as I recall, 57, of which some were meant for coastal defence and so unsuited for the North Atlantic.

That so few boats did so much damage makes me very glad Hitler started the war before Germany was really ready.

The general order of love that the services got was Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and then Kriegsmarine. Hitler loved the first, Goering (as designated successor) considered the second his pet project, and the third was viewed more as an afterthought than a serious weapon against Germany’s enemies. For example, part of the reason the Graf Zepplin was never completed was because Goering refused to consider allowing the Kriegsmarine operate aircraft that were not under his direct control. Plus the resources that were going to it were stripped away when time came to launch Barbarossa.