Sarah Paine

This makes a tremendous difference.

There are new technologies that are introduced that ruin Admiral Dunnett's.

Here's what happens.

The United States had radar.

Germans never did.

American radar improved, so you can see through the fog.

The United States adds hedgehogs.

What are they?

Not the cute little critters.

It's rather, if you have a ship and you have hedgehogs, they deliver an elliptical spray of depth charges.

So anybody who's anywhere underneath you is in a world of hurt.

In addition, the United States introduces two new classes of ships.

one auxiliary aircraft carriers, little ones.

That means you're gonna have air cover for the entire journey, right?

When you get beyond land-based air, then these folks will take over.

In addition, small destroyer escorts were introduced instead of the big ones.

And these little ships,

They've had all sorts of fun things on board, sonar, radar, depth charges, hedgehogs.

And so they transform commerce rating into a low-life expectancy profession.

So that in May of 43, the Germans lose 41 U-boats.