Wolf Packs

Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope 2. It is time to show off some progress again - machines of war, which will be at your service later on. Today's reinforcements represented the serious threat to Allied supply freighters. But relax those itchy mouse-trigger fingers! A few more words of introduction are in order.

The Second World War had many different aspects, one of which was the struggle to control the flow of resources. Supplies and reinforcements were essential to gain a dominating position in all theaters, but especially so in the barren landscape of North Africa. Both sides used submarines to locate and sink enemy war potential before it could be used against friendly troops. The German Navy, or Kriegsmarine, was especially reliant on subs, as the rebuilding of the surface navy had only just begun before the outbreak of war. There was little hope of defeating the greatly superior Royal Navy in a surface battle, and submarines were relatively cheap, quick to produce and hard to detect. These advantages, combined with advanced communications, encrypted using the famous Enigma cypher machine, made the German Uboat a major threat to the Allied war effort.

One type of boat used by the Kriegsmarine was the submarine Type VII B, a further development of the Type VII A. Between 1936 and 1940, 24 boats were constructed. With an overall length of 66.5 meters , and a weight of 1040 tons, the Type VII B was powered by two 1400 PS diesel engines, allowing it to reach a maximum speed of 17.9 knots (33 km/h) on the surface. Submerged its electric motor limited it to around 8 knots (15 km/h). The Type VII B was armed with 14 torpedoes (with 4 tubes in the bow and 1 in the stern) and an 88 mm/L45 SK C/35 deck gun with 220 rounds of ammunition.

German submarines sunk a total of 2882 merchant ships and 175 warships. Very successful in the early years of war, the uboat wolf packs found themselves becoming the prey rather than the hunters following the deployment of sound navigation and ranging equipment (sonar). At the end of the war 784 of the 863 uboats in service had been sunk. More than 30,000 of the 40,000 "U-Boot Männer" died by the end of the war.

One of the most famous Type VII B uboats was the U-47. It was notorious for its October 14, 1939 attack, under the command of Günther Prien. U-47 entered the base of the British home fleet at Scapa Flow, and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak. But enough words. Have a look and enjoy this beauty, modeled by Messiha. and skinned by Messiha. and Lobo.

That's all for today folks. We hope you enjoyed this update and we would like to invite you to visit our public forums to discuss this and other Forgotten Hope news. Hope to see you at the next update!