07-14-2005, 08:24 PM
The zig zag course made it difficult for the U boats. Their speed under water was not
usually anywhere near the speed of a surface ship. A lot of luck entered into it for them. I went over to ETO on either the Queen Mary or Elizabeth, forget which. We had
no convoy or support due to their speed. Zig zaging made it much more difficult to
get a bearing on a surface ship, whose speed matched or was greater than a submerged sub.. Along with that, ship radar was in the "infancy" for subs. Usually they
used just plain vision and had to be at the right place at the right time. All life has some risk to it.