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Soren, all evidence shows that the NW passage was not possible for any navy in WW2. And even if the KM was hell bent in doing it, there was absolutely nothing in Alaska worth attacking.
Stick to potential commando raids in the Gulf of Mexico. hey, even have your soldiers hijack a commercial ship and use it for raids.
Soren, in 1939, the KM was blocked from any type of transit across the Panama Canal.
Well in that case I was also thinking of the Panama Canal, that would cut off quite abit of time to reach Alaska.
Is the entire NE region packed with ice in the summer ? No, I seem to recall it being quite passable. Sure there was more day light, but what problem is that ? Are there Allied patrols in the area ?
You'd need to run along the Russian coast, there being possible icepacks to navigate through between the Kara Lapta sea..
Fine idea if you only knew how deep the water was it might work and where the coast was as this was a very uncharted areaHow thick is the ice packs between the Lapta Kara sea in the summer months Juha ? And how spread is it ? Really.
I really see little trouble for a U-boat as it could run on the surface until the ice packs get too compacted and then dive under them to emerge up again when on the other side. Heck the ice packs might be so spread out that you could easily navigate through them on the surface.
Today Uboats just go straight underneath the ice, but they can also stay submerged for nearly an unlimited amount of time, and they can emerge through 7m thick ice. So there's a difference, but they also operate in the toughest areas of arctic ocean.
Interesting Njaco. That might very well be a worthwhile target.
Btw, I'd like to point out that German Uboats operated successfully under the ice in the Gulf of St.Lawrence.
They operated between May and November sinking 18 vessels in that period. They were then withdrawn due to the risk at Donitz personal order. 18 vessels in 7 months isn't massive.
Also this period is outside the main Ice season, with the possible exception of May and November in a bad winter. It varies year by year but in this period it is normally ice free with the exception of icebergs which are always a hazard. They would not have operated 'under ice'