Thus far, the kriegsmarine has been the veritable whipping boy for you jackanapes, but, Jonathan and Sam, you have both failed to take into account one major aspect of a nation's navy: the merchant marine. What does the merchant marine do? It transports stuff. To elaborate, stuff necessary to both the war effort and the well-being of a country's citizens/subjects/underlings. Now, here's just a few numbers that are sure to shock those smiles off your faces:
In the Second World War, German U-boats sank nearly 14.7 million tons of allied shipping, which amounts to 2,828 ships (around two thirds of the total allied tonnage lost). The United Kingdom alone suffered the loss of 11.7 million tons, which is 54% of the total Merchant Navy fleet at the outbreak of the Second World War. 30,000 merchant seamen were killed aboard convoy vessels during the war.
That's a lot of stuff, and people, that never got to their intended destinations. I have not been able to determine either the psychological or economic effect of this damage on the British and their allies, but I'm sure it was important enough to warrant some type of recognition from you two that the kriegsmarine wasn't just rum, the lash, etc. They did other stuff too.
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