This game pays homage everyone – Allied or Axis – who served at sea during the crucial years of World War II. This, alone, is testimony to the high level of professionalism and experience of the Uboat force and the engineers behind them. Having just entered operational service, yet never used in actual combat, the revolutionary Type XXI U-boat is a prototype for post-war submarine development in the world’s major naval fleets. But the real breakthrough is taking place in Germany.
Allied antisubmarine defenses have discovered how to defend against the U-boat and submarine warfare in general. Yet, this is also a time of explosive technological development. And the emotional cost of the war has been even greater. About 20 million tons of merchant tonnage lies under the sea. More than 30,000 merchant seamen have been lost in this struggle, along with many thousands of servicemen from all branches of the military. On the Allied side, the cost of victory has been even higher. At some points during the war, they had come close to bringing the British Empire to its knees. Still, fighting hard but fair, they have accomplished success beyond all expectations and out of proportion to their strength. The U-boat fleet is all but wiped out, 30,000 of its 40,000 men having died at sea.
Six years later, the war ends, and Germany lays in ruins. The grey wolves, the Uboats of the German Kriegsmarine, take to the sea.
“The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.” – W.S.Churchill, The Second World War