On 24/02/2015 14:27, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 24/02/15 10:34, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , Nightjar
"cpb"@ wrote:

There are claims that we reduced food imports by half, but a
substantial part of that was animal feed, not human food. We simply
reduced the animal population and imported meat and animal products
instead. Meat imports increased by 20% between 1938 and 1944, while
cheese imports increased by nearly 72%. Overall, the tonnage of human
food imports dropped by about a quarter, but changes in what we
imported meant that by the end of the war the calorific value per ton
of imported human food had increased by 25%.

And the U-boats sank 5,000 merchant ships (and 5,000 in WW1, come to
that). Shame that convoy protection from the air was not given higher
priority.

what aircraft had the range? None at that time.

And when you're about to be invaded, the priority is homeland defence.

At the start, perhaps, but surely some Lancs or other could have been
modified for the purpose. Even when the longer range planes became
available, Bomber Command got the nod at the expense of the
anti-submarine work.


Before the development of anti-submarine radar, finding the submarines
was the problem. We used blimps to protect the Channel during WW1, but
that was a relatively small area to patrol and we had a couple of
hundred blimps for anti-submarine work. There was never any chance of
achieving similar levels of cover in the Atlantic.

--
Colin Bignell