The tally used here is roughly twenty-eight directly credited submarine sinkings, with a dispute over U-484 among the qualifications. Additional estimates of assisted attacks depend on whether finding contacts and directing other ships count towards the class's total. An experienced commander could assess several contacts, take the most dangerous one, and ask another escort to investigate a different bearing. The receiving ship could act on that advice because it trusted the specialists' judgment. Direct sinking credit and operational contribution therefore answer different questions. The assisted totals remain estimates, and the varying figures in the later discussion should not be combined into a precise total.
Chapter · 8:25:32-8:27:37
Why Black Swan kill totals understate their effect
Direct sinkings capture only part of the class's contribution because expert groups also found contacts and directed other escorts onto them.