The earlier parts establish the problem: an E-boat sank a destroyer during the Dunkirk evacuation, while the later arrival of the Fairmile D marked Britain's increasingly forceful response. Germany had to distribute fast attack craft among the Channel, the Baltic, Norway, and other commitments. Britain could answer by building a much larger counter-force instead of seeking one perfect technical solution. That numerical method resembled the Royal Navy's approach to anti-submarine warfare, using industrial capacity to put enough counters into service. An E-boat's operational value depended on how many could be concentrated where they mattered. The campaign was a contest of force availability and deployment as well as a comparison between individual boat designs.
Chapter · 0:06-2:17
The E-boat threat as an operational problem
The conclusion frames E-boats as one element of a wider German coastal force whose numbers and deployments could be constrained.