The fate of motor torpedo boats leads into a warning about wartime performance comparisons. Axis forces could record larger raw sinking totals partly because Allied merchant traffic offered a much richer target set than Axis shipping. Percentages of available targets and the deployments required to achieve those results provide a fairer comparison than tonnage alone. Operational opportunity belongs in the denominator before one ranks opposing forces.
Notable Point · 2:14:13-2:15:07
Raw sinking totals need a target-richness denominator
Axis forces often had more Allied merchant shipping to attack, so raw tonnage alone can exaggerate a performance difference unless historians compare available targets and deployment demands.