Why a U-boat-only strategy could not defeat Britain

The recurring claim that an earlier all-in German submarine program could have defeated Britain leaves out the British response. The Royal Navy was already expanding its escort force and could build escorts faster than Germany could produce submarines. Abandoning capital ships, cruisers, and destroyers would also have left Germany without the surface strength required to capture Norway. Without Norwegian bases, the U-boat campaign would have faced a less favorable route into the North Atlantic. Procurement was an interactive contest in which the enemy could change its own building program.