Thread: Q Ships
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Old 10-07-2008, 10:03 PM
Matt Wiser Matt Wiser is offline
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I believe that Chico and company have the Russians using the old German tactic of disguised commerce raiders. Similar to a Q-Ship, but the prey is different. Instead of being a sub-hunter, the raider hunts for unescorted merchant ships and either sinks or seizes them as prizes and sends them off to a friendly port. Many of the camo tricks (false paint schemes, flying a neutral flag, concealed guns and torpedo tubes, etc.) are the same either way. The Germans sent only nine raiders to sea in WW II, but they sank or captured 890,000 tons of merchant shipping (including victims of raider-laid mines), and one raider, KMS Kormoran, sank an Australian light cruiser as well. The Soviets in the 1950s probably had studied the possiblity of raiders, but nothing of their naval plans for WW III has been released, and given the current Russian leadership, those files aren't going to be released anytime soon.
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