Quote:
Originally Posted by .45cultist
Or a boat load of HE cruise missiles.
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Exactly - i.e. why use nukes to knock out the refineries at Curacao and Trinidad when one sub with a few HE cruise missiles can do the same job and not kill a couple of hundred thousand people as well in the bargain? And you can close a canal by sinking a ship in the locks with a simple limpet mine and screw it up for months if you do it at the right place
The Oscar carried a missile that could have a 750kg high explosive warhead or an FAE warhead - both of which would do a hell of a lot of damage to a refinery or port or for that matter the machinery on the canal without using a nuke - and could have been used earlier in the war (the non-nuclear stage) - and could explain why the USN had issues during the war - lose the canal because its damaged and being repaired and you have to go around South America to reinforce the Pacific or Atlantic fleet during the first critical months of the war