Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
A RAND study pretty much defined the stuff about a decade ago.
Cool! Where?
You're wrong. Wolfpacks were the answer to convoys, not the other way around. Convoys were the answer to individual subs in 1917.
So the response to Wolfpacks was to STAY in Convoys, not disperse.
  1. First Phase:
    Establish a screening line till one sub gets in contact with a convoy (that enough subs can intercept in time).
  2. Second Phase:
    One sub gets into contact and keeps in contact, shadows the convoy ....
  3. Third Phase:
    The subs of the wolfpack move into position and attack all in the same night, from different directions if possible at almost the same time....
  4. Fourth Phase:
    Convoy still being shadowed, subs regroup for an attack another night....
OK, how does that qualify as "Swarming?" Did the Kriegsmarine ever call it swarming? Sounds like U-boat specific "Wolfpack," to me.
This vast difference easily justifies that earlier authors chose to attach an own label to this behaviour.
So who else has used "Swarming" tactics?