Battle of the Atlantic - World War II: A History from Beginning to End (World War 2 Battles Book 11) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

The High Point of the U-boats

“It appeared possible that we should not be able to regard convoy as an effective system of defence.”

—Royal Navy Report

Admiral Dönitz did not waste any time in sending his U-boats to the Atlantic coast of the United States after the Americans entered the war in December 1941. Events had taken place with such rapidity that the United States was suddenly cast from its neutrality into the heart of the war. In the midst of the confusion that followed its entry into the war, the United States Navy neglected to act upon intelligence obtained by the British that Admiral Dönitz planned to launch Operation Drumbeat to send a significant contingent of his U-boats to the eastern shores of the United States.

It must have seemed like easy pickings for the U-boats. The Americans didn’t set blackouts along the eastern coast, nor did the United States form convoys along the shore. By the end of January 1942, 53 U-boats had sent 100 Allied ships to the bottom of the Atlantic, and most of those ships were attacked off the East Coast of America. For the Germans, this was the U-boat’s second “happy time” as they exploited the vulnerability of the unescorted American merchant ships.

Realizing the need to provide defense for their merchant ships, the U.S. put a convoy system in place in 1942, and in response, the U-boats withdrew to the mid-Atlantic that summer. Both sides experienced heavy losses in the battles waged between the escorts and the U-boats. Admiral Max Horton became commander-in-chief of the Western Approaches Command in November 1942, and he added to the convoy escorts as more vessels became available. These ships, because they were not specifically tied to convoy defense, were able to hunt U-boats.

The year 1943 began with a continuation of the peril upon the Atlantic. Great Britain faced a dire situation with low supply levels because of the mounting Allied shipping losses; the Germans were sinking ships faster than the Allies could build new ones. Determined to deal a death blow to the supply lifeline keeping the Allies in the war, Dönitz sent all of his U-boats into the Atlantic. The convoys were daunted by the threat of the U-boat attacks. Churchill made the decision to cancel the next planned outgoing and returning convoys. Roosevelt disagreed with Churchill’s decision; the convoys, he said, needed to sail whenever possible.

The German Kriegsmarine’s wolf pack tactics made the U-boats a deadly force in the Atlantic as they set simultaneous surface attacks at night, a time which was much more effective for them because, during the day, the patrolling Allied aircraft overhead limited their ability to converge on the convoys. The winter season provided extended periods of darkness in the North Atlantic, concealing the submarine operations as they surfaced. The winter of 1942-1943 saw the greatest number of submarines sent to the mid-Atlantic, this at a time when comprehensive anti-submarine aircraft were not yet patrolling that part of the ocean.

March 1943 was the height

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