Week # 5 Notes The Battle of the Atlantic

France had fallen in 1940 United Kingdom was under attack in the Battle of Britain. Desperate for supplies, Great Britain turned to the U.S. for help. However, the allies are 1000s of miles apart, separated by and ocean… The Battle of the Atlantic….began. The path to German victory was the sea! RECALL

The longest continuous military campaign of World War II, running from 1939 right through to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 At its height from mid through to about the end of 1943

World War II lasted for a total of 2,075 days. The Battle of the Atlantic lasted for 2,073 of these. It started with the sinking of the passenger liner Athenia on the day Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Battle of the Atlantic

German U-Boats patrolled the Atlantic against the British blockade of Europe and in an effort to stop supplies from America from ever reaching Britain. U-boats operated in groups of 10 called "wolf packs." The German navy, carried out submarine warfare to cut off Britain's imports and military supplies. U-boats “Unterseeboot” GERMAN ATTACK

The Allies developed a convoy system where merchant ships were guarded by destroyer escorts. The British developed a system for detecting U- boats that resembled radar. This development gave the Allies the edge in the Battle for the Atlantic. ALLIES RESPOND

First used in WWI, on a much smaller scale Convoys of ships carried supplies, troops and food to Europe. Convoys: Groups of merchant ships that are protected from enemy attack by naval escort ships or air force planes. Convoy’s

Germans did everything to stop supply lines. Convoy ships were mined or torpedoed within hearing distance of America and Canada New technology was developed: corvettes, depth charges, sonar, long-range air patrols equipped with radar “Plotters” in the U.S. and Canada…many of them were the women, tries to keep track of the “Wolf-packs” often times failing.

U-boats began attacking ships in the St. Lawrence river. On Aug. 27, 1942 the American ship Chatham was sunk Oct. 13,1942 the passenger ferry, the SS Caribou going from Nfld. to Nova Scotia was sunk by a single torpedo =173 dead civilians From the summer to the fall of 1942, German U- boats sank 21 ships in the St. Lawrence. “The Happy Times”

The campaign pitted the German Navy’s surface raiders and U-boats against Allied convoys from North America and the South Atlantic to the United Kingdom and Russia, protected mainly by the British and Canadian navy’s and air forces, later aided by United States ships and aircraft.

The British and their allies gradually gained the upper hand against the German U-Boats, 778 U-boats sunk and 28,000-lives lost

More than 2,000 merchant ships were lost to a submarine attack in the North Atlantic and more than 30,000 merchant seamen died as a result. About 330 convoys in the Atlantic were attacked by U-boats. 565 escort ships were sunk. 1,100 proceeding independently (no convoy) were also sunk. 96,977 convey crossings were completed successfully. SUMMARY