1. Events and Ideas #7 Battle of the Atlantic
U.S. History
Unit 5

2. Essential Questions:
What were the key elements of the Battle of the Atlantic?
What things gave the Allies the advantage to win control over the Atlantic Ocean?

3. U-boat shells a merchant ship
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II:
After declaring war on the U.S., German submarines entered American coastal waters.
U-boat shells a merchant ship

4. United States East Coast
American merchant ships were targeted by German U-boats
They attacked at night when the glow from the cities silhouetted the vessels.
People on the East Coast dimmed their evening lights, put up “blackout curtains” and drove with their headlights off.
What have we changed since 9/11?
Airport security
Passports to go in and out of Mexico/Canada
Homeland Security Act 2002 – Large security force, wiretapping, internet watch

5. German U-boats at anchor
By Aug. 1942, German submarines had sunk American ships.
So many oil tankards had been sunk, that gasoline and oil had to be rationed
Cargo ships began to travel in convoys escorted by Navy ships to ensure safety
German U-boats at anchor
The British adopted a convoy system, initially voluntary and later compulsory for almost all merchant ships, the moment that World War II was declared.
Each convoy consisted of between 30 and 70 mostly unarmed merchant ships.
American and Canadian supplies were vital for Britain to continue its war effort.

6. Convoy System
Great Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to survive and hold off Germany’s attacks.
Blimps and airplanes flew overhead keeping watch.
At the core of the battle was the blockade of Germany, and Germany's blockade of Great Britain
At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade
U.S. Navy blimp flies over a convoy of ships
to protect it from German U-boats

7. A fleet of U.S. Liberty ships
Mass Production
Even though the Germans wreaked havoc on Allied ships in the Atlantic, by 1942 U.S. shipyards are producing ships faster than the Germans are sinking them
New technology helps turn the tide in favor of the allies
Sonar, Radar, Depth Charges
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II.
They were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output.
Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by German U-boats, they were purchased for the U.S. fleet and for lend-lease deliveries of war materiel to Britain and to the Soviet Union.
Eighteen American shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945, easily the largest number of ships produced to a single design.
A fleet of U.S. Liberty ships

8. D-Day Plan

9. Symbol of the fictitious 1st Army unit
D-Day Deception
Efforts to fool the Germans into thinking the invasion would occur elsewhere
Method used:
Controlled leaks of misinformation
Physical deception
Fake infrastructure and equipment
Dummy landing craft
Dummy aircraft/airfields
Decoy lighting
Fake messages/transmissions
Messages sent to and from fake units
Dummy aircraft
For deceptions the Allies had developed a number of methodologies, referred to as "special means". They included combinations of physical deception, fake wireless activity, leaks through diplomatic channels, and double agents. Fortitude used all of these techniques to various extents. For example, Fortitude North relied heavily on wireless transmission (the Allies thought that Scotland was too far for German reconnaissance to reach) whilst Fortitude South utilized the Allies network of double agents.
Physical deception: to mislead the enemy with nonexistent units through fake infrastructure and equipment, such as dummy landing craft, dummy airfields, and decoy lighting.
Controlled leaks of information through diplomatic channels, which might be passed on via neutral countries to the Germans.
Wireless traffic: To mislead the enemy, wireless traffic was created to simulate actual units
Use of German agents controlled by the Allies through the Double Cross System to send false information to the German intelligence services
Public presence of notable staff associated with phantom groups, such as FUSAG (First U.S. Army Group), most notably the well-known US general George S. Patton.
Symbol of the fictitious 1st Army unit

10. The Normandy Invasion June 6, 1944 “D-Day” aka “Operation Overlord”
The attack was planned months in advance; the Nazi’s knew the Allies planned to attack…but didn’t know where
Five “Landing Beaches” were chosen: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno
D-Day map of the coast of France

11. Troops & equipment landing at a captured beachhead
The Normandy Invasion
Largest single allied invasion in the war
1.5 million troops & 5 million tons of equipment sent to Britain in preparation
Dawn of June 6:
7,000 ships, 100,000 soldiers, 23,000 paratroopers land on the Normandy beaches
Troops & equipment landing at a captured beachhead

14. Battle of the Atlantic
Fill out the graphic organizer “Battle of the Atlantic” while viewing the next seven slides

15. Sept. 16th – 1st Convoy route 1939 totals: 165 merchant ships sunk
Sept 3, WWII begins
Set. 14th – 1st U-boat suck
Sept. 16th – 1st Convoy route
1939 totals – 165 merchant ships sunk 9 U-boats sunk
Sept 3, WWII begins
Set. 14th – 1st U-boat suck
Sept. 16th – 1st Convoy route
1939 totals:
165 merchant ships sunk
9 U-boats sunk

16. June – Dunkirk evacuated June - France surrenders to Germany
Oct – 35 merchant ships sunk – largest 48 hour merchant ship loss of the war
June – Dunkirk evacuated
June - France surrenders to Germany
July – Battle of the Atlantic officially begins
1940 totals:
567 merchant ships sunk
24 U-boats sunk

17. Jan–April: German aircraft sink 113 ships in Atlantic
March – 1st radar detect U-boats
June – German Naval code broken
Hitler declares war on U.S.A.
1941 totals:
503 merchant ships sunk
35 U-boats sunk

18. Feb – Germany changes enigma machine, British can’t read code
Germany changes code
U-boats begin surface nigh attacks
British break U-boat code
Feb – Germany changes enigma machine, British can’t read code
May - U-boats begin night time surface attacks
June - British cryptographers crack U-boat code
1942 totals:
1383 merchant ships sunk
87 U-boats sunk

19. Feb – War changes in favor of the Allies
March – Germany temporarily blocking code breaking
1943 totals:
588 merchant ships sunk
242 U-boats sunk

20. June 4th – D-Day Landing
Aug. – Largest convoy arrives in U.K. with no losses
1944 totals:
251 merchant ships sunk
252 U-boats sunk

21. May 6th – Last U-boat sunk
May 8th – Germany surrenders
Sept. 2nd – Japan surrenders
1945 totals:
175 merchant ships sunk
120 U-boats sunk

22. U-Boats scuttled at the end of the war
May 6-9, 1945: over U-boats scuttled (sunk) by the Germans
156 U-boats were surrendered to the British Royal Navy
116 were scuttled by the U.K. off of Ireland
May 06 to Over 200 U-boats were scuttled by the Germans Some U-boats were scuttled by the Germans by filling ballast tanks and not flooding the interior of the boat.
During OPERATION DEADLIGHT 115 surrendered U-boats were scuttled North of Ireland.
42 surrendered U-boats Northern Ireland in June 1945

23. Essential Questions:
What were the key elements of the Battle of the Atlantic?
What things gave the Allies the advantage to win control over the Atlantic Ocean?