Introduction
“The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all throughout the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything that happened elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air, depended upon its outcome… dominating all our power to carry on the war, or even keep ourselves alive, lay on mastery of the ocean routes and free approach and entry to our ports.” The Battle of the Atlantic (BOTA) was World War Two’s (WW2) longest campaign, beginning on 03 September 1939, with the sinking of the passenger liner SS Athenia, and extending until the end of the war, it centred around the ability of the allies merchant shipping to land food, supplies and equipment to the British mainland and later Russia, in order to provide the continuing resources to prosecute the war with Germany . When Winston Churchill commented that “…the only thing that ever really frightened me was the U-Boat peril” , he had identified the threat posed by the Kriegsmarine U-Boat (Unterseeboot ) force under Commodore Donitz as being of significant strategic importance, despite its small size. Much of the task of defending British territorial waters against this menace, and ensuring the safe passage of merchant shipping, fell to Royal Air Force Coastal Command (RAFCC), with varying levels of success throughout the war. Of the 733 U-Boats sunk during the BOTA, 303 were sunk by aircraft, 195 by RAFCC .
This essay takes the reader through the various phases of the BOTA, providing analysis of the effectiveness of RAFCC, by critical evaluation of whether the tactical and strategic goals of the Battle were ultimately achieved. These being; tactically, the ability to find and sink U-Boats, versus the amount and volume of allied merchant ...
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... occurred during the main 1940-41 Atlantic campaign, with the majority sank after the campaign had already largely been won. However, as Milner{REF} explains, following the loss of several key U-Boat commanders to the allies and through the use of improved organisational structures, new technology, strategy and doctrine, the effectiveness of the U-Boat threat declined, despite a four-fold increase in the number of U-Boats available{REF}. Analysis would suggest the deterrence of the improved convoy defence techniques, rather than the capability to actually sink U-Boats made the difference between success and failure, and this marks the start of the British fight back, resulting in Donitz redeploying his U-Boats out of their traditional hunting grounds , notwithstanding the 325 ships (1.5M tons) sunk during April-December 1941, for the sinking of only 28 U-Boats .
During the Normandy landings, particularly at Omaha Beach, the destroyers of the Allied armada played a critical role and kept the Normandy invasion from becoming an unprecedented defeat. To fully understand the importance of the destroyer action on Omaha Beach, th...
In order to receive a victory in the Battle of the Bulge, General Patton used Mission Command Analysis in order to understand how he can be successful for this mission. The first thing of understanding t...
. F.A. Osmanski, The Logistical Planning of Operation OVERLORD.” Military Review Vol. XXIX No. 8, (November 1949) accessed at http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p124201coll1/id903 (accessed 23 Oct 2013) p.41
During the Interwar period between WWI and WWII Britain and US took separate paths to prepare their navies for future conflicts. The British were complacent and the US was keen to prepare. Initial causes came from how the two countries evaluated the threat after World War One. Great Britain saw no single nation’s navy as their rival in contrast to the United States who assessed that Japan would be their foe in the next war. At the end of WWI Germany had scuttled its active ships. The Treaty of Versailles had further restricted Germany’s ability to build more ships and man them to such an extent the characterization at the time was that Germany had been destroyed as a sea power. British Naval planners saw the threat posed by the Germany Navy to be relegated to a coastal defense navy, which would not be able to challenge the supremacy of British Navy on the high seas. The Treaty of Versailles and later the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 gave Great Britai...
The year is 1942, and German U-boats are wreaking havoc on allied shipping to Britain; the vital lifeline which allows the island nation to survive. Unchallenged, they sink hundreds of the merchant vessels which carry the desperately needed food, arms, and other equipment that is necessary for Britain's survival. They are silent and deadly; undetected until it is too late. With a loud deafening blast, a torpedo impacts the center of a ship, breaking its back. The other ships try to run, as their crews search for the unseen attacker by the glow of the ship slipping under the water to her final resting place. Cries of terror pierce the sky, as a ghostly shadow is seen heading for the flagship. The ship rolls to the side as it turns as hard as it can. The torpedo misses, but a second blast pierces the sky, disabling the ship's rudder and propellers. Tracking the submarine with its sonar, a destroyer escort moves at full steam to counter the threat. Once over the spot where the submarine lurks, depth charges are shot over the railing, and they sink quietly in the water to bring the fight back to the concealed enemy. As each detonates, the water bulges over top of where they were dropped. Knowing when it has met its match, the German U-boat retreats and the battle is over until another day.
In order to achieve the campaign objectives the RN principally applied two maritime capabilities, sea control and combat operation against land. Each of these capabilities is paramount in the UK’s operations in order to ach...
Goering’s plan for the defeat of Britain consisted of three phases. First, the Luftwaffe would bomb the British Navy and any merchant ships crossing the English Channel. The goal of this was to cause a shortage of supplies and a weakened morale in Gre...
not compensate for the losses its navy suffered.” The aircraft carrier was the single most important technological advancement during Worl...
Wilson subsequently sent some strong words notes to the German government. The Germen submarine that attacked the Lusitania was u-20. When German sank the Lusitania it change the course of the war by drawing in the U.S. The arriul of the U.S. forces would finery briar the deadlock on the Western Front and the way to Allied victory. Churchill order that in the future any the captured U-boats crewmen should not be treated as ordinary prisoners of war, but should be segregated for possible trial as paroles. On Feb 1915 the Germen navy adopted a policy of unrestricted submain war fore, that declare the area the British Isles a war zone. The Germen justed the attack by stating correct, that the Lusitania was an enemy ship and that was caring muniticus. At 3pm on August 1914, was a day the Germany declared war on France and two days. They declared war on Russia and they
Britain had to preserve its lines of commerce and supply in the Atlantic Ocean in order to survive the war. Germany recognized that disrupting Britain’s lifeline of ship convoys would provide an immediate and distinct advantage in the war. In just the first three months of 1941, Hitler’s surface naval fleet sunk or captured 37 British ships totaling 187,662 tons. The German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau together sunk twenty-two ships and 115,622 tons of ships and cargo while operating in the Atlantic. These numbers proved the effectiveness of the German strategy and led the British to disperse their battle fleet. In order to completely cripple Britain and achieve dominance in the Atlantic, Germany employed the one of the largest and deadliest battleship in history, the Bismarck. It was 823 feet in length, over 50,000 tons in weight, and could travel at a speed of 30.8 knots. Great engineering went into her underwater protectio...
The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the extent to which the Allied success in overcoming German submarine warfare and land invasions in the first world war can be attributed to Britain’s military tactics and resources. The method in this investigation is to first explain what Britain had that could have led it to contribute to Allied success. This includes an evaluation of different British tactical procedures such as ship camouflage, cartography and early naval operations in particular events from the war. Then, Britain’s contribution will be compared against an economic and military viewpoint of the success of the Allies in World War One. This investigation will not discuss all of Germany’s land invasions during the war nor will it discuss the situation of all of Britain’s allies. Instead, Britain’s contribution to the war will be compared with that of the United States.
For three fateful days, the greatest military miracle of the second world war took place on the beaches of France. Nearly 400,000 British, French, Polish, and Belgium men packed together like fish in a barrel waiting to be obliterated by the Luftwaffe. Behind every miracle lays a story of heroism of Britain’s men of the air and sea. The rescue “of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkerque was accomplished by assembling of a fleet of almost 900 vessels”. Ordinarily, military success is achieved by the men in uniform, however, this miracle was on the “part played by amateur British sailors in getting the British Soldiers out of France and across the Channel”. Of the 900 vessels, “222 were ships of the Royal Navy and 665 were small Merchant
As printed on a notice, “...any vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters (adjacent to the British Isles) and that travellers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.” Despite these dire warnings 1,962 people still got on the Lusitania, a British passenger ship, on her 202nd voyage through the war torn waters of Great Britain.
“Naval Rivalry.” Europe. 3rd ed. 5 vols. Beresford, Charles W., Volker R. Berghahn, Herwig H. Holger, Lambert A. Nicholas, Arthur J. Marder, Jon T. Sumida, and Lawrence Sondhaus. Farmington Hills: Tomson Gale, 2006
The Higgins boat, other wise known as an LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) played a major role in attacks upon shallow beaches throughout the war. The Higgins boat is a very rugged rectangle boat with a bow that lowers down like a ramp in order to deposit troops or vehicles on shore. The LCVP also had a tunnel that protected the propellers for shallow waters and unsuspected obstructions. The boat is 36’3” long and 10’10” wide, even though it is small it could carry 36 troops or 12 troops and a vehicle. The boat didn’t only play a major role in D-Day but in many attack on Japanese islands as well. This boat was a very important innovation because of it’s unique ability to land on any shore imaginable, from sandy bottom to coral reef.