Battle Of The Atlantic: How Did The Allies Defeat The U-Boat Peril? | Battlefield | War Stories

[Music] he [Music] at 11:00 a.m. on the 3rd of September 1939 the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain announced that a state of War existed between Germany and Great Britain that evening The Donaldson liner SS athenia sailed 250 Mi Northwest of the Irish Coast on her normal routine passage from Glasgow to Montreal she was carrying 1,13 passengers and a crew of 305 amongst her passengers were 300 Americans as well as over 100 children at 7:30 p.m. her port side exploded athenia immediately listed to port and began to settle by the stern although she remained afloat for several hours before she finally sank 118 passengers and crew were killed including 28 Americans the athenia had been sunk by a youth 30 commanded by liutenant Fritz Julius LM it was an unprecedented Act of Naval aggression the battle of the Atlantic and the war against the uirs had begun from the Middle Ages Britain depended on overseas trade for her wealth and prosperity she established and expanded an overseas Empire whose role was to supply raom materials and act as a market for British manufactured goods but Britain had become more and more vulnerable to interruptions to that trade almost half the world's oceangoing Merchant shipping flew the red enen British shipyards built 40% of the world's Merchant ships and the Royal Navy made protecting Britain's trade vessels one of its top priorities needless to say Britain's enemies recognized that interrupting her trade would have disastrous consequences is between 1914 and 1918 Germany pursued a submarine campaign against the United Kingdom that nearly brought Britain to her knees in April 1917 the Germans sank almost 900,000 tons of Allied Shipping virtually all of which was by submarine it was a catastrophic loss reducing the British stock of essential War supplies down to a mere 6 weeks yet the submarines involved were small fragile and unreliable the first German submarine the U1 had only been completed at the end of 1906 and the first operational uboat armed with a single torpedo tube had managed to complete a 600 mile cruise around German Waters in 1908 to the British the idea of a submarine was looked on as ignoble and underhand in 1914 Winston Churchill as first Lord of the admiralty dismissed the possibility of a submarine campaign targeting Britain's trade I do not believe that this would ever be undertaken by a civilized power he [Music] said Lucitania was on a normal ler Voyage from New York to Liverpool when as she approached Queen town on the Irish Coast she was hit by a torpedo fired from a u20 she sank rapidly taking almost 2,000 passengers with her most of whom were women and children over 100 were Americans the Germans quickly tried to justify the act by claiming that the Lucitania was carrying War supplies although there was a shred of Truth to such claims the loss of so much innocent life could not be justified the loss of the Lucitania raised the curtain on unrestricted submarine warfare all enemy vessels became legitimate targets and could be attacked without warning gradually the British admiralty began to realize that the submarine could completely change Maritime Warfare German submarines started to seriously weaken British and Allied Shipping and the Defenders had little with which to fight back tactics like Q ships where warships were disguised as merchant ships simply forced the German submarines to attack while still submerged Only The Reluctant introduction of the convoy system late in the war led to a decline in the numbers of lost Merchant ships by the end of the first world war almost 5,000 British Merchant ships were sunk by submarines nearly 15 and a half thousand Merchant Sailors were lost at the same time 178 German submarines were sunk killing over 6,000 German Sailors but they had brought Britain perilously close to defeat it was a salutary lesson on the potential of the submarine as a devastating weapon this lesson was lost neither on the British nor on those surviving German naval officers who would later spearhead the naval forces in the Second World [Music] War the Treaty of Versa placed strict limits on the size and the composition of the German Armed Forces one of these limits imposed a total ban on the construction or operation of submarines but Germany had entered the first world war as submarine novices and emerged from it as experts small as it was the German Navy was not about to throw away its huge advantage in an area of warfare that would prove critical in any future conflict the result was a remarkable conspiracy by German naval officers and ship builders in which a web of intrigue was created to mask the fact that Germany was determined to build on its expertise in submarine warfare as early as 1920 a new underwater warfare section was established within the torpedo and mines inspectorate at Keel at the same time German ship Builders could still offer help and advice to countries such as Japan Argentina Italy and Sweden this ingenious plan ensured that German skills were not lost and were kept up toate with new technological development Germany even tried to establish submarine building yards in Holland and Spain these plans were soon sheld though after pressure from the International Community other Complicated cover organizations were established to make it virtually impossible for Allied monitors set up under the League of Nations to keep accurate records of what the Germans were really up to by the early 1930s German designed submarines were under construction in Holland Spain Estonia and Finland for a variety of customers strangely enough every submarine looked remarkably similar to the most successful German ubo designs of the first world war when adol Hitler took power in 1932 rearmament took on a new importance Hitler was determined to remove the restrictions that had been imposed at Versailles as soon as he could by legal means or [Music] Not by the Autumn of 1933 an official submarine school was established at Keel and 80 officers were handpicked to become its first students [Music] at the same time ubot parts and sections began to be imported into Germany from the Germans sponsored submarine yards in Holland by 1935 Hitler was proposing a new German Navy that was to include a submarine Force nearly half the size of that of Great Britain unfortunately by this time the restrictions imposed by versailes and other Naval treaties had been flouted by almost all the signaries leaving Britain with little choice but to accept the new German proposals the world however was somewhat surprised to find that Germany was starting to commission brand new submarines only 4 months after she had agreed to relax the limitations but it was too late by September 1939 Germany boasted 57 [Music] OTs traditionally Britain's ports had specific roles on the East Coast Hull was the main trading port for Northern Europe Scandinavia and the Baltic Newcastle was a coal exporting port and London was the most important port for the Imperial trade with East Africa and the Far East with the ships of the British India line the Orient line and P largely based there Southampton on the south coast was mainly a passenger port for services to North America the great Cunard white star liners including the Queen Mary aquitania morania and the almost complete Queen Elizabeth started their record-breaking voyages from the port on the west coast the major ports for North America were Liverpool and birkenhead Manchester was home to cunard's Cargo operation and and the company port line Harrison line and the Blue Star Line trade with South America was conducted via the Bristol Channel ports with war looming on the horizon this pattern of trade had to change a shift took place away from the more vulnerable ports of the south and east towards the ports of the West and North that were further from the enemy similarly the traditional Naval bases of Plymouth Portsmouth and chattam were just too close to Germany so the escorts followed the merchant ships to the north and west with the major units moving to bases in Scotland to have a serious effect on Britain's trade with her Empire and with her North American Partners the uots would have to operate in the western approaches either north of Ireland into the Clyde or through St George's channel into the Irish sea and Liverpool these Waters had proved Rich grounds for the uots of the Kaiser Navy and the first successes of of the German submarines had been achieved west of Ireland it would be some time before uots in sufficient numbers were available to take the war further a field it would also be in this region that the Royal Navy initially deployed its meager anti-submarine forces discover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and adree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all on History hit watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device download the app now to watch everything from the gripping story of the Band of Brothers to operation Barbarosa and D-Day immerse yourself in the dramatic stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the description the commander-in-chief of the royal Navy through most of the battle of the Atlantic was Admiral of the fleet s Dudley pound as first seal Lord he was responsible for all the operational and administrative aspects of the British Navy he was appointed to the job at the age of 62 in June 1939 having been commander-in Chief Mediterranean in some respects though he was an odd Choice he suffered from arthritis in his left leg that Disturbed his sleep and gave him a pronounced limp although this disability never affected his judgment it did account for certain aspects of his personality he lacked humor had no interests outside his work and he found delegation difficult some of his colleagues believed him to be a pressure cooker barely under control but his long experience as a naval officer that included the Battle of Jutland and a FirstClass brain enabled him to cope with the stresses and strains of working with Winston Churchill he had the courage to resist some of Churchill's Wilder Naval schemes helping the war effort considerably once he he was left in peace to conduct a purely Naval operation from the admiralty pound showed sound personal judgment and a Readiness to take responsibility for fateful decisions he was correct more often than he was proved wrong certainly no one could criticize pound's Devotion to his duty and the cause for which he was fighting Admiral s Max Horton is the British naval officer whose name is most synonymous with the victory of the battle of the Atlantic he was appointed commander-in-chief Western approaches on the 19th of November 1942 and bore that responsibility until the end of the war Horton was the third officer to hold the post the first had been a hero of the first World War Admiral samartin Dunbar neith who had earned the Victoria Cross for his exploits as a submarine commander in the Mediterranean Dunbar nay Smith's problems had been huge and he should take the credit for establishing the first escort groups and a training regime team to enable escort Crews to approach their task in the most professional manner possible he formed a tactical training school at Liverpool for escort officers and a workup facility at tobery on the Isle of mul where ships could practice their tactics under the watchful eye of the notorious vice admiral Gilbert Stevenson the terror of TOA Mory Dunbar naith was also responsible for the relocation of the western approaches HQ from Plymouth to Darby house in Liverpool where it was much closer to the heart of the battle it was shortly after this move on the 17th of February 1941 that he was relieved as commander-in-chief by Admiral sersi Noble Dunbar naith remained as commander-in-chief of the Plymouth command Admiral Noble was an agile clever and popular officer known for his fastidious dress and cleanliness but apart from his personal eccentricities Noble was responsible for much of the victory his command command eventually achieved over the German OTS in particular he devoted much effort to improving cooperation between the Royal Navy and Coastal command of the royal Air Force in which he was aily assisted by the then commander-in-chief Coastal command air Vice Marshal JM Rob this essential interservice partnership was enhanced with the transfer of operational control of coastal command from the RAF to the admiralty on the 15th of April 1941 the possibility of transferring Coastal command bodily to the Navy was considered but rejected for bureaucratic reasons in his efforts to improve relations and operational compatibility between the Americans Canadians and the British noble had some success to enable him to continue with this part of his task he was relieved as commander-in-chief Western approaches on the 19th of November 1942 and appointed as head of the British Naval mission in Washington he was replaced by Admiral samax Horton who was until then flag officer submarines Horton a much more flamboyant figure than noble had been handed the blueprint for victory he looked young for his 60 years and had been a Submariner from the beginnings of his Naval career after joining the Royal Navy submarine service in 1904 he commanded his first boat a year later he served in submarines throughout the first world war and gained distinction by being the first British submarine Commander to a German warship to mark this Victory he introduced the custom of flying the skull and crossbones on return from a successful Patrol a custom still practiced in the Royal Navy today at the outbreak of the second world war Horton was the vice admiral in command of the reserve Fleet and was briefly in command of the northern Patrol until Churchill appointed him head of the Navy's submarine arm once given command of the western approaches Horton became the archetypal coacher turned gamekeeper Horton's reputation for decisive leadership earned him the job as well as the fact that he had more knowledge of Submarine operations than any other officer on the Allied side as flag officer submarines most of his effort had been devoted to the running of the Royal Navy's small and widely scattered submarine Force now he had to turn his talents and enthusiasm to a strategic situation his abrasive style soon earned him the nickname of fire eater among his subordinates further down the line he was described in rather less respectful terms he could be dealt with in one of two ways either by complete submission or a resistance based on Superior knowledge but to resist Horton required courage and confidence few possessed this one of them being his intelligence adviser Commander Roger win head of the submarine tracking room after what could be described as a Frank exchange of views during which Horton accused win of incompetence wi took Admiral Horton down to the intelligence cell showed him all the information available and asked for Horton's advice on how to handle it Horton having studied the mass of information for a few minutes gave in well I think this is a bit outside my field it's yours Roger this is as close as Horton ever got to conceding a position and was the basis for a mutual trust between him and Commander win for the rest of the [Music] war Admiral Ernest King was appointed commander-in-chief of the United States Navy in December 1941 in March of the following year he combined this post with that of chief of Naval operations becoming not only the administrative head of the US Navy but also its operational Commander after the Senate confirmed him in the post for 4 years he remained in the position for the duration of the war in some respects he was a strange Choice King was a true anglophobe he detested almost everything British for Roosevelt to appoint him to a position where close relationships with the British would determine the success of the Atlantic campaign seemed almost deliberately provocative on the president's part at the high command level General George Marshall President Roosevelt's chief of staff was almost the complete opposite his regard for the British was high and his relations with Churchill and most British commanders were good so to some exent Marshall's presence compensated for King's influence Ernest King was born in Lorraine Ohio in 1878 and was old enough to have served in the Spanish-American war of 1898 he served in a wide variety of posts and built up experience in Gunnery torpedo boats mining operations and submarines King also commanded ships and squadrons as was the normal career pattern for senior naval officers at the time unlike some of of his British colleagues during the Atlantic campaign he was willing to listen to subordinates and to absorb their ideas although in doing so he often displayed a rudeness that earned him respect but not affection in the Service King was appointed chief of the naval Bureau of Aeronautics in 1933 and was largely responsible for the US Navy's development of Naval Aviation that was far in advance of anything comparable in the Royal Navy he rose through the positions of aircraft commander in the battle Fleet to command of the US Navy's Patrol force in this post he became deeply involved in the US Navy's increasing commitment to the Atlantic and became highly involved personally in the way the battle against the OTS was being conducted this may be the cause of his constant interference and involvement in the Atlantic theater of operations that contrasted with his attitude to the Pacific War in the Pacific King chose senior officers he believed he could trust such as Chester nimit and let them get on with the job in the at Atlantic King took personal [Music] command Grand Admiral Eric Rita was commander-in-chief of the German Navy or CS Marine from the beginning of the war to his resignation in 1943 he was at the helm for most of the critical period of the battle of the Atlantic Rita had joined the German Navy in 18 1894 at the age of 18 a native of Hamburg he' served in the high seas Fleet commanding a cruiser before his appointment as Chief of Staff to Admiral hipper who commanded the battle cruisers at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 rer was a committed conservative and German nationalist who strongly believed the Navy could play a pivotal role in restoring Germany's position and greatness During the interwar period in 1925 he was given command of the Baltic Naval station and in 1928 was appointed to the post of chief of the naval command under reader the German Navy was transformed he conceived the so-called pocket battleships designed to get around the restrictions of the Versa treaty he also lay at the heart of the subterfuge that led to Germany having a fully trained and experienced submarine arm well before the ban on German possession of submarines was revoked Rita also masterminded the Zed plan in which Germany was to build a large well equipped Fleet based on Modern battleships battle Cruisers and aircraft carriers unfortunately for the Germans the second world war came 10 years before the plan could reach fruition Rita realized that the main role the German Navy could play in the conflict would be the same as in World War I disrupting enemy trade the importance of the submarine would be critical Rita needed the right man for the job so Carl dernitz was made commander of the submarine arm it was Rita who urged the German High command to introduce unrestricted submarine warfare from the beginning of the second world war he remembered and had learned how close such a campaign came to success in early 1917 but Hitler equally remembered how the campaign had affected neutral opinion especially in the United States Admiral Rita believed the surface Fleet could play an almost equally vital role and in the early days of the war he sent the few surface warships Germany had into the Atlantic where they enjoyed limited success following the loss of the bismar in May 1941 the major surface units of the German Navy were restricted to operations around Norway and in the Baltic it was his continuing belief in the part the surface warship could play that led to rea's downfall on the 30th of December 1942 a force of German warships including the pocket battleship sheer and The Heavy Cruiser Hippa sailed from Alton fur in Northern Norway to intercept an Allied Convoy Bound for Russia in the ensuing chaos the German ships were beaten off by a force of British Cruisers and destroyers in the battle of the baren sea this humiliation which was partly caused by Hitler's lack of resolve on committing surface ships to action led the furer to order the scrapping of all the remaining surface ships Hitler's refusal to countermand this order triggered Rita's resignation in an ironic twist he was replaced as commander-in-chief by Carl dernitz more than any other leader Carl dernitz epitomizes the battle of the Atlantic dernitz was the commander-in-chief of the German submarine force from its formation until his promotion to commander-in-chief of the German Navy in early 1943 even then he maintained a firm hand on his beloved OTS only surrendering in control in name he achieved even greater notoriety as the second furer of National Socialist Germany after Hitler's death it had always been intended that dernitz should take control of the newly formed ubot Force at the time of its formation in February 1935 dernitz was the captain of the cruiser emden he was 43 years old born near Berlin in 1891 he joined the Imperial Navy as a Cadet in 1910 graduating as an officer in 1913 when the first world war broke out he was signals officer of the cruiser Breslau which was operating in the Mediterranean at the time in 1916 dernitz was appointed to the submarine service after serving with distinction in u39 he was given command of uc2 at the beginning of 1918 his reports spoke of his fine military bearing energy good manners diligence and enthusiasm popularity and tact with both officers and men in late 1918 dernitz was in command of u68 while attacking a British Convoy in October he was forced to Scuttle his submarine and surrender his captors noted that he was Sullen and introspective he became obsessed with the loss of his ship after undergoing psychological examination in Britain he was repatriated soon after the Armistice but he immedi medely rejoined the German Navy derit survived the post-war Purge of naval officers which followed the kuch and decided to stay in the Navy after 2 years as a torpedo boat Commander duritz joined the torpedo and mine inspectorate after a series of sea and staff jobs he was promoted steadily until he was considered the most appropriate officer to command the new submarine force on the 1st of October 1935 he was promoted to full captain and appointed chief of submarines Germany could boast three small submarines at the time he worked closely with Admiral Rita as the new Navy began to take shape and proposed that Rita should include 300 submarines in his Zed plan this was the minimum number dernitz felt would be viable for any forthcoming war with Great Britain Rita accepted the figure at the end of the summer of 1939 derit wrote to Rita formerly expressing his fears over a war with Britain when his force was so unprepared but he was assured by Hitler himself that no such situation would be allowed to happen throughout the war dernitz maintained a tight control over his submarines on the fall of France he transferred his headquarters to Britany where he could be closer to the front line he was always available to welcome returning Crews and maintained a high public relations profile this was part of his campaign to keep keep the German people constantly informed of the successes of the ubot and thus secure enough resources for the force to keep expanding this was not always easy he found himself in constant conflict with the German Navy's biggest enemy Herman guring head of the LT buffer as the war continued dernitz constantly developed his concept of operations to reflect the Strategic changes taking place as more uots became available he identified vulnerable areas in the Allied Convoy routes and targeted his forces there accordingly as numbers increased he introduced the Wolfpack tactics although he claimed they were his own invention he had in fact learned them from his experiences in the first world war but he certainly enhanced their operations to the point where they almost defeated Allied defensive measures yet dernitz was a realist he knew that to win the battle of the Atlantic his submarines had to sink Allied Merchant ships faster than they could be replaced when in the middle of 1943 he realized that he was losing this battle he knew that the ubot campaign was doomed to failure he did not give up and insisted that more and more resources be allocated to the submarine service despite his being the second and last furer albeit for only a few days long enough to sign the German surrender it was with some reluctance that the Allies put him on trial as a war criminal the battle of the Atlantic had mostly been fought within the rules of war with few breaches of the rules on both sides however the sinking of the line of lonia in September 1942 prompted derit to change the rules concerning Aid to survivors OTS were not put at risk the Laconia had been carrying Italian prisoners of war and a number of OTS came under attack from Allied aircraft when they were trying to assist the survivors following this dernitz ordered his commanders not to Ren render assistant and not to pick up survivors except when they could be of use to the submarine or to Germany ubo captains were in his words to be severe remember he continued that in his bombing raids on German cities the enemy has no regard for women and children this position was in clear breach of the London protocol of 1936 and led to derit being charged with war crimes at nurg the prosecution said that this me in practice an order to kill survivors derit argued that putting the safety of the submarine first was the main responsibility of the commanding officer one of the witnesses for the defense was the commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz Nimitz told the tribunal that American submarines in the Pacific had virtually the same orders as durit had issued derit was convicted on a much lesser charge and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment he died in 1980 on the outbreak of war the Royal Navy had few ships capable of escorting convoys the fleet was based upon some 20 major warships deployed around the world policing the British Empire and the trade routes which maintain that Empire the resources which had gone into developing dedicated purpose-built anti-submarine escorts for use in the North Atlantic were largely confined to giving destroyers and sloops a rudimentary fit of basic underwater submarine detection equipment and a few depth charge racks surface ships could detect submarines underwater by using two methods firstly hydrophones lowered under the water might hear the noises made by uots engines or propellers but the submarine had to be very CLE close for this to be effective today this is known as passive sonar ships were able to detect submarines using crude hydrophones as early as 1918 the more advanced method was to mount an asdic transmitter on the bottom of the ship asdic stood for anti-submarine detection investigation committee named after a group who looked into the problem in the 1930s the asdic sent out a wave of sound which would rebound off the hull of a submarine the transmitter then became a receiver which listened for the returning Soundwave or Echo this is known today as active sonar in 1939 the effective asdic range was about a mile by the end of the war better asdic sets were finding submarines well beyond this range the sinking of the athenia and other vulnerable Merchant ships in the early days of the War caused the admiralty to examine its position even then the Royal Navy was more concerned about about the threat from Germany's few surface ships than it was of submarines and important convoys were often allocated an old Battleship to scare off the Germans when the convoy system was introduced its escort might consist of a couple of old first world war destroyers for the last few hundred miles into a British Port further west than 12° the Convoy would be lucky to have any escort at T and even if it did the protection offered by a converted merchant ship with a few old 6-in guns was minimal gradually efforts were made to address the situation existing destroyers and sloops were given an enhanced anti-submarine capability more suitable Merchant ships particularly large trollers were converted to ASW vessels and deployed on Coastal work following agreements between the United States and Great Britain 40 obsolete American destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy given a quick conversion and deployed as escorts under the white en the main main task however was to find a type of Warship dedicated to anti-submarine operations that was cheap quick and easy to build in small shipyards and needed only a small crew to operate it the answer was in Middlesboro Smith dock limited had come up with the idea of such an escort vessel based on their whale catcher Southern Pride the design was to be a little larger than the whaler but still small at only just over 1,000 tons it would need a crew of about a 100 had a steam reciprocating engine driving one propeller which would give it a speed of 16 knots it carried one 4-in gun plus a few smaller anti-aircraft guns but it had a good AIC set and could carry up to 70 depth charges the flower class Corvettes as they became known were hideous vessels to serve in due to their Dreadful seeke keeping qualities but they were ideal for the situation and became immortalized as the fictional Corvette compass rose in the book and film The cruel sea the flower class and their successors the castles plugged the Gap until something better came along once America had joined the war and her massive production capability was working the Americans lent Britain a number of their Destroyer escorts smaller versions of their destroyers but better for Convoy escort Britain built her own equivalent the hunt class more importantly in Britain the Corvette concept was enlarged given better engines with two propellers increasing the speed to 21 knots a heavier Armament and a depth charge capacity of 150 thus the modern frigate was born even so Corvette construction still kept the smaller shipyards busy until the end of the war large trollers and M sweepers were also built which had a secondary anti-submarine escort role and older destroyers were converted to escorts as new classes of modern destroyers entered the fleet by 1942 it was apparent to British and American commanders that the key to success in the battle of the Atlantic was the aircraft German OTS were potent weapons but they were vulnerable to surprise Air Attack either when they were shadowing a convoy or when they were on passage to or from their bases in Western France this became even more crucial when aircraft were equipped with Radars that could identify a Target many miles away and when the target could be physically illuminated at night with the use of the Lee light this was a large search light mounted under an aircraft which could be switched on at the start of an attack not only did it give the attacker a better sight of the submarine it also blinded the crew of the ubot in the vital moments before they could respond but the problem was always range the Atlantic was a huge Battlefield an aircraft of this period did not have the endurance to cover it all the air gap between New Finland Iceland and the west coast of Britain was always important and the closing of the Gap with aircraft was pivotal to the outcome of the battle so an urgent priority was given to the acquisition of suitable aircraft these could either be deployed from ships within the Convoy or from strategically located land bases it was to this end that the Allies occupied Iceland Greenland and the Pharaohs but other bases which could have been useful like the aor or Ireland were denied because of their owner's neutrality once the bases were found then suitable aircraft had to be selected Britain had considerable pre-war experience of the flying boat and their versatility was useful especially in the early stages of the battle the short Sunderland and the Consolidated Catalina proved especially effective night and day the Sunderland flying boats Patrol far out to Eastward keeping the German Coast under constant surveillance for any sign of unwanted [Music] activity but the ideal long range Maritime Patrol aircraft would have to be based on a bomber design and such aircraft were hard to find especially as RAF bomber command and the US Air Force jealously guarded the aircraft they had the constant demands of air Mar s Arthur Harris for his strategic bombing campaign over Germany was such that Coastal command of the RAF had to be satisfied with those bombers such as the Wellington whose bombing role had been taken over by the Avo Lancaster one aircraft however was to have a huge impact on this aspect of the campaign the Consolidated B24 Liberator had a range of over 22,000 Mi and with long range fuel tanks added it could remain Airborne for up to 18 hours it was useful as a bomber which which led to a tug of war between bomber and Coastal commands once the latter appreciated its potential in the war against the ubot those aircraft which were allocated to Coastal command soon proved their worth as they enabled shore-based air cover to be maintained almost all the way across the North Atlantic to enable some sort of air cover to be maintained out of range of landbased aircraft the Allies had to rely on aircraft carried by ships as Fleet aircraft carriers were in short supply and were often needed elsewhere alternative and cheaper ways of providing that cover had to be found initially a number of cargo ships were equipped with catapults that supported one hurricane Fighter the role of this cam or catapult aircraft merchantman however was not anti-submarine operations it was to shoot down the German Condor reconnaissance bomber which was a significant threat to convoys as they approached the United Kingdom the cam ships were were also used extensively on the Arctic convoys their main disadvantage was that the aircraft could not be reused as it had to ditch at the end of its sauty a further development of this was the merchant aircraft carrier or Mac that was a bulk carrier a tanker or grain ship with a wooden flat deck built along its length above the hull this deck meant that the Mac could continue to carry its cargo but could also launch and recover a small number of aircraft usually swordfish or albors these aircraft although unsuitable for other duties were ideal for short range anti-submarine operations the final development along these lines was the dedicated escort aircraft carrier these were either built from scratch or converted from existing hulls almost all were built in the United States and they served not only as anti-submarine carriers but also as support Fleet carriers largely in the Pacific one of these could provide almost permanent air cover for a convoy its only serious limitation being the weather it could carry up to 30 aircraft including both Fighters and anti-submarine aircraft such as the Grumman Avenger the first German submarine or uots were based on designs which bore a striking resemblance to the ub2 type submarines introduced by the Germans near the end of the first world war the type 1 a was a medium-sized boat of 600 tons based on a submarine being built for turkey only two were constructed and they were relegated to training duties on the outbreak of hostilities the type 2A was a small coastal submarine although six were built their part in the war was also very restricted mainly due to to their range of only just over 1,000 miles the types 2B C and D were modifications of this design again their relatively small size of about 300 tons limited their wartime activity considerably the battle of the Atlantic was fought by two main types of ubot the medium range type 7even and the long range type n9ine with production concentrated on these two both had been designed in the mid 1930s yet were not surpassed until the latter stages of the war the type 7 had a displacement of some 700 tons although later variants reached almost a th000 they were 220 ft long and equipped with five 21in torpedo tubes four forward and one AR altogether They Carried 14 Torpedoes or mines using their diesel engines on the surface they boasted a radius of action of some 6 half th000 M although the type 7 c42 and other later versions could manage almost 10,000 M submerged using batteries the type 7 could manage about 80 M at 4 knots They Carried a crew of 44 and if necessary could dive to about 650 ft the type 9 were somewhat larger with earlier versions displacing just over 1,000 tons growing to, 1600 tons with a type 9 D2 early versions had a radius of over 8,000 M growing to 11,000 Mi as the design evolved they could carry up to 22 Torpedoes or mines for their six torpedo tubes four of which were in the bow and two located in the stern They Carried Crews of about 55 both classes could remain submerged for about 24 hours after that they would have to surface to recharge their batteries and rep place the stale air inside the ubot both types carried a deck gun Armament mainly for use against Merchant ships but later they were used more for self-defense when the submarines were caught on the surface by aircraft as this possibility became increasingly common more anti-aircraft guns were added the larger gun carried on the for deck was a 3 and 1/2 in on the type 7 or a 4 in on the type 9 a variety of two or three 37 mm and 20 mm guns constituted the secondary Armament later in the war the larger gun was replaced on some boats by additional anti-aircraft guns to support these classes special Supply submarines were built large enough to carry supplies enabling the attack ubot to remain on station longer previously they could only lengthen their patrols by storing food and other supplies in existing living compartment leaving the conditions on board even more squalid than they were normally such milch cow submarines displaced almost 2,000 tons and could carry up to 432 tons of oil in addition to food and other supplies only 10 were commissioned by limiting large scale production of uots to the two main designs the Germans found it difficult to improve performance whereas British and American Boats were constructed in classes built either for a specific purpose or to reflect technical advances the relatively small size of most new boats also limited how much additional equipment like new communication systems or Radars could be fitted living conditions on both these classes were poor the crew had to sleep wherever they could find Space which was often on top of the Torpedoes a crew had to share one toilet the temperature could be very hot or freezing cold air conditioning was non-existent with little room for food or water rations were basic and the crew often went for weeks or months without washing or shaving after being underwater for hours the air would become stale and there was always the possibility of a slow lingering death or of instantaneous destruction but by 1943 it was becoming more obvious that these outdated designs would not be able to match new Allied anti-submarine Warfare techniques new Concepts had to be found the first of these was the snorkel fitted high-speed submarine with a much greater battery capacity designed for continuous submerged patrols such submarines would be far less vulnerable to the longrange aircraft the Allies were Now using to hunt for submarines on the surface at the same time the gun Armament was to be sacrificed for a much more streamlined Hull with a resulting increase in speed over 12 knots could be maintained underwater a substantial Improvement on the four knots achieved by the earlier designs two types of Submarine were to be built using these principles the type 21 for long range deep sea patrols and the type 23 for Coastal duties their High underwater speeds could only be maintained for short periods before the batteries needed recharging the answer to this problem was a gas-driven closed turbine which would be independent of external air this system had been developed by an engineer called helmot valter who used hydrogen peroxide as the gas development was slow however and only a few experimental submarines were built no uots using this system ever entered service on the whole German submarines were good conventional types well fitted for their purpose but the German Navy stayed with the early submarines for too long before incorporating radical Technologies by the time they became available it was too late the battle had been [Music] lost [Music] that

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: Allied Navies, Atlantic Ocean Battles, Battle Strategies, Convoys Protection, Dramatic Battles, Engaging Stories, Historical Conflicts, Historical Documentaries, Maritime History, Military Technology, Naval Operations, Naval Superiority, Naval Warfare, Nazi Germany, Oceanic Warfare, Submarine Tactics, Submarine Warfare History, U-boat Attacks, Underwater Warfare, War Chronicles

Id: 4ApmQsqBL4g

Length: 49min 39sec (2979 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2024