How Allied Air Power Won The Battle Of The Atlantic | Air Wars | War Stories

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] for nearly six years the battle of the Atlantic would sprawl over ten and a half million square miles the bulk of the action in its northern third on its outcome rested the survival of the British Isles [Music] thank you foreign [Music] 1939 Germany had 56 U-boats of which 10 were non-operational and only 22 capable of fighting in the Atlantic [Music] convoys of merchant ships had overcome the U-Boat Menace In the first World War a new underwater detection device known as azdic after its developer the anti-submarine investigation committee and more effective depth charges with multiple settings had since enhanced the power of Naval escorts there was little to fear from the U-Boat it seemed powerful German surface vessels were of more concern the illusion of a toothless U-Boat arm was rapidly and brutally shattered within hours of War being declared the liner athenia was torpedoed and in six weeks U-boats had sunk the aircraft carrier courageous and Battleship Royal Oak [Music] even though a number of sinkings had taken place in the Atlantic during the first month of the war the U-Boat Menace was not clear to everybody that all changed in the early hours of the 14th of October when U-Boat 47 crept into the Anchorage at Scarborough flow and sank the battleship Royal Oak foreign [Music] men were lost in 15 minutes the shock to both the public and Military opinion was such that U-Boat Menace was never underrated again 17 ocean-going U-boats operating in the Atlantic were soon attacking Merchant ships the convoy system was not foolproof it steamed at the speed of its slowest vessel and frequently foul weather scattered the orderly columns even in good conditions Convoy discipline could be thwarted by ships straying out of line or pouring smoke and Sparks from their funnels at night furthermore until August 1940 when slow convoys were introduced ships making fewer than nine knots sailed independently in 1939 the Royal Navy could provide only an average of two escorts per Convoy none able to sail more than 500 miles west of Britain after which the ships were on their own 15 group Coastal command had aerial responsibility for the Atlantic but its five squadrons of land-based aircraft and flying boats lacked the range or capability to compensate for the naval weakness in 1939 Coastal command did not have the attention which was given to bomber command and fighter command it therefore had to make do with a variety of aircraft and not in very great numbers it had for example the Anson the Hudson the Wellington and the Whitley in terms of flying boats it had the Sunderland the stranra and the London and its only torpedo bomber was the obsolescent wildebeest it was so pressed for aircraft that for the first nine months of the war it even deployed biplane tiger moths and hornets to do Coastal Patrols the admiralty had been right to fear the enemy's array of large warships Grand Admiral Eric Rader commander-in-chief of the German Navy recognized that if used as surface Raiders his Capital ships could cause Mayhem history hit is a streaming platform that is just for history fans with fantastic documentaries covering fascinating figures and moments in history from all over the world from the Battle of Trafalgar and the revolutionary era right through to the second world war if you are looking for your next military history fix then this is the service for you we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and War Stories fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code War Stories at checkout during August 1939 the pocket battleship's Admiral Graf spey and Deutschland later renamed lutzal slipped into the Atlantic after sinking nine Merchant men in four months Graf's Bay was cornered by a royal Navy Squadron in the River Plate and scuttled by a crew a seaplane catapulted from Ajax reported on the fall of shells during the action [Music] at the close of 1939 in the Atlantic German surface ships had sunk 15 merchantment and one armed Merchant Cruiser U-boats 114 Merchant ships this was only the Prelude to even more testing times due to the requirements of the Norwegian campaign from April to May 1940 the home Fleet had to be kept in the North Sea to guard against further excursions by enemy warships flotillas to defend the coastline against Invasion and counter e-boats in the channel by the summer of 1940 the average number of Warship escorts with an Atlantic Convoy had dropped to 1.8 in the early part of the second World War there was lack of escorts and that's when we lost so many we didn't see them if we could see that we would destroy them but we pick up we've got information to say that it could be a big pack that was following the Convoy and you couldn't do anything until you picked them up the first five months of 1940 was deceptively quiet in the Atlantic partly due to poor weather and partly to withdrawal of U-boats for the Danish and Norwegian campaigns during January and February 85 ships were lost march to may only 43. in June though the U-boats were back with a vengeance to account for 58 Merchant ships between July and October they sank another 217. U-Boat commanders had learned to vary their tactics at first they repeated the first world war approach of striking from beneath the surface where citing a convoy was largely a matter of chance on the surface though a U-Boat could manage almost 20 knots and astute captains realized that they could stalk and attack a convoy at night with relative ease formation of coastal convoys guarded by armed trawlers of the royal Navy patrol service brought more success for a merchant ship's Journey had not ended when it crossed the Atlantic it must then make its way round the coast to its final destination at the mercy of Mines U-boats and enemy aircraft um foreign foreign [Music] in the closing months of 1940 the wolf pack when a group of U-boats converged on a convoy began to pose a new Danger in September successive convoys were attacked Northwest of Iceland by 10 U-boats which sank 16 ships during the 16th and 17th of October Convoy sc7 from Nova Scotia came under attack from seven new boats of its 35 Merchant men only 15 survived despite daylight cover from Coastal command Sunderland circling overhead the surrender of France in June 1940 opened up bases on the Atlantic coast for warships and submarines U-boats could now spend most of their time at Sea astride the Convoy routes beyond the range of British escorts Western France also provided the luftwaffe with valuable bases despite their limited capabilities British aircraft did contribute to the defense of convoys in January 1940 Convoy OA 80 lost two ships to u-55 but its escorts and a Sunderland flying boat so harassed and damaged the U-Boat that its Commander scuttled it I wouldn't know how much but I know we are their cover yes I must say the fleet near arm a wonderful age yes and even even the what we call the the little carriers yeah they were sentenced observers picking up U-boats yes they have a great time anti-submarine sweeps were mounted from bases in Cornwall Wales and Northern Ireland over the Bay of Biscay and as far into the Atlantic as possible occasionally they did cite a U-Boat on the surface going to and from its lair and even more occasionally managed to attack it before the inevitable crash dive we used to sweep for them what they call Sweet for them uh and check them check them out to see if we could pick any of them up before they come into the carnival and had every success when you think 23 yearbooks were sunk in 21 months so it just showed you how efficiently it was but you couldn't save all of them they've been awful for us when we've seen them blown up inside when they've got inside not being detected and that was a terrible chain the terrible thing is to see them go up and can't do anything about it the Germans on the other hand had the [ __ ] wolf Condor with an operational range of 800 miles into the Atlantic far beyond that of existing Convoy Escorts apart from spotting convoys for the wolf packs the Condors attacked vulnerable targets with their own 1750 kilogram bomb load during 1940 they accounted for 11 ships besides damaging the liner Empress of India which was finished off by a U-boat in the final three months of 1940 German warships once more broke into the Atlantic on the 27th of October the third pocket Battleship Admiral Shear left Germany to evade all air and sea Patrols [Music] after sinking a merchant ship on the 5th of November she intercepted a convoy protected by a single armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay whose six guns were totally outranged nevertheless she sacrificed herself to save the Convoy only five of which were eventually caught by the German warship [Music] [Music] by the end of 1940 the second phase of German warship activity in the Atlantic had accounted for 17 ships in total during 1940 1059 Merchant ships were sunk in the Atlantic the 22 million tons of food reaching Britain pre-war had dwindled by almost 50 percent [Music] there were bright spots though after the fall of Denmark in April British forces occupied the Danish dependencies of the Pharaoh Islands and Iceland commanding the northern approaches to the Atlantic five months later in return for leasing military bases in Newfoundland and the West Indies the United States made 50 elderly destroyers available to Britain which would ease the escort shortfall furthermore RAF bomber command began to attack the U-Boat pens and indirectly Aid the Atlantic battle by striking at plants producing synthetic oil in Germany [Music] foreign as 1941 opened the threat of sea invasion of the British Isles may have faded but Allied planners knew that the U-Boat construction program had yet to Peak nor had the Condor threat diminished in February 1941 six attacked a convoy from Gibraltar sinking five ships as U-boats accounted for 60 Merchant ships in January and February the Condor sank 47. Bianca ju-88 and heinkel he-111 bombers flying from French bases had begun to pose serious problems as well and you ought an artist looks like this is foreign in March the American lend lease bill eased equipment shortages the following month Iceland became fully operational as a base for ships and aircraft as more bases along the Canadian Coast came into service in July the U.S Navy agreed to undertake limited Convoy duties in the western Atlantic encouragingly too the government code and Cipher school at Bletchley Park had begun regularly to crack the German Naval code allowing it to ease drop on Transmissions to the U-boats in an attempt to improve the aerial cover of convoys the cam catapult aircraft merchant ship appeared during 1941 five came into service one being lost before seeing action each carried a single sea hurricane or fulmar aircraft manned by a Fleet air arm pilot a cam ship was a catapult aircraft merchantment which carried a catapult which was able to launch a single Hurricane or former aircraft which it carried unlike a seaplane which was carried by a battleship or a cruiser this could not be recovered and could therefore only be used once the pilot crash-landed on the sea or parachuted to safety he was saved but the aircraft wasn't in September 1941 another initiative the Mac merchant ship aircraft carrier came into service HMS audacity a merchantment hull with a flight deck carried six Grumman Wildcat Fighters called martlet by the British which unlike the Catapult aircraft could land again the fight is accounted for one Condor before audacity was torpedoed on Convoy Duty in December but other nacs would follow it into action [Music] during 1941 aircraft could fly 700 miles into the Atlantic from Canada Northern Ireland and the west coast of Scotland 400 miles from Iceland Not only was the so-called air gap extensive but due to lack of suitable aircraft even the existing air cover was patchy a gleam of Hope had appeared though with 10 reconnaissance versions of the B-24 Liberator available for Coastal command in time this aircraft would be a crucial acquisition so with the Catalina flying boat which reached the Raf in March 1941. the American Consolidated Catalina flying boat began to reach Coastal command in numbers in March 1941 in time for the Bismarck operation over 650 catalinas would serve with the RAF during the second World War she had a speed of 185 miles per hour and an enormous range of 3750 miles she had the ability to drop both bombs and depth charges and like the Sunderland flying boat was credited with attacking a large number of U-boats during the course of the battle of the Atlantic alarmingly the German battleship Bismarck passed through the skagarak strait between Denmark and Sweden on the 20th of May 1941. reconnaissance aircraft from British bases quickly began to scour the Norwegian Coastline for her next day a coastal command pilot discovered Bismarck in a field near Bergen in southern Norway on the 22nd of May six Whitley and six Hudson bombers of RAF Coastal command vainly tried to find the field in poor weather that evening for a break in the clouds a Fleet air arm aircraft found the Anchorage empty Bismarck was on the loose the Bismarck was described by the Soviet commander of the northern Fleet as a large floating Fortress far greater capacity than the pocket Battleship applegrath Spain which caused such a problem in the South Atlantic 1939 fully laden she was 52 000 tons with a crew of 2 300. her speed was 28 knots but at times she was credited with doing 34 knots and therefore was considerably faster than some of the Destroyers her main album Number Eight 15-inch guns and her secondary armor was 5.9 inch guns she was therefore a considerable Menace when she got out into the Atlantic in poor visibility throughout the 23rd of May relays of Sunderland catalinas and Hudson's searched the Norwegian coast and Northern approaches to the Atlantic without success then in a snowstorm at dusk the cruiser Suffolk finally cited Bismarck and The Heavy Cruiser Prince Eugene sailing through the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland using radar Suffolk kept track of the German warships during the night Adorn being joined by a Hudson and the Sunderland meanwhile the battleship Prince of Wales and battle cruiser Hood were on course to intercept the enemy at dawn on the 24th of May the Sunderland reported what happened when the four ships clashed Hood was sunk and Prince of Wales withdrew under smoke though not before a shell had damaged fuel lines on Bismarck later that afternoon the German ships parted Prince Eugene sailed on into the Atlantic the battleship decided to make for San nazare on the French Atlantic Coast for repairs [Music] at 3am on the 25th of May all contact with Bismarck was lost the admiralty reasoned that she would either turn back or make for France [Music] catalinas flying for over 20 hours unsuccessfully searched throughout the day and the night of the 25th to the 26th of May the British then had a stroke of luck Admiral Gunter luchens sent a long radio message to Berlin announcing the sinking of hood and Direction finding equipment pinpointed bismarck's position a separate message between Berlin and Athens was deciphered by Bletchley Park and the German battleships intended destination revealed the race was now on to catch Bismarck before she could reach the Haven of land-based air cover in the Bay of Biscay the aircraft carrier Arc Royal was already steaming North from Gibraltar to join the hunt during the afternoon of the 26th of May she launched swordfish torpedo bombers in Heavy Seas and poor visibility they located a lone warship and duly attacked and two of the 13 Torpedoes struck Bismarck one fatally hit the steering gear and throughout that night the stricken vessel steamed in circles the following morning the 27th of May the Royal Navy finished her off aerial activity throughout the Chase had been decisive without it Bismarck would have reached San Lazer and lived to Menace the Atlantic convoys the two-seater fairy swordfish was a remarkable aircraft it came into service in 1936 and served for the greater part of the war it had the capacity to carry a 1610 pound torpedo or the equivalent in mines or bombs it had a speed of 138 knots which is extremely slow but it made an effective torpedo bomber as was shown when it was engaged in the Bismarck operation acutely aware of the threat to fuel supplies which could quickly undermine the whole war effort on the 9th of March 1941 Winston Churchill declared we must take the offensive against the U-Boat and the focker Wolf entry of the United States into the war in December 1941 gave the U-boats a fruitful happy time off its eastern seaboard during the night of the 13th and 14th of January 1942 u123 picked off two tankers silhouetted against the well-lit New York skyline three days later 375 miles south of Cape Hatteras the same new boat Santa freighter and tanker American merchantment was still sailing with full lights encouraging another 20 U-boats to converge on the American Coast in January 1942 alone 40 ships were sunk in the western Atlantic in the following month the U-boats moved South to Florida where they continued to enjoy success at length in March 1942 the Americans began to introduce the convoy system and by July losses off the east coast have fallen to just three by then U-boats had claimed 505 Merchant ships we were copyrighted to 20 to 7 in the morning um we had two top readers and completely cut coaching off and we sank in 55 seconds I ran up the hatchway and the bulkhead door fortunately was open and I never you never have the bulkhead door open when you when you close up and on that on duty so thank God it it saved me I swam to a an all and already there were three Sailors hanging on to it and I watched one go down after a while then I saw the other one go down after a while and then it came I said to a fellow that was right we were so close we could touch each other easy and I said I can't do anymore and he said don't let go he said here's the couple now coming in to pick us up and I looked she's a couple and I said that was the last word you spoke he went they were fortune I was picked up and five died world they claimed that the new vote was sunk by swordfish [Music] a couple of hours after [Music] during 1942 Admiral Carl Donuts commander of the U-Boat arm had calculated that 800 000 tons of Allied Shipping sunk every month would secure victory the Germans achieved approximately 650 000. this may not have secured donuts's instant Triumph but did put the break on troop reinforcements across the Atlantic scarcely one of the expected five Canadian and American divisions reached England a powerful element in the Allied response began to attack the Atlantic coast ports when on the 21st of October 24 B-24 bombers of the U.S 8th Army Air Force took off from their English bases for longion before the year was out in nine further AIDS another 243 b-17s and b-24s would leave their airfields for that submarine base 68 others for breast 176 San Jose and 31 LA Police the United States entered the war committed to Daylight Rage with heavy bombers when the 8th Army Air Force reached England in 1942 they had the B-17 which could fly at 317 miles per hour at 25 000 feet and carry a bomb note of 5 000 pounds and the B-24 which could fly at 300 miles per hour at 25 000 feet a carry a bomb load of 8 000 pounds both aircraft had a range of 2 000 miles with easy pickings no longer available in the western Atlantic Donuts decided to exploit the area south of Greenland which could not be covered by land-based aircraft and had been nicknamed torpedo Junction by disenchanted Merchant Crews by early 1943 an estimated 112 of the 240 available U-boats were operational in the Atlantic and the wolf pack was in the dangerous ascendancy [Music] the critical period in the whole battle had arrived the more so because November 1942 to April 1943 the British escort carriers and support groups were redeployed to guard convoys reinforcing the American Landings in North Africa during these weeks there was some success for aircraft on the 9th of February 1943 a Catalina from 202 Squadron located and drove a U-Boat below the surface on the 25th of March a flying fortress of 206 Squadron sank u489 and shortly afterwards two sunderlands from 461 Squadron accounted for u-106 foreign foreign during March 1943 120 ships were sunk and the admiralty admitted the Germans never came so near to disrupting Communications between the new world and the old [Music] March 1943 would be The Darkest Hour after that as the escort carriers and support groups returned to the North Atlantic from Africa the tide began to turn [Music] positive steps were taken finally to close the dangerous air gap in Mid-Atlantic during April 1943 41 liberators with extended range were in service operating from Northern Ireland Iceland and Newfoundland they could Now cover all the Convoy routes [Music] in April 1943 three new escort carriers each with 18 to 24 aircraft entered the Atlantic Fray before the year closed another 28 would be in service though only a few would fight in the Atlantic between the 28th of April and the 6th of May an eastbound Convoy ons-5 aided by two support groups and long-range aircraft fought off 42 U-boats in an encounter which Admiral Sir Max Horton commander-in-chief of the western approaches hoped signaled a turning point in the battle of the Atlantic the U-boats accounted for 12 merchantment but suffered six losses themselves one sunk by a flying boat with 12 more seriously damaged [Music] during April 1943 the U-Boat sank 245 000 tons but lost 15 of their number in May the tonnage dropped to 165 000 tons at a cost of 40 U-boats in June the Figures were 18 000 tons and 17 new boats faced with these losses Donuts withdrew most of his U-boats into the Bay of Biscay from which with improved homing Torpedoes better radar and within range of land-based Fighters they could operate more securely with many of the Allied escorts covering the Normandy Landings in July ubote sank 123 000 tons of shipping the Germans set a trap for unwary air Crews when large U-boats equipped with two quadruple 20 millimeter and one 37 millimeter anti-aircraft guns remained on the surface during daylight that subterfuge was abandoned after a flight of Beau Fighters demolished u-441 on the 12th of July 1943 in Autumn 1943 wolf packs briefly returned to the Atlantic on the 19th of September two convoys were intercepted by 19 U-boats south of Iceland a support group sped to their aid although three escorts and six merchantment were lost the attackers were dispersed with the loss of two U-boats one sunk by a homing torpedo dropped from a liberator and two severely damaged [Music] during October the Allies began to regain the initiative [Music] Convoy sc-143 lost just two ships against three U-Boat sunk during that month a total of 23 U-boats were sunk [Music] heavy bombers had been specifically directed to provide direct support for the anti-jubote campaign in 1943 following the Allied Casablanca conference in January the British American Air Forces were to attack submarine pens construction yards and production factories as part of the combined bomber offensive so between the 14th of January and the 6th of April RAF bomber command flew 3170 sorties against San Jose and L'Oreal and during the year 1135 American Heavy bombers left their English bases for breast L'Oreal sunless air and LA Police and January 1943 the American eighth Army Air Force began to bomb Germany from England and it was necessary to coordinate its effort with that of the royal Air Force at an Allied conference in Casablanca in January 1943 the outline of the combined bomber offensive against Germany was therefore drawn up the aim was the progressive destruction and dislocation of German industry and in particular to attack the aircraft industry and the submarine construction industry yeah whereas does normal daylight raids on the channel Coast they were all down to La Hava uh of breasts and other places down the channel now and um they were very firstly Defenders I say by flag but uh you know I had to get very close and there is a bit frightening in a way I suppose when you see these puffs of smoke on the wingtip and they go with boom boom boom a regular passion the main bombing effort though was concentrated on Germany where the method of U-Boat construction had changed hitherto hulls had been built in dockyards engines and other components transported to be fitted there Now new hulls were prefabricated at Inland factories and assembled at the ports making the bombers task more difficult nevertheless in 1943 Allied bombing effectively destroyed 30 U-boats before they could be assembled despite the serious setbacks suffered in the latter part of 1943 the U-boats were not yet finished focker wolf Condors reappeared to identify targets and in November were joined by four engine ju-290s and six-engine blumenvos flying boats in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of American troops and supplies heading eastwards across the Atlantic foreign is Wilkins followerness there was therefore still considerable work for aircraft to do on the 10th of March 1944 a Sunderland from 422 Squadron sank u625 and on the 8th of July two sunderlands from the Royal Australian Air Force's 10 Squadron combined with the Liberator from 105 Squadron to dispatch u-243 during 1944 five more escort carriers would reach the Royal Navy and the last of a smaller class of close support carrier sailing in the convoys rather than escorting them came into service [Music] 1944 however a new invention helped the U-boats fitting of a snorkel air breathing device to their engines allowed them to remain below the surface for long periods to evade air detection for a time this looked like a very dangerous development type 21 new boat came into service in 1941 with the snorkel breathing device which enabled submarines to use their diesel engines underwater this meant that they could achieve a speed of something like 16 knots which had not been possible before 21 boats had 18 torpedo tubes and a crew of 57 and they were most effective had they come into operation a year earlier Battle of Atlantic may have taken a different course and been much longer Allied bombers continue to attack the Atlantic ports in 1944 the Americans flew 952 sorties Against Breast and lapalis but by the end of 1944 all the German Atlantic co-sports with the stubborn exception of L'Oreal had fallen [Music] there was a dramatic success too in November 1944 RAF Lancaster bombers finally dispatched the last of Germany's big ships at anchor near Tromso in Norway the battleship tarpits was the sistership of the Bismarck which had caused so much trouble to the Allies in the Atlantic in May 1941. between May 1940 and November 1944 700 British aircraft either of the RAF or the Fleet air arm had attempted to mine bomb or torpedo her in 33 separate raids the fear was that she would break out into the Atlantic like the Bismarck under guard against that the Navy also held a very strong force in scarper flow aircraft carriers battleships Cruisers Destroyers so interprets were sunk in November 1944 in a Norwegian field it not only removed the threat to the convoys in the Atlantic but also allowed the Iran Navy to disperse the ships which had kept at Scarpa flow and send them on other duties throughout the world saw her quite clearly 30 miles away lying there getting the bomb around got a marvelous run on it I did and uh just so that would be just got the critical point and the edge of their flight at the bomb member said oh Christ he said clouds come over the target and I said to him what sort of Runner we had I'll say oh perfect absolutely perfect so as well let the bomb go then and the bomb went off on its own and then it cleared again I had the Bombay of the shark God is we sunk it 10 minutes to talk and uh as I say a lot of it inside about a thousand men went that was good position Mommy that was during the battle of the Atlantic U-Boat sank 2603 Merchant ships and 175 escort vessels over thirty thousand Sailors were lost on the other hand 784 from the 1162 U-boats in service had been sunk [Music] air power had made a major contribution to Allied success introduction of the long-range reconnaissance machines notably The Liberator did much to sway the balance the short-lived catapult ships had pointed the way to better close cover for convoys production of escort carriers and Dual Purpose Mac merchantment proved critical post-war the British bombing survey unit concluded that in Germany heavy bombers had destroyed 111 potential U-boats in the construction process until mid-1943 the U-boats undoubtedly held the upper hand in the words of the Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Waterloo for nearly four years it had been a damn close round thing foreign foreign foreign to minor side but yeah just getting tired of all I was 19 when I volunteered here in the Navy Young wasn't nervous just doing a job a good job and we came out very successful which but in all that a lot of lives were loss for the U-boats you know it was something we had to do but when you reflect back on it you think what a waste of lives something we couldn't avoid yes I'm glad I'm proud to do my bit awful

Channel: War Stories

Views: 162,754

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, Full Documentary, U-Boats, RAF, WW2, BattleOfTheAtlantic

Id: wFnDIN7cDec

Length: 48min 22sec (2902 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2023