Transcript File
The Battle of the Atlantic RECALL… • France had fallen in 1940 • United Kingdom was out of money. • In December 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war. However… • The Battle of the Atlantic….started in 1939 • 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-1940 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. • Canada Remembers GERMAN ATTACK • 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 U-boat The U-boat Threat Type VIIC U-boat Range: 8,500 nm Crew: 44-52 Torpedo load: 14 Let’s Think… 1. Why were shipping lines so important to the War effort? 2. Why were supplies coming from North America? 3. Why were U Boats such a danger to these shipping routes? ALLIES RESPOND The Allies developed a convoy system where merchant ships were guarded by destroyer escorts. The British developed a system for detecting Uboats that resembled radar. This development gave the Allies the edge in the Battle for the Atlantic. Allied Strategy • Protect existing shipping • Build to replace shipping losses, expand fleet • Go on the offensive against the U-boats Ships Lost vs. Built 1939 - 1941 Sourc Convoy System RN employed convoys from start • Did not have enough escorts • Started crash construction program USN did not use convoys initially • Second “Happy Time” * for Germans * Jan-Aug 1942 Flower-class Corvettes Length: 205 feet Displacement: 940 tons Speed: 16 knots 394 built (UK, Canada) Video Link Destroyers For Bases September 2, 1940 US provided 50 WW I destroyers in exchange for bases Bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, West India, Guiana Destroyers became RN Town-class • Named for North American cities and towns with namesake in UK … became HMS Lewes Destroyer Escorts (DE) USS Slater (DE-766) Displacement: 1,240 tons (std) 1,620 tons (full) Dimensions: 306' (oa), 300' (wl) x 36' 10" x 11' 8" (max) Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1), 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks Machinery: 4 GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6000 shp, 2 screws Speed: 21 knots Range: 10,800 nm @ 12 knots Crew: 15 / 201 Source Destroyer Escorts (DE) Fleet destroyer Fletcher class Destroyer Escort Cannon class Destroyer escorts did not need speed of fleet destroyers • 21 knots vs. 35 knots for destroyers DEs could be smaller, cheaper, easier to produce Other Threats FW 200 Condor Maritime Patrol Aircraft Other Threats Surface Raiders Pocket Battleships / Heavy Cruisers Example: Admiral Graf Spee Auxiliary Cruisers Example: Atlantis Surface Raiders Pocket Battleships & Heavy Cruisers Six 11-inch guns Eight 5.9-inch guns Speed: 21 knots Displacement: 16,200 tons Admiral Graf Spee War Cruise August-December 1939 Sank 9 merchant ships (50,000 tons) Video Scuttled, December 17, 1939 Off Montevideo, Uruguay After battle with thee British cruisers Surface Raiders Pocket Battleships & Heavy Cruisers Six 11-inch guns Eight 5.9-inch guns Speed: 21 knots Displacement: 16,200 tons Admiral Graf Spee War Cruise August-December 1939 Sank 9 merchant ships (50,000 tons) Video Scuttled, December 17, 1939 Off Montevideo, Uruguay After battle with thee British cruisers Surface Raiders Auxiliary Cruisers Auxiliary Cruiser Atlantis Atlantis with dummy funnel Armament Layout Hidden torpedo tubes & guns Surface Raiders Auxiliary Cruisers Auxiliary Cruiser Atlantis Atlantis with dummy funnel First auxiliary cruiser to sink a merchant ship Circumnavigated the globe Highest tonnage sunk of all surface raiders • 22 ships, 146,000 tons Workforce Rosie the Riveter Norman Rockwell - 1943 Source Workforce Rosie the Riveter Wanda the Welder Signals Intelligence ( SIGINT ) Enigma Enigma Enigma Bletchley Park Alan Turing’s “Bombe” Enigma British intelligence received its first Enigma machine in 1939 from Polish military Additional machines captured by Royal Navy • May 9, 1941: U-110 off Iceland • October 30, 1942: U-559 in the Mediterranean USN captured U-505, June 4, 1944 Mid-Atlantic Gap Maritime Patrol Aircraft USAAF A-29 Hudson RAF Liberator Blimps RAF Fortress Source Maritime Patrol Aircraft Caught On The Surface – Robert Taylor RAF Sunderland Flying Boat – Coastal Command vs. U-461 20 July 1943 – Bay of Biscay Source Hunter-Killer Team Slide 8 Hunter Becomes the Hunted U-118 under attack by aircraft from USS Bogue June 12, 1943 Source Ships Lost vs. Built 1939-1945 Canadian Context • Germans sank the Caribou, a passenger ferry, sailing from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland – Killed 136 people • Only 6 days after declaring war, Canada’s first supply convoy set out from Halifax Harbour HALIFAX Became a port for ships escaping war from Europe-refugees Convoys of ships formed in Halifax harbour loaded with troops, guns, tanks, shells, foodstuffs and headed across the Atlantic. Convoys: Groups of merchant ships that are protected from enemy attack by naval escort ships or air force planes. Germans did everything to stop supply lines. Convoy ships were mined or torpedoed within hearing distance of Halifax New technology was developed: corvettes, depth charges, sonar In Halifax, "Plotters" tracked ship movements and U-boats. Many of them were the women of the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS) St. Lawrence 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 Uboats sank 21 ships in the St. Lawrence. Canada’s Role • Canadian Navy was to escort convoys halfway across the North Atlantic, then the British would take over • Training of Canadian sailors improved • Built more and better warships • 16,000 members on 188 warships • The Air Force increased its support of convoys • By 1943 more ships were getting past the German wolf packs • On the Water Words from a Canadian Sailor... “What a miserable, rotten hopeless life . . . an Atlantic so rough it seems impossible that we can continue to take this unending pounding and still remain in one piece . . . hanging onto a convoy is a full-time job . . . the crew in almost a stupor from the nightmarishness of it all . . . and still we go on hour after hour.” Frank Curry of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) wrote these words in his diary aboard a corvette in 1941, during the Battle of the Atlantic a battle that would be called the longest in history. • 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, driving the German surface raiders from the ocean by the middle of 1941 and decisively defeating the U-boats in a series of convoy battles between March and May 1943 SUMMARY • 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 escorts and 234 stragglers were sunk. • 1,100 proceeding independently were also sunk. • 96,977 crossings were completed successfully. Significance to Canada • Canada’s role in the Battle of the Atlantic was significant to the Allies victory over Germany • Canada used two lines of defence against the u-boats – New type of sea vessel called the corvette – could out-manoeuvre a submarine – The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)