Transcript Battle of the Atlantic

WW 2 History Club
Battle of the Atlantic
25-Mar-2015
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Meeting Agenda
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Pledge of Allegiance
Administration
Battle of the Atlantic Introduction
Video
Brian Evans (Graf Spee)
Clint Westberry (USCG in WW2)
Q&A
Closing
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WW2 Vets
WW2 vets are meeting before
each regular Wednesday
meeting
( 1:30 to 3:00 )
See Lou Branch
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WW2 Vets
WW2 vets are meeting for
breakfast at Lil’ Bits Cafe
(off Rte 466)
the Tuesday following each
regular Wednesday meeting
See Lou Branch
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Web Site
The place to find out what is
going on
The place for interesting
items on WW2 (daily)
www.ww2hc.org
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Future Meetings
4th Wednesday of the month
Colony Cottage
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Mar 2015:
Apr 2015:
May 2015:
Jun 2015:
Jul 2015:
Aug 2015:
Sep 2015:
Battle of the Atlantic
Plots to Kill Hitler
POWs
German Military Commanders
British Military Commanders
End of War Alternatives
Beginning of War Alternatives
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Movie Night
3rd Wednesday of the month
Seabreeze Rec Center
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Mar 2015:
Apr 2015:
May 2015:
Jun 2015:
Jul 2015:
Pursuit of the Graf Spee
Valkyrie
Unbroken
TBD
TBD
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WWII Book Club
NEW!! 4th Friday of the month
Colony
1PM to 3PM
Apr 2015: Killing Hitler: The Plots, …
May 2015: Unbroken
 details on web site
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WW2 Vets flown to Wash DC
Over 400 vets so far
Lots more in the queue
Next regular Mission is today (that is
why Mark is not here)
 WW2HC donated $3,500 in Feb’15
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WW 2 History Club
Battle of the Atlantic
25-Mar-2015
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Battle of the Atlantic
 Longest campaign of WWII (ignoring SinoJapanese campaigns)
 Sep 1939 to May 1945 (5 years, 8 months, 5 days)
 One of the few things that really scared Churchill
 Entire strategy for defeating Germans relied on the
ability of the Allies to transport men and material
across the Atlantic
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Battle of the Atlantic
 3,500 merchant ships sunk, 36,000 merchant
seaman killed
 175 warships sunk, 36,200 sailors lost
 740 RAF aircraft lost
 783 U-boats sunk, ~ 30,000 sailors lost
 As a percentage of those who served, the most
lethal service was the Merchant Marine
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Battle of the Atlantic
A see-saw battle (with the advantage mostly to the
Germans) until mid 1943; suddenly it was all but
over:
 Naval Enigma was broken
 Long range aircraft (B-24) closed the mid ocean gap
 Leigh Light
 Merchant aircraft carriers and later escort carriers
 Sea scanning radar
 Destroyer escorts (better adapted, built in larger numbers)
 Hunter-killer groups and better tactics
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Battle of the Atlantic
Many cutting edge technologies were honed during
this campign:
 RADAR
 SONAR
 Operations Research
 Sub hunting
 Codes and ciphers
 “Ahead Throwing” weapons
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Call Letters of Trans-Atlantic Convoys:
HX:
fast convoys (9 knots or over) sailing from Halifax or New
York
SC:
slow convoys (under 9 knots) sailing from Sydney, Nova
Scotia, Halifax or New York
ON:
westbound convoys sailing from Great Britain to North
America
ONS:
slow westbound convoys sailing from Great Britain to
North America
Call Letters of Canadian Coastal Convoys:
BX:
Boston to Halifax
XB:
Halifax to Boston
SQ:
Sydney to Quebec City
QS:
Quebec City to Sydney
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Who Knew?
 3-Sep-1939, U-30 sinks the Athenia, a passenger liner with
1100 passengers outbound from the UK -- and The Battle of
the Atlantic starts. By the then rules of war, it should not
have been sunk; the u-boat captain was almost court
martialed; instead the Germans covered it up and blamed
the British
 09-May-1941, U-110 is attacked by Royal Navy vessels and
is scuttled. But before it sinks, the British recover a naval
enigma machine and several relevant codes. This is
consider to be the most significant u-boat “sinking” of the
war
 Captain Fritz-Julius Lemp was the U-boat commander in
both incidents
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