The Battle of the Atlantic

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The Battle of the Atlantic
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Essential Question

• Why was control of the Atlantic so important to
  the outcome of the Second World War?

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• TONNAGE WAR
• Sink as many ships as possible

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Convoys and Wolf Packs

• Allied ships change in strategy
• Traverse ocean in protected groups
• German response the Wolf Pack
• Groups of U-Boats converge on ship or convoy

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U-Boats

• Admiral Doenitz Wolf Pack
• German navy preferred large surface vessels
• Untapped potential until summer 1940
• U-Boat heyday summer 1940 until end of 1941
• Launched from French coast
• Sank 2.5 million tonnes

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ASDIC and HF/DF

• ASDIC Allied Submarine Detection Investigation
  Committee ??
• Anti-Submarine Detection-ics
• Early Sonar
• Huff Duff High Frequency Direction Finding
• Wolfpack tactics required surfacing to send
  messages
• Detect messages, triangulate location
• No need to crack codes

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Enigma

• Germans used machine to encode messages
• Poles broke the code in 1932
• Keep up with changes
• Stuff they found out Ultra
• Keep Germans from catching on!

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Depth Charges

• Explode at particular depths
• Not necessary to hit U-boat
• Ideal two on either side
• Shockwaves would crush U-boat hull

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Hedgehogs

• Problem depth-charge explosion blocks ASDIC
• Hedgehogs explode on impact
• Can follow and continue to attack U-boat

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Merchant Navy

• Mariners on private vessels
• Supplement navy at times of war
• Cross Atlantic in convoys
• Carry supplies, weapons, food, war materiel
• Dangerous job and little recognition

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• Allied Victory!
• Battle turns in 1942 victory in Atlantic by 1943
• Convergence of technologies
• Advancements in technologies of planes, bombs,
  radar/detection
• Long-range aircraft
• Production outpaced destruction
• Paved the way for