Richard Doherty - Churchills Greatest Fear: The Battle of the Atlantic 3 September 1939 to 7 May 1945

By the same author

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First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
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Copyright Richard Doherty 2015

ISBN: 978 1 47383 400 2
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47387 942 3
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47387 941 6
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47387 940 9

The right of Richard Doherty to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Dedication

For all who served in the Battle of the Atlantic,
especially those who lost their lives.

Twilight and evening bell
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell
When I embark.

Contents

Maps

Illustrations

Introduction

T he only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril. So wrote Winston Churchill of the naval campaign in which Germanys submarine, or U-boat (Unterseeboote), fleet threatened to destroy the United Kingdoms maritime lifelines to North America, the Commonwealth and Empire.

Britain has always relied on merchant ships to sustain life and commerce. During the First World War, Germany came close to defeating Britain through a campaign of submarine warfare in the first Battle of the Atlantic. Lessons were learned: the importance of aircraft flying boats and airships played a critical part in defeating the U-boats: the importance of the merchant marine was emphasized; without it Britain could neither pursue a land war in Europe nor be assured of survival.

The Admiralty re-introduced the convoy system as war loomed in 1939 and took control of the Merchant Navy on 26 August, but the Royal Navy was otherwise not well prepared. The large numbers of escort ships necessary to protect convoys were lacking and few aircraft were available for escort duties. Although the Admiralty later assumed operational control of Coastal Command, the Cinderella of the RAFs operational commands had to make do with stop-gap aircraft unsuited to the tasks assigned to them.

Hitlers Germany should have appreciated the potential of submarines, but other than a few naval officers, the high command was blind to the strategic possibilities of submarine warfare. Hitler failed to see that the U-bootwaffe could be a war-winning weapon. Thus, in 1939, Germany had only a small U-boat fleet and a maritime policy that placed more importance on surface ships, a shortsightedness that deprived the Third Reich of its best chance of defeating Britain since most of what Britain needed for basic survival was imported.

Germany entered the war with fewer than fifty U-boats, including short-range coastal boats unable to operate in the Atlantic. Germanys maritime threat rested on surface raiders, aircraft and U-boats. In spite of the German reputation for thorough planning, those elements were unco-ordinated. Even the Kriegsmarines small U-boat fleet inflicted severe damage on Britains merchant shipping and on the Royal Navy and held the advantage until May 1943, when the balance swung against them through the conflation of several factors tactics, escort ships, air cover, weaponry, detection systems, operational research, plus the courage and dedication of merchant seamen and the crews of the Allied navies. May 1943 was not the end. The Battle of the Atlantic raged until the last days of war. The