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Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counterblockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 to the end of 1943.
The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German Kriegsmarine (navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (air force) against the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States beginning on 13 September 1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Regia Marina (royal navy) after Germany's Axis ally Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940.
As an island country, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to survive and fight. The Battle of the Atlantic involved a tonnage war: the Allies struggled to supply Britain while the Axis targeted merchant shipping critical to the British war effort. Rationing in the United Kingdom was also used with the aim of reducing demand, by reducing wastage and increasing domestic production and equality of distribution. From 1942 onwards, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the UK in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. The defeat of the U-boat threat was a prerequisite for pushing back the Axis in western Europe. The outcome of the battle was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German tonnage war failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk in the Atlantic for the loss of 783 U-boats and 47 German surface warships, including 4 battleships (Bismarck, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Tirpitz), 9 cruisers, 7 raiders, and 27 destroyers. This front was a main consumer of the German war effort: Germany spent more money to produce naval vessels than every type of ground vehicle combined, including tanks.
The Battle of the Atlantic has been called the "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history. Starting immediately after the European war began, during the Phoney War, the Battle lasted over five years before the German surrender in May 1945. It involved thousands of ships in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage, as participating countries surrendered, joined and even changed sides in the war, and as new weapons, tactics, countermeasures and equipment were developed. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface-raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued until the war's end. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later wrote, "The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril. I was even more anxious about this battle than I had been about the glorious air fight called the 'Battle of Britain'."
On 5 March 1941, the First Lord of the Admiralty, A. V. Alexander, asked Parliament for "many more ships and great numbers of men" to fight "the Battle of the Atlantic", which he compared to the Battle of France fought the previous summer. The first meeting of the Cabinet's "Battle of the Atlantic Committee" was on 19 March. Churchill claimed to have coined the phrase "Battle of the Atlantic" shortly before Alexander's speech, but there are several examples of earlier usage.
Following the use of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany in the First World War, countries tried to limit or abolish submarines. The effort failed. Instead, the London Naval Treaty required submarines to abide by "cruiser rules", which demanded they surface, search and place ship crews in "a place of safety" (for which lifeboats did not qualify, except under particular circumstances) before sinking them, unless the ship in question showed "persistent refusal to stop...or active resistance to visit or search". These regulations did not prohibit arming merchantmen, but doing so, or having them report contact with submarines (or raiders), made them de facto naval auxiliaries and removed the protection of the cruiser rules.[failed verification]
The Treaty of Versailles forbade the Germans to operate U-boats and reduced the German surface fleet to a few obsolete ships. When three of these obsolete ships had to be replaced, the Germans opted to construct the Deutschland-class of panzerschiffe (armoured ships) or "pocket battleships" as they were nicknamed by foreign navies. These ships were designed for commerce raiding on distant seas, to operate as a raider hunting for independently sailing ships, and to avoid combat with superior forces.[failed verification]
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 allowed Hitler to renounce the Treaty of Versailles, and to build a fleet 35% the size of Britain's. A building programme for four battleships, two aircraft carriers, five heavy cruisers, destroyers and U-boats was immediately initiated. After the agreement, Hitler thought conflict with the UK very unlikely; consequently, the fleet was designed for commerce raiding against the French, not to challenge command of the sea. The commander of the German U-boats, Karl Dönitz, had his own opinions. In contrast with Hitler and Erich Raeder, chief of the German navy, he considered war with the UK inevitable and that a large surface fleet was not needed, believing U-boats could defeat the British. According to his calculations, a fleet of 300 medium Type VII U-boats could sink a million tons of ships a month and within a year sink enough of the about 3,000 British merchant ships (comprising 17.5 million tons) to strangle the British economy. In the First World War, U-boats had been defeated mainly by the convoy system, but Dönitz thought this could be overcome with the Rudeltaktik, wherein a patrol line of U-boats would search for a convoy before converging and attacking together at night from the surface. Neither aircraft nor early forms of sonar (called ASDIC by the British) were then considered serious threats. ASDIC could not detect a surfaced submarine and its range was less than that of an electric torpedo, aircraft could not operate at night and, during the day, an alert U-boat could dive before the aircraft attacked.[failed verification] Dönitz failed to persuade Raeder, so each time the U-boat fleet was expanded, Raeder opt to build a mix of coastal, medium and large submarines, even minelayers and U-cruisers. Even when in 1938 Hitler realised he would sooner or later have to oppose the UK and launched his Plan Z, only a minority of the planned 239 U-boats were medium U-boats.
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Battle of the Atlantic AI simulator
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Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counterblockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 to the end of 1943.
The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German Kriegsmarine (navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (air force) against the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States beginning on 13 September 1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Regia Marina (royal navy) after Germany's Axis ally Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940.
As an island country, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to survive and fight. The Battle of the Atlantic involved a tonnage war: the Allies struggled to supply Britain while the Axis targeted merchant shipping critical to the British war effort. Rationing in the United Kingdom was also used with the aim of reducing demand, by reducing wastage and increasing domestic production and equality of distribution. From 1942 onwards, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the UK in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. The defeat of the U-boat threat was a prerequisite for pushing back the Axis in western Europe. The outcome of the battle was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German tonnage war failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk in the Atlantic for the loss of 783 U-boats and 47 German surface warships, including 4 battleships (Bismarck, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Tirpitz), 9 cruisers, 7 raiders, and 27 destroyers. This front was a main consumer of the German war effort: Germany spent more money to produce naval vessels than every type of ground vehicle combined, including tanks.
The Battle of the Atlantic has been called the "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history. Starting immediately after the European war began, during the Phoney War, the Battle lasted over five years before the German surrender in May 1945. It involved thousands of ships in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage, as participating countries surrendered, joined and even changed sides in the war, and as new weapons, tactics, countermeasures and equipment were developed. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface-raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued until the war's end. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later wrote, "The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril. I was even more anxious about this battle than I had been about the glorious air fight called the 'Battle of Britain'."
On 5 March 1941, the First Lord of the Admiralty, A. V. Alexander, asked Parliament for "many more ships and great numbers of men" to fight "the Battle of the Atlantic", which he compared to the Battle of France fought the previous summer. The first meeting of the Cabinet's "Battle of the Atlantic Committee" was on 19 March. Churchill claimed to have coined the phrase "Battle of the Atlantic" shortly before Alexander's speech, but there are several examples of earlier usage.
Following the use of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany in the First World War, countries tried to limit or abolish submarines. The effort failed. Instead, the London Naval Treaty required submarines to abide by "cruiser rules", which demanded they surface, search and place ship crews in "a place of safety" (for which lifeboats did not qualify, except under particular circumstances) before sinking them, unless the ship in question showed "persistent refusal to stop...or active resistance to visit or search". These regulations did not prohibit arming merchantmen, but doing so, or having them report contact with submarines (or raiders), made them de facto naval auxiliaries and removed the protection of the cruiser rules.[failed verification]
The Treaty of Versailles forbade the Germans to operate U-boats and reduced the German surface fleet to a few obsolete ships. When three of these obsolete ships had to be replaced, the Germans opted to construct the Deutschland-class of panzerschiffe (armoured ships) or "pocket battleships" as they were nicknamed by foreign navies. These ships were designed for commerce raiding on distant seas, to operate as a raider hunting for independently sailing ships, and to avoid combat with superior forces.[failed verification]
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 allowed Hitler to renounce the Treaty of Versailles, and to build a fleet 35% the size of Britain's. A building programme for four battleships, two aircraft carriers, five heavy cruisers, destroyers and U-boats was immediately initiated. After the agreement, Hitler thought conflict with the UK very unlikely; consequently, the fleet was designed for commerce raiding against the French, not to challenge command of the sea. The commander of the German U-boats, Karl Dönitz, had his own opinions. In contrast with Hitler and Erich Raeder, chief of the German navy, he considered war with the UK inevitable and that a large surface fleet was not needed, believing U-boats could defeat the British. According to his calculations, a fleet of 300 medium Type VII U-boats could sink a million tons of ships a month and within a year sink enough of the about 3,000 British merchant ships (comprising 17.5 million tons) to strangle the British economy. In the First World War, U-boats had been defeated mainly by the convoy system, but Dönitz thought this could be overcome with the Rudeltaktik, wherein a patrol line of U-boats would search for a convoy before converging and attacking together at night from the surface. Neither aircraft nor early forms of sonar (called ASDIC by the British) were then considered serious threats. ASDIC could not detect a surfaced submarine and its range was less than that of an electric torpedo, aircraft could not operate at night and, during the day, an alert U-boat could dive before the aircraft attacked.[failed verification] Dönitz failed to persuade Raeder, so each time the U-boat fleet was expanded, Raeder opt to build a mix of coastal, medium and large submarines, even minelayers and U-cruisers. Even when in 1938 Hitler realised he would sooner or later have to oppose the UK and launched his Plan Z, only a minority of the planned 239 U-boats were medium U-boats.