The North Atlantic Run The Submarine War And The Allied Response Duri

The North Atlantic Run: The Submarine War And The Allied Response During Ww 2 The North Atlantic Run: The Submarine war and the Allied Response in the Second World War In September 1939, with the beginning of World War II, German U-boat operations got under way against allied forces; the allies responded to the U-boat threat with a number of counter measures. The combined affect of protection of ships by convoys, harassment of U-boats by airplanes, and other anti-submarine warfare measures, reduced the ability of the U-boats to cut Britain off from her suppliers in North America. In order to assess the effectiveness of the allied response, it is first necessary to look at the U-boats. In looking at the U-boats it is not only necessary to look at the various types of U-boats and their deployment, but also to look at the German's goals and the tactics that they employed in an attempt to reach those goals. The Treaty of Versailles ending world war one prohibited Germany from having any U-boats. When the treaty was changed under The Anglo-German Naval agreement, one of the things that the Germans did to rebuild their navy was to rebuild the U-boat wing. Their first U-boats were for general sea-going and coastal abilities, the U-boats first built for this purpose were types I and II. The type I had a surface speed of 17.75 knots and 8.25 knots submerged on electric engines, for armament it had 4.1 inch and 22 mm. anti-aircraft guns and six torpedoes. In comparison, the type II had speeds of 13 knots surfaced and 7 knots submerged with three torpedoes and one 20 mm. anti-aircraft gun. The type II was smaller than the type I. The Germans developed other U-boats between types III and VII, but the most popular model came with the type VII. The type VII had a displacement of 500 tons and with about 700 built, became the German's main U-boat. It was equipped with a 3.5-inch anti-aircraft gun, four bow torpedo tubes, a single stern torpedo tube, and carried 14 torpedoes; it had a surface speed of 16 knots. The Germans also built several other U-boat types, the most popular being the type IX with a displacement of 750 tons and 150 being constructed. The type IX had a 4.1-inch anti-aircraft gun, 4 bow torpedo tubes, 2 stern tubes, and carried 19 torpedoes; it had a surface speed of 17 knots. Along with these main U-boats the Germans also had 10 supply U-boats built for refueling their other U-boats to extend their range. The type XIV U-tanker had a displacement of 1688 tons and had no torpedo tubes, instead the room was used to carry 635 tons of fuel, which could be used to resupply about twelve other U-boats. A ll of these U-boats were, as with the types I and II, slower under water as they had to switch to their electric engines, their speed was thus reduced to about 6 or 7 knots. These U-boats used, or tried, several different tactics against the allies during World War II to meet their war aims, which was to attack . . . Britain's supply lines . . . for the achievement of our naval strategic aims . . . to cut her off from her suppliers in North America. Militarily, the Germans tried to use the U-boats in support of other operations. The most famous of these was the invasion of Norway in April 1940. The Germans had planned to use the U-boats to protect their landing vessels against British attack while troops were dropped of in Norway and the vessels returned to Germany. During the invasion the Germans used all the U-boats that were available, assigning them primarily defensive roles. Thirteen U- boats were used to prevent the British from interfering in the landings in Norway and another four U-boats were then used to protect German communications lines between Germany and Norway. Another thirteen were used to attack the British Home Fleet if the British decided to send them to interfere with the invasion. The use of the U-boats in the invasion was basically a failure because their torpedoes were adversely affected by the high latitude as