France had fallen in 1940 United Kingdom was out of money In December 1941 the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war However The Battle of the Atlanticstarted in 1939 ID: 248710
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Slide1
The Battle of the AtlanticSlide2
France had fallen in 1940
United Kingdom was out of money.
In December 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war.However…The Battle of the Atlantic….started in 1939
RECALL…Slide3
The longest continuous military campaign of World War II, running from 1939 right through to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945
At its height from mid-1940 through to about the end of 1943Slide4
World War II lasted for a total of 2,075 days.
The Battle of the Atlantic lasted for 2,073 of these.
It started with the sinking of the passenger liner Athenia on the day Britain and France declared war on Germany.Canada RemembersSlide5
German U-Boats patrolled the Atlantic against the British blockade of Europe and in an effort to stop supplies from America from ever reaching Britain.
U-boats operated in groups of 10 called "wolf packs."
The German navy, carried out submarine warfare to cut off Britain's imports and military supplies.
U-boats
GERMAN ATTACKSlide6
U-boatSlide7
The U-boat Threat
Type VIIC U-boat
Range: 8,500 nm Crew: 44-52 Torpedo load: 14Slide8
Let’s Think…
Why were shipping lines so important to the War effort?
2. Why were supplies coming from North America?3. Why were U Boats such a danger to these shipping routes?Slide9
The Allies developed a convoy system where merchant ships were guarded by destroyer escorts.
The British developed a system for detecting U-boats that resembled radar.
This development gave the Allies the edge in the Battle for the Atlantic.
ALLIES RESPONDSlide10
Allied Strategy
• Protect existing shipping
• Build to replace shipping losses, expand fleet
• Go on the offensive against the U-boatsSlide11
Ships Lost vs. Built
1939 - 1941
SourcSlide12
Convoy System
RN employed convoys from start
• Did not have enough escorts
• Started crash construction program
USN did not use convoys initially
• Second
“
Happy Time
”
* for Germans
* Jan-Aug 1942Slide13Slide14
Flower-class Corvettes
Length: 205 feet
Displacement: 940 tons
Speed: 16 knots
394 built (UK, Canada)
Video LinkSlide15
Destroyers For Bases
September 2, 1940
US provided 50 WW I destroyers in exchange for bases
Bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, West India, Guiana
Destroyers became RN
Town
-class
… became
HMS Lewes
• Named for North American cities and towns with namesake in UKSlide16
Destroyer Escorts
(DE)
Displacement
: 1,240 tons (std) 1,620 tons (full)
Dimensions
: 306' (oa), 300' (wl) x 36' 10" x 11' 8" (max)
Armament
: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1),
1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Machinery
: 4 GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6000 shp, 2 screws
Speed
: 21 knots
Range
: 10,800 nm @ 12 knots
Crew
: 15 / 201
USS Slater (DE-766)
SourceSlide17
Destroyer Escorts
(DE)
Fleet destroyer
Fletcher class
Destroyer Escort
Cannon class
Destroyer escorts did not need speed of fleet destroyers
DEs could be smaller, cheaper, easier to produce
• 21 knots vs. 35 knots for destroyersSlide18
Other Threats
FW 200
Condor
Maritime Patrol AircraftSlide19
Other Threats
Surface Raiders
Pocket Battleships / Heavy Cruisers
Example:
Admiral Graf Spee
Auxiliary Cruisers
Example:
AtlantisSlide20
Surface Raiders
Pocket Battleships & Heavy Cruisers
Admiral Graf Spee
Six 11-inch guns
Eight 5.9-inch guns
Speed: 21 knots
Displacement: 16,200 tons
Scuttled, December 17, 1939
Off Montevideo, Uruguay
After battle with thee British cruisers
War Cruise
August-December 1939
Sank 9 merchant ships
(50,000 tons)
VideoSlide21
Surface Raiders
Pocket Battleships & Heavy Cruisers
Admiral Graf Spee
Six 11-inch guns
Eight 5.9-inch guns
Speed: 21 knots
Displacement: 16,200 tons
Scuttled, December 17, 1939
Off Montevideo, Uruguay
After battle with thee British cruisers
War Cruise
August-December 1939
Sank 9 merchant ships
(50,000 tons)
VideoSlide22
Surface Raiders
Auxiliary Cruisers
Auxiliary Cruiser
Atlantis
Atlantis
with dummy funnel
Armament Layout
Hidden torpedo tubes & gunsSlide23
Surface Raiders
Auxiliary Cruisers
Auxiliary Cruiser
Atlantis
Atlantis
with dummy funnel
First auxiliary cruiser to sink a merchant ship
Highest tonnage sunk of all surface raiders
Circumnavigated the globe
• 22 ships, 146,000 tonsSlide24
WorkforceSlide25
Rosie the Riveter
Norman Rockwell - 1943
SourceSlide26
Workforce
Rosie the Riveter
Wanda the WelderSlide27
Signals Intelligence
Enigma
( SIGINT )Slide28
EnigmaSlide29
Enigma
Bletchley Park
Alan Turing
’
s
“
Bombe
”Slide30
Enigma
British intelligence received its first Enigma machine in 1939 from Polish military
Additional machines captured by Royal Navy
• May 9, 1941: U-110 off Iceland
• October 30, 1942: U-559 in the Mediterranean
USN captured U-505, June 4, 1944Slide31
Mid-Atlantic GapSlide32
Maritime Patrol Aircraft
Source
RAF Liberator
USAAF A-29 Hudson
RAF Fortress
BlimpsSlide33
Maritime Patrol Aircraft
Caught On The Surface – Robert Taylor
RAF Sunderland Flying Boat – Coastal Command vs. U-461
20 July 1943 – Bay of Biscay
SourceSlide34
Hunter-Killer Team
Slide 8Slide35
Hunter Becomes the Hunted
U-118 under attack by aircraft from USS Bogue
June 12, 1943
SourceSlide36
Ships Lost vs. Built
1939-1945Slide37
Canadian Context
Germans sank the Caribou, a passenger ferry, sailing from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland
Killed 136 peopleOnly 6 days after declaring war, Canada’s first supply convoy set out from Halifax HarbourSlide38
B
ecame a port for ships escaping war from Europe-refugees
Convoys of ships formed in Halifax harbour loaded with troops, guns, tanks, shells, foodstuffs and headed across the Atlantic. Convoys: Groups of merchant ships that are protected from enemy attack by naval escort ships or air force planes.
HALIFAXSlide39
Germans did everything to stop supply lines.
Convoy ships were mined or torpedoed within hearing distance of Halifax
New technology was developed: corvettes, depth charges, sonar
In Halifax, "Plotters" tracked ship movements and U-boats.
Many of them were the women of the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS)Slide40
U-boats began attacking ships in the St. Lawrence river
.
On Aug. 27, 1942 the American ship Chatham was sunkOct. 13,1942 the passenger ferry, the SS Caribou
going from Nfld. to Nova Scotia was sunk by a single torpedo =173 dead civilians
From the summer to the fall of 1942, German U-boats sank 21 ships in the St. Lawrence.
St. LawrenceSlide41
Canada’s Role
Canadian Navy was to escort convoys halfway across the North Atlantic, then the British would take over
Training of Canadian sailors improvedBuilt more and better warships16,000 members on 188 warships
The Air Force increased its support of convoys
By 1943 more ships were getting past the German wolf packs
On the WaterSlide42Slide43Slide44
Words from a Canadian Sailor...
“What a miserable, rotten hopeless life . . . an Atlantic so rough it seems impossible that we can continue to take this unending pounding and still remain in one piece . . . hanging onto a convoy is a full-time job . . . the crew in almost a stupor from the nightmarishness of it all . . . and still we go on hour after hour.”
Frank Curry of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) wrote these words in his diary aboard a corvette in 1941, during the Battle of the Atlantic a battle that would be called the longest in history. Slide45
The campaign pitted the German Navy’s surface raiders and U-boats against Allied convoys from North America and the South Atlantic to the United Kingdom and Russia, protected mainly by the British and Canadian navy’s and air forces, later aided by United States ships and aircraft.
The British and their allies gradually gained the upper hand, driving the German surface raiders from the ocean by the middle of 1941 and decisively defeating the U-boats in a series of convoy battles between March and May 1943Slide46
More than 2,000 merchant ships were lost to a submarine attack in the North Atlantic and more than 30,000 merchant seamen died as a result.
About 330 convoys in the Atlantic were attacked by U-boats.
565 escorts and 234 stragglers were sunk.1,100 proceeding independently were also sunk.96,977 crossings were completed successfully.
SUMMARYSlide47
Significance to Canada
Canada’s role in the Battle of the Atlantic was significant to the Allies victory over Germany
Canada used two lines of defence against the u-boatsNew type of sea vessel called the corvette – could out-manoeuvre a submarineThe Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)