When did the Battle of the Atlantic end? 15

Battle of the Atlantic.

During World War II, Germany fought a naval battle with Britain and the United States for control of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Atlantic sea line of communication was the lifeline for Britain to import strategic goods, raw materials and food. In order to force Britain to submit, Germany decided to destroy the Atlantic sea lines of communication with its main naval force, and Britain responded by throwing the mighty Royal Navy into defending the sea lines. The war as a whole was roughly divided into three phases.

Phase I: (Germany used large surface combat ships, aviation, and submarines to capture and sink large numbers of British merchant ships.) The submarine De-47 infiltrated the British naval base and sank the British battleship "Royal Oak".

But the surface attack of the German ships suffered heavy losses under the counterattack of the British Navy. During the Battle of the North Sea, the German battlecruiser "Spee", wounded and besieged in the port of Montevia, was scuttled. After that, Germany declared the practice of "unrestricted submarine warfare".

At first, Germany attacked Allied transport ships with single boats, with little effect. After February 1941, the attack was carried out by aircraft to guide the group of boats, and achieved major results, sinking a total of 5 million tons of British merchant ships. The Luftwaffe also achieved significant results in laying mines, blocking ports and shipping lanes, and attacking and bombing transport units.

The second stage: (After the United States entered the war, Germany drove a new long-range submarine to the Atlantic coast of the United States to attack, and in only 3 months, it sank more than 1 million tons of merchant ships. German submarine commander Dönitz proudly said:

With each swing of the pendulum, the German-encircled submarine sent a ton of Allied war materiel to the bottom of the sea." In order to deal with the German Navy, Britain and the United States invested a large amount of money to escort merchant ships, developed and used new anti-submarine equipment such as depth charges, sonar, and magnetodes, and invested a large number of aircraft to strengthen anti-submarine patrols at sea and in the air. Under the joint counterattack of the British and American naval and air forces, the German submarines were forced to reduce the scope of their activities and concentrate their forces to attack with the "wolf pack" tactic of a large group of 20 boats, which achieved obvious results.

The third stage: (With the turning point of the entire war in favor of the Allies and the transfer of the United States' powerful military production capacity to the wartime track, Britain and the United States have been able to transfer more naval and air forces to the Atlantic Operation, strengthen the anti-submarine system with escort aircraft carriers as the core, and the Allied and shore-based anti-submarine aircraft have forced it difficult for German submarines to enter the Atlantic Ocean through the Bay of Biscay. From the second half of 1944, the Allied strategic bombing caused serious damage to the German submarine industry, and there was a shortage of submarine replenishment.

The Battle of the Atlantic (anti-submarine warfare), which lasted 5 and a half years, finally ended with the defeat of Germany.

In the Battle of the Atlantic, the United States and Britain participated in the war with about 3,000 combat ships and more than 800 aircraft. The Allies lost 18.4 million tons of merchant ships, of which about 14 million tons were sunk by submarines, accounting for 76 percent of the total tonnage lost.

Germany put in a total of 1,160 submarines and sank 780 of them, accounting for the total number of submarines invested.

Atlantic submarine (anti-submarine) warfare has had a profound impact on the development of naval strategy, tactics, and equipment around the world in the future.

Battle of the Atlantic.

Nature: The longest and most complex protracted naval battle in the history of warfare.

Confrontation sides: German submarines vs Anglo-French navies.

Result: All 700 German U-boats surrendered or sank themselves.

The year 1943 was a turning point in the Atlantic War. On the side of the allies, the dual escort of air and sea greatly weakened the attack power of U-boats. In May alone, Allied surface and air forces sank 25 submarines.

On 8 May, German Admiral Dönitz ordered all 700 German submarines to float to the surface and surrender to Britain. The Battle of the Atlantic ended.

After the United States declared war on Japan in December 1941, Hitler changed his policy of avoiding open military action against the United States. On 9 December, the German Naval Operations Department rescinded its decision to deal with American vessels with restraint, no longer restricted all operations against American merchant ships and **, and allowed submarines to search for and attack all targets in any area of the Atlantic Ocean beyond 26° West, including the Pan-American Security Zone. From then on, the German Navy began unrestricted submarine warfare on the Atlantic lines of communication.

The German High Command believed that the entry of the United States into the war would inevitably greatly increase the war power of the Allies, but that the German Navy could weaken its war power as long as it continued to attack the vital Atlantic sea transportation lines of the Allies. And the most effective means of achieving this is submarines. Based on this understanding, the German High Command decided that naval operations after 1942 should continue to intensify submarine attacks, eliminate Allied convoys shuttling across the Atlantic, and stop the growth of Allied troops and equipment.

Accordingly, the German Navy further stipulated that the main task of the submarine fleet was to engage in "tonnage warfare" and to make use of the favorable conditions of submarine warfare as much as possible to cause the losses of the Central Powers in the tonnage of ships to exceed their shipbuilding tonnage in the shortest possible period, so as to achieve the goal of weakening the transportation capacity of the Central Powers and paralyzing their maritime transportation. Dönitz, commander of the German submarine fleet, emphasized: "It is much more effective to sink today than to sink it in 1943 in the future."

Based on the above considerations, the German High Command and the German Navy planned to expand the theater of operations in the Atlantic. On December 12, 1941, Germany decided to launch the "Drumming" campaign, sending submarines deep into the coast of the United States to launch an attack.

German submarine commander.

After the outbreak of the Battle of the Atlantic, the German navy threw troops in the Atlantic Ocean or the rolling sea area one after another, destroying the British sea lines of communication. Submarines and aircraft operated mainly in the North Sea and the North Atlantic, and large surface ships attacked British transports in the South Atlantic between South America and Africa. Due to the lack of strength to confront the British navy head-on, the German navy adopted the method of dispersed use of forces, and carried out mobile sabotage warfare against British sea lines of communication in the vast Atlantic sea area.

After the outbreak of the European War, the curtain of the Battle of the Atlantic began. Shortly after Britain announced the naval blockade of Germany, the German submarine U 30, cruising 200 nautical miles west of the Hebrides, spotted the British passenger liner "Athena" sailing from Liverpool, England to Montreal, Canada on the evening of 3 September 1939. At 11 a.m. on September 4, the "Athena" sank, killing 112 of the 1,417 passengers and crew on board.

This event marked the official outbreak of the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Battle of the Atlantic marked the end of the era of submarine nightmares, and the Atlantic submarine (anti-submarine) warfare had a profound impact on the development of naval strategy, tactics and equipment around the world in the future.