The Battle of the Atlantic, the Battle of the Atlantic

<> "Atlantic Breaks.

Modern naval warfare originated in the First World War and culminated in the Second World War. Most of the locations of naval battles are concentrated in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and other sea areas. At the beginning of World War II, the Atlantic Ocean attracted Hitler's attention with its special geographical location.

As early as August 19, 1939, the German Navy sent its first submarine to the Atlantic Ocean to immediately take offensive action at sea in the event of war. On September 1, Germany suddenly attacked Poland, and World War II broke out. Since 3 September, the German Navy's 2nd Submarine Detachment ("U-27", "U-28", "U-29", "U-30", "U-33" and "U-33"—34-inch submarines) has entered the waters off the British Isles and west of the English Channel.

The German Navy also dispatched the submarines "U-26", "U-31", "U-35" and "U-53" to lay mines in the waters near Portland, and the submarine "U-32" to lay mines in the waters near Portland. Waters near Portland. Ristor channel mlay.

As of October 3, the above-mentioned submarines have sunk damaged ships (including damaged ships by mines) as follows: "U-26" sank 3 ships (17,414 tons), of which 1 small frigate was damaged by mines, and 2 (624 tons) were sunk by "U-27"; U-28 "sank 1 ship (4955 tons); U-29 "sunk ships: 3 ships (19,405 tons); U-30 "sunk 2 ships (9625 tons, not including the passenger liner "Athena" sunk by it); U-31 "sank 2 ships (8706 tons), "U-32" sank 2 ships (5738 tons), and 2 mines (17526 tons) were damaged; U-33 "sank 3 ships (5914 tons); U-34 "sank 2 ships (11357 tons) and captured 1 ship (2534 tons); U-35 "sank 4 ships (7850 tons) and damaged 1 ship (6014 tons), "U-35" sank 2 ships (14018 tons). On September 22, the submarine "U-27" was sunk by Li Zheng.

In addition, the 7th Submarine Division of the German Navy (including "U-45", "U-46", "U-47", "U-48" and "U-52" in the Bay of Biscay", which set sail from the Kiel base in Germany on 19 August 1939) on the west side and the 6th Submarine Division of the German Navy (including "U-37", "U-38", "U-38", "U-38", "U-30", "U-38", "U-40", "U-30", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-38", "U-38", "U-40", "U-38", "U-38", "U-38", "U-38", "U-30", "U-38", "U-38", "U-30", "U-38", "U-30", "U-38", "U-30", "U-38", "U-30", "U-38", "U U-41" and others also entered the war on September 8. Among them, the "U-38" submarine sank 2 "U-41" submarines (16,698 tons), the "U-41" submarines sank 2 ships (2,172 tons), the "U-47" submarines sank 8 ships (8,270 tons), and the "U-48" submarines sank 3 ships (14,777 tons).

The Battle of the Atlantic was a battle between Britain and the United States and Germany in the Atlantic Theater during World War II. The Atlantic line of communication was the lifeline that the Allies relied on to support the European theater of operations. When the Great War broke out in September 1939, German warships began to harass British seas.

Britain responded by throwing the mighty Royal Navy into the defense of sea lines of communication, and the war began. The Allied air anti-submarine forces amounted to 3,000 aircraft, with an average of 20 to 30 aircraft against one German submarine, effectively disturbing Zhinai to cover the transport fleet. The year 1943 was a turning point in the Atlantic War.

In May alone, Allied surface and air forces sank 31 submarines, forcing Germany to withdraw from the main North Atlantic lanes, and on May 8, 1945, the Battle of the Atlantic ended.

During World War II, Britain, the United States and Germany fought in the Atlantic to protect and destroy sea lines of communication.

After the outbreak of the European War, Germany inflicted great losses on the transport fleets of the Allied countries through a variety of sea and air raids, especially the "wolf pack tactic" of submarine and multi-ship attacks.

After the United States entered the war, Germany expanded the range of submarine warfare to the west coast of the Atlantic.

Britain and the United States were forced to adjust their escort systems in 1943 and strengthen the anti-submarine warfare of escort aircraft carrier formations, dealing a heavy blow to the German Navy.

In 1944, the Battle of the Atlantic ended in defeat for Germany.

In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and the future of the German Navy was becoming increasingly clear. Hitler promised the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Raeder, that the Navy would take precedence in a fair distribution in the future plans for the building of the army. This won the support of Raeder and the entire Navy.

Raeder then developed a naval construction plan, codenamed "Z", which focused on building a surface fleet large enough to fight the British main force at sea within 8 to 10 years. It included 10 large battleships, 3 battle cruisers, 8 armored cruisers, 4 aircraft carriers, 44 light cruisers, 68 destroyers, 90 torpedo boats and 249 submarines. But the commander of the submarine force, Dönitz, strenuously opposed this plan, arguing that such a long-term plan was unrealistic, and that Germany must concentrate its resources on building enough submarines as soon as possible to deal a fatal blow to Britain's maritime lifeline in the coming war, and that submarines were the most practical and effective means of achieving this end.

But the best he won was this: priority was given to the construction of warships, and at the same time the construction of submarines. Hitler's primary goal was to conquer the European continent and then force the British Empire to sue for peace, so the army and air force were always the focus of his military expansion plan, and although he agreed to Raeder's ambitious plan, the navy was actually given a secondary consideration.

Based on this, in 1935 Hitler signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement with Great Britain that did not in any way jeopardize British naval superiority, stipulating that the tonnage of the German navy would be 35% of that of Britain, so that Britain might no longer interfere in German military adventures on the European continent. In a word, in a strategic sense, the development and construction of the German Navy was in an auxiliary role and in a subordinate position. This became one of the permanent topics of repeated complaints from German admirals.

Immediately after the outbreak of war in September 1939, a battle for naval supremacy in the Atlantic began between Germany and Britain and France. At that time, the Atlantic Ocean accounted for three-quarters of the world's shipping, and was of vital importance to Britain, serving as a "lifeline" for Britain to import strategic materials, industrial raw materials, and grain. Since the German Navy had only 3 pocket battleships and 57 submarines, only 2 pocket battleships and 23 submarines could be ready to sail to the Atlantic.

Dönitz complained about this: "Such a small number of ** can only play the role of stinging the enemy, and it is impossible to make peace with a world's first-class naval power." "Unable to compete with Britain head-on, he tried to force Britain to submit by attacking Atlantic shipping.

Attacks and counter-attacks on sea lines of communication have become their main forms and characteristics. The entire operation was divided into three phases.