The Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic PDF Author: Jonathan Dimbleby
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495855
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
"The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril," wrote Winston Churchill in his monumental history of World War Two. Churchill's fears were well-placed-the casualty rate in the Atlantic was higher than in any other theater of the entire war. The enemy was always and constantly there and waiting, lying just over the horizon or lurking beneath the waves. In many ways, the Atlantic shipping lanes, where U-boats preyed on American ships, were the true front of the war. England's very survival depended on assistance from the United States, much of which was transported across the ocean by boat. The shipping lanes thus became the main target of German naval operations between 1940 and 1945. The Battle of the Atlantic and the men who fought it were therefore crucial to both sides. Had Germany succeeded in cutting off the supply of American ships, England might not have held out. Yet had Churchill siphoned reinforcements to the naval effort earlier, thousands of lives might have been preserved. The battle consisted of not one but hundreds of battles, ranging from hours to days in duration, and forcing both sides into constant innovation and nightmarish second-guessing, trying desperately to gain the advantage of every encounter. Any changes to the events of this series of battles, and the outcome of the war-as well as the future of Europe and the world-would have been dramatically different. Jonathan Dimbleby's The Battle of the Atlantic offers a detailed and immersive account of this campaign, placing it within the context of the war as a whole. Dimbleby delves into the politics on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the role of Bletchley Park and the complex and dynamic relationship between America and England. He uses contemporary diaries and letters from leaders and sailors to chilling effect, evoking the lives and experiences of those who fought the longest battle of World War Two. This is the definitive account of the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic PDF Author: Jonathan Dimbleby
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495855
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 585

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril," wrote Winston Churchill in his monumental history of World War Two. Churchill's fears were well-placed-the casualty rate in the Atlantic was higher than in any other theater of the entire war. The enemy was always and constantly there and waiting, lying just over the horizon or lurking beneath the waves. In many ways, the Atlantic shipping lanes, where U-boats preyed on American ships, were the true front of the war. England's very survival depended on assistance from the United States, much of which was transported across the ocean by boat. The shipping lanes thus became the main target of German naval operations between 1940 and 1945. The Battle of the Atlantic and the men who fought it were therefore crucial to both sides. Had Germany succeeded in cutting off the supply of American ships, England might not have held out. Yet had Churchill siphoned reinforcements to the naval effort earlier, thousands of lives might have been preserved. The battle consisted of not one but hundreds of battles, ranging from hours to days in duration, and forcing both sides into constant innovation and nightmarish second-guessing, trying desperately to gain the advantage of every encounter. Any changes to the events of this series of battles, and the outcome of the war-as well as the future of Europe and the world-would have been dramatically different. Jonathan Dimbleby's The Battle of the Atlantic offers a detailed and immersive account of this campaign, placing it within the context of the war as a whole. Dimbleby delves into the politics on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the role of Bletchley Park and the complex and dynamic relationship between America and England. He uses contemporary diaries and letters from leaders and sailors to chilling effect, evoking the lives and experiences of those who fought the longest battle of World War Two. This is the definitive account of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Decision in the Atlantic

Decision in the Atlantic PDF Author: Marcus Faulkner
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 1949668037
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of the Second World War. This volume highlights the scale and complexity of this bitterly contested campaign, one that encompassed far more than just attacks by German U-boats on Allied shipping. The team of leading scholars assembled in this study situates the German assault on seaborne trade within the wider Allied war effort and provides a new understanding of its place within the Second World War. Individual chapters offer original perspectives on a range of neglected or previously overlooked subjects: how Allied grand strategy shaped the war at sea; the choices facing Churchill and other Allied leaders and the tensions over the allocation of scarce resources between theaters; how the battle spread beyond the Atlantic Ocean in both military and economic terms; the management of Britain's merchant shipping repair yards; the defense of British coastal waters against German surface raiders; the contribution of air power to trade defense; antisubmarine escort training; the role of special intelligence; and the war against the U-boats in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

Atlantic Escorts

Atlantic Escorts PDF Author: David Brown
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1844157024
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Winston Churchill famously claimed that the submarine war in the Atlantic was the only campaign of the Second World War that really frightened him. If the lifeline to north America had been cut, Britain would never have survived; there could have been no build-up of US and Commonwealth forces, no D-Day landings, and no victory in western Europe. Furthermore, the battle raged from the first day of the war until the final German surrender, making it the longest and arguably hardest-fought campaign of the whole war. The ships, technology and tactics employed by the Allies form the subject of this book. Beginning with the lessons apparently learned from the First World War, the author outlines inter-war developments in technology and training, and describes the later preparations for the second global conflict. When the war came the balance of advantage was to see-saw between U-boats and escorts, with new weapons and sensors introduced at a rapid rate. For the defending navies, the prime requirement was numbers, and the most pressing problem was to improve capability without sacrificing simplicity and speed of construction. The author analyses the resulting designs of sloops, frigates, corvettes and destroyer escorts and attempts to determine their relative effectiveness.

A Measureless Peril

A Measureless Peril PDF Author: Richard Snow
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416591117
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
In "A Measureless Peril, " the historian Richard Snow captures all the drama of the merciless contest between the quickly built U.S. warships and the ever-more cunning and lethal U-boats that controlled the sea lanes of the Atlantic during WWII.

Churchill and Malta

Churchill and Malta PDF Author: Douglas Austin
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750967048
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This is the compelling story of the special relationship between Winston Churchill and the people of Malta. During six visits over a period of forty years he came to understand and support the aspirations of the Maltese people and in the Second World War the bonds linking them were tempered in fire and destruction. In those dark days Churchill's determination to defend the island and his faith in the courage of the Maltese people never wavered.

Fw 200 Condor vs Atlantic Convoy

Fw 200 Condor vs Atlantic Convoy PDF Author: Robert Forczyk
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781846039171
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
With the fall of France in 1940, Germany suddenly had the opportunity to strike at poorly guarded Allied convoys. The Luftwaffe pressed into service the Fw-200 Condor, a plane that had originally been designed as a civilian airliner and the first plane to fly non-stop from Berlin to New York in 1938. After various modifications, the Fw-200 became the Luftwaffe's long-range maritime patrol and strike bomber. It was devastatingly effective; a single attack by five Condors on a convoy in February 1941 resulted in the sinking and damaging of 11 ships. Furthermore, the Condors passed on convoy sightings to the U-boats with devastating effect. By the summer of 1941, the threat posed by the Condor was so great that Winston Churchill dubbed them "the scourge of the Atlantic." Losses to Condor attacks resulted in various crash efforts to find a solution to the predator. One solution was the Hurricate, a modified Hurricane that was launched by catapult from a converted merchant ship. But a more robust solution was required. This was delivered with the creation of the escort carrier to provide continuous air cover over a threatened convoy. By 1941 the duel for supremacy over the Atlantic began to turn in favor of the Allies and was furthered by the entry of the US into the war. The Germans made a last ditch attempt to turn the tide by equipping Condors with anti-shipping missiles, better defensive armament and airborne radar. But their numbers were too few to combat the ever-increasing might of the Allies. This volume highlights a classic duel between opposing tactics, doctrine and technology, with the Germans attempting to field an airborne weapon that could intercept the Atlantic convoys, while the Allies attempted to provide an effective defense umbrella over the ships carrying vital war-time supplies.

Forgotten Sacrifice

Forgotten Sacrifice PDF Author: Michael G. Walling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782002901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Award-winning historian Mike Walling captures the essence of the Arctic Convoys of World War II. In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken. Operation Barbarossa saw defeat after defeat heaped on the Soviet army. With Russia's forces left staggering under the strain and in desperate need of supplies, Britain and the United States launched an ambitious operation to resupply the Soviet Union using convoys sent through the Arctic. Their journey was punctuated by torpedo attacks in freezing conditions, Stuka dive bombers, naval gun fire, and weeks of total darkness in the Arctic winter, with ships disappearing below the waves weighed down by the ice and snow on their decks. Drawing on hundreds of oral histories from eyewitnesses and veterans of the convoys, plus original research into the Russian Navy archives at Murmansk, historian Michael G. Walling offers a fresh retelling of one of World War II's pivotal yet largely overlooked campaigns.

Churchill's Atlantic Convoys

Churchill's Atlantic Convoys PDF Author: William Smith
Publisher: Pen and Sword Maritime
ISBN: 1399051016
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Within hours of the outbreak of the Second World War, Winston Churchill took up office as First Lord of the Admiralty. The same day the liner Athenia was torpedoed in the Atlantic in the first U-boat attack of the war. Churchill quickly recognized Britain’s survival depended on countering the U-boat threat and the strategic importance of protecting Allied merchant shipping with measures such as the convoy system. As this superbly researched book reveals, the Nazi U-boat fleet was relatively small and unprepared for war in 1939. But by early 1941 its numbers and effectiveness had increasing to the point that Hitler was able to declare ‘our warfare at sea is just beginning’. Prime Minister Churchill’s response was to issue his famous ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ Directive. Churchill’s Atlantic Convoys describes the political, strategic and tactical ebb and flow of events, particularly between 1942 and 1943. Thanks to increased numbers and scientific innovations the Allies slowly gained the upper hand despite a determined German fight back in late 1943 and early 1944. While the U-boat threat was never wholly defeated, the tenacity and sacrifices of the Allied naval forces won the day. Churchill later recognized the persistence of Germany’s effort and the fortitude of the U-boat service. It would not be until 7 June 1945 that Churchill and President Truman felt able to assert ‘the Allies have finished the job’.

The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 2, Politics and Ideology

The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 2, Politics and Ideology PDF Author: Richard Bosworth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108406406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 718

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Book Description
War is often described as an extension of politics by violent means. With contributions from twenty-eight eminent historians, Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of the Second World War examines the relationship between ideology and politics in the war's origins, dynamics and consequences. Part I examines the ideologies of the combatants and shows how the war can be understood as a struggle of words, ideas and values with the rival powers expressing divergent claims to justice and controlling news from the front in order to sustain moral and influence international opinion. Part II looks at politics from the perspective of pre-war and wartime diplomacy as well as examining the way in which neutrals were treated and behaved. The volume concludes by assessing the impact of states, politics and ideology on the fate of individuals as occupied and liberated peoples, collaborators and resistors, and as British and French colonial subjects.

Churchill and Sea Power

Churchill and Sea Power PDF Author: Christopher M. Bell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199678502
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
The first major study of Winston Churchill's record as a naval strategist - and his impact as the most prominent guardian of Britain's sea power in the modern era.