War of attrition in the Atlantic

THE BATTLE of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of the Second World War, and one of the most significant from a British perspective.

The first Atlantic convoy sailed on September 2, 1939, and to begin with many merchant ships were lost.

The fall of France in 1940 gave the U-boats bases on the Atlantic coast, and after U-boat production increased the following year the Germans had enough submarines to deploy in groups, or ‘wolf packs’.

Radio intelligence, along with introduction of aircraft carriers, Very Long Range aircraft and roving ‘support groups’ of warships, eventually combined to effectively nullify the U-boat threat at the end of May 1943.