WORLD WAR II DIARY: Remembering The Battle of the Atlantic…..75 Years Later

It was the longest lasting battle of World War II, commencing on the day the great conflict began in 1939, and continuing to the very end, in 1945. The “battlefield” for this campaign stretched over 2,800 miles from east to west and covered millions of square miles in between. It would claim a total of over 70,000 lives on the side of the Allies alone. Its strategic importance was so crucial that the end result of the war in Europe literally hung in the balance, depending upon its outcome, especially during the first half of 1942, following America’s entry into the war. This vast and decisive battle actually came to America’s own shoreline, on our Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, during January of 1942….. exactly 75 years ago.

Americans with a basic grasp of the history of World War II will certainly recall names like Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the Holocaust, the Battle of the Bulge, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but few have ever heard of the Battle of the Atlantic. At the risk of oversimplifying it, this ongoing battle involved the efforts of Nazi Germany, mostly by means of submarines and, to a lesser degree, by aircraft, to destroy Allied ships attempting to resupply England and Russia in their fight against the Germans. It was basically about who controlled the Atlantic Ocean.

Following the entry of the United States into the war, the Battle of the Atlantic expanded in scope. It was now a massive effort to both continually resupply and rearm the Allied war effort, and to reinforce it with millions of soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Men and material needed to flow in unimaginable numbers from North America to Europe, while, on the other hand, Germany needed to stop, to the greatest extent possible, that flow. The epic ongoing six year battle on the Atlantic was filled with untold horror and lonely death at sea.

The United States had been unofficially involved in the Battle of the Atlantic from its earliest days, sending supplies to England, and to some extent attempting to protect that shipping. Now that America was actually in the war following Pearl Harbor, the Germans had, in turn, declared war on her. Almost simultaneously with that declaration of war, the Nazis enacted a plan to bring the war to America’s East coast, up close and personal. They called it Operation Paukenschlag, or Operation Drumbeat. Over the next several months, Germany would send successive waves of her newest, biggest long range submarines, or U-boats, to the very shoreline of the United States. British intelligence reports warned of their arrival, but America was tragically unprepared to face them. The result was essentially a several months long unmolested shooting spree for the U-boats, like aiming and firing at targets in a shooting gallery. The Germans referred to it as the “Happy Times,” or the “American shooting season.”

Beginning with the arrival of the first U-boats in American waters on January 13, 1942, merchant ships in coastal shipping lanes were sunk on an almost daily basis, along with their precious cargoes of oil, iron ore, food, war goods, and the like. During the first six months of 1942, hundreds of Allied merchant ships were lost and thousands of merchant seamen gave their lives. Despite U.S. Navy attempts to keep the reality of the carnage hidden, the truth about what was happening gradually became apparent, as oil, debris, and bodies began washing up on America’s beaches. On several occasions people along the shore actually witnessed attacks on these vessels. Death had come to America’s doorstep.

To say that the U.S. was unprepared for the U-boat onslaught is a classic understatement. The ships and planes needed to effectively fight back were simply unavailable. Despite having over two years to observe the Battle of the Atlantic from afar, America’s leaders had given no priority to the construction of such specialized weapons of war. The naval vessels and aircraft that were employed initially were too old and too few to give much cause for alarm to the U-boat commanders. It would take months for our rapidly expanding war industry to catch up. Additionally, key American military leaders, most notably Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations, did not like nor trust their British counterparts. As a result, they resisted, for a deadly period of time, the advice of these allies, wise counsel gleaned from over two years of experience in fighting German submarines. Specifically, the English strongly recommended the use of a convoy system for merchant shipping, a convoy escorted and protected by specially equipped military vessels. For months King foolishly ignored Britain’s warnings, even the pleadings of Winston Churchill himself.

Though a spirit of patriotism had swept the country after Pearl Harbor, the love of country was still not as great as the love of money for some Americans. Despite governmental urging for blackout conditions at night along the U.S. coast, many communities just ignored these pleas. A blackout would not be good for business, especially in tourist areas like Atlantic City and Miami Beach. The problem was that coastal lighting formed the perfect background to silhouette an unsuspecting freighter as a clearly visible target for a U-boat. There is no doubt that the selfishness of some directly contributed to loss of lives, merchant vessels, and essential cargo during those early weeks of 1942. Eventually wartime blackout regulations, not voluntary compliance, were required to remedy this sad situation.

By mid- summer of 1942, the tide had begun to turn, albeit ever so slightly. Admiral King, in many ways, remained an obstacle rather that a supportive leader in the Battle of the Atlantic. However, with the reluctant implementation of the British model for convoys, the gradual availability of more and better ships and aircraft, and, later on, improvements in the technology of finding and destroying submarines, the Atlantic campaign began to turn, very marginally at first, and then gradually over the months, in favor of the Allies.

The importance of the Battle of the Atlantic cannot be overstated. Some historians believe that if the Germans would have had only 20 more submarines, maybe even 10, at the beginning of 1942 as they began their campaign along the American coast, that the ultimate outcome of World War II might have been vastly different. Britain could have been cut off, her oil supply exhausted, and she could have fallen to Germany. The Allies might have lost the war. That’s how high the stakes actually were.

There were terrible, inexcusable blunders made by top U.S. leaders. But brave Americans, supported by our British and Canadian allies, continued to man the merchant vessels with their precious cargoes and to fight back with the few old ships and airplanes available to them. They held on, sometimes by a shoestring, in days of immense danger. Many made the ultimate sacrifice. Although this critical episode of American history is virtually unknown to most of our citizens, it powerfully reminds us of the courageous American spirit, under God, which has guided our nation through the years. We do well to remember when the U-boats came to America…..75 years ago.