3.+The+1943+Battle+of+the+Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic, 1940-1943 by: Ryan Cook

Profile Name: Charles Smith Date of Birth: June 30th, 1907 Event taking place at this time: German ships sinking U.S. delivery boats. Background/Interests: He is one of many who create German U-Boats

Between 1940 and 1943 the United States was shipping goods to its allies in war. The Germans so threatened imports of Americn supplies and war materials to Great Britain that near crisis conditions existed (Samuel 1). If the Americans could marshal technology, organize and coordinate antisubmarine forces, and produce ships, it would assure victory and they would transport the supplies successfully. The Germans, being enemies of the United States had to do anything to stop this from happening, but how? That is where I come in. I was called upon to help build U-Boats for Germany. A U-Boat is a boat that travels completely underwater (they are known today as submarines). My coworkers and I built 40 U-Boats for Germany in order for them to destroy the United States supply boats. These boats that we made were not used until Germany took over Norway and France in April and June 1940. One they had the water under control, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz then ordered U-Boats to attack in “wolf packs” of up to 20 U-Boats, and the sank increasing tonnage from September 1940 into 1941, including 1,299 merchant ships in 1941 alone (1). The Americans and the British (who were allies) had success in code breaking and in using improved radio direction-finding equipment, radar, sonar, depth charges, and sea and air escorts, but that was no match for the U-Boats. Then all of a sudden the battle changed. The United State’s and German’s naval and air forces made better use of intelligence, and the American shipbuilding industry provided more shipping and escort ships with improved antisubmarine weapons. Army Air Forces B-24 bombers, equipped with radar and searchlights, closed the “Atlantic gap”. After this everything turned out bad for the Germans. The Allies started sinking all of the U-Boats. During this battle the Germans lost 785 out of some 1,160 U-Boats and sank nearly 2,600 Allied merchant ships (1).

Works Cited: Danzer, Gerald A. et al. The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century. Illinois: McDougel Little Inc, 2003 Samuel Eliot Morrison, The Battle of the Atlantic: September 1939-May 1943 (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001)