The Battle of the Atlantic

The longest battle of World War 2 1939-45

How important was the battle of the Atlantic

This was the only thing thatreally frightened me during thewar. If we had lost the battle

of the Atlantic there wasevery possibility that

Hitler could have retained Western Europe and defeated

Britain

German Tactics

What was brought across the Atlantic?

• Oil

• Munitions

• Food

• US troops for the invasion of Europe

• Tanks

• Aircraft

Data: Battle of the Atlantic

• 2282 Allied Ships sunk (15 million tons)• 1.9 million tons damaged• 1150 U-Boats built, 807 sunk (casualty rate of

85%)• Convoys sailed 200 million miles• The battle lasted 2073 days, from the first day

of the war to the last

• Britain would have run out of food within 3 weeks without these supplies

How was the battle won?

• Closing the Mid-Atlantic gap

• Aircraft (VLR)• Escort carriers• Radar• Asdic• Convoy system• Cracking German

Naval Codes

Convoying

Aircraft

• VLR aircraft closed the mid-Atlantic gap• Escort Aircraft carriers went all the way across

the Atlantic and provided anti submarine protection

Submarine Warfare

What happened to U-Boats after 1942?

• Radar allowed planes to see periscopes and schnorkels• ASDIC or SONAR allowed ships to hear submarines under water• Once caught escorting ships and planes destroyed them with guns

or depth charges

Tasks for this lesson

• Make notes on the first and last sections of the worksheet

• Copy the graph: what do you notice about the amount of ships sunk as the war progressed

• Why was the battle of the Atlantic so crucial to Britain in WW2?