Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Battle of The Atlantic

Within hours of the declaration of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, the first engagement had taken place in a battle that would rage for the next six years and cost tens of thousands of lives. A German U-boat commander, mistaking the passenger liner SS Athenia for an armed merchant vessel, attacked and sank the ship with the loss of more than a hundred lives. The Battle of the Atlantic had begun and its outcome would determine the course of the war.

The U-boat Threat

Great Britain's island state had always been her best defence in time of war but it had also meant a heavy dependence on overseas trade and imported raw materials to meet her needs and, consequently, on the Merchant and Royal Navies that transport and protect the vital supplies. Now, these supply lines, and the capacity to launch operations overseas, would be extremely vulnerable to an unseen and deadly weapon - the submarine. The Unterseeboot, or U-boat as it was known, had first come to prominence during the First World War, when unrestricted U-boat warfare had almost cost the Allies victory on land. But, by the outbreak of the Second World War, both sides had underestimated the impact such vessels could have on the conflict's outcome. Instead, fast and powerfully armed raiders - like the pocket battleship Graf Spee - were considered to be the main threat to merchant shipping, a threat which, despite losses, the Royal Navy was able to combat. At the start of the war the U-boat fleet numbered just 57 vessels, not all of which were operational at any one time, and their base of operations limited their range and effectiveness. Even so, their deadly potential became all too apparent when just six weeks after war was declared a U-boat penetrated the Royal Navy's main anchorage at Scapa Flow and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak with the loss of more than 830 lives.

HMS Royal Oak

By the summer of 1940 France and Norway had fallen and the growing U-boat menace began to pose a far greater threat to Britain's supply routes than Germany's surface fleet. U-boats could now operate from bases in occupied Europe which greatly extended their range, and, with the reintroduction of the convoy system for Allied merchant vessels, the Royal Navy had to provide escorts for increasingly long stretches of their journey, a task that began seriously to test the Navy's resources of ships and manpower.

During this period, British industry was struggling to replace the lost tonnage, while supplies of basic foods and vital raw materials dwindled significantly. Many goods were severely rationed and would continue to be so throughout the war. In human terms, the men of the Merchant Navy were suffering terrible losses and experienced crews were hard to replace.

Allied Tactics
The Royal Navy had to adapt quickly to this deadly foe and improved training for escort crews, better tactics, detection equipment and weapons - and new escort vessels like the Corvette - all helped to reduce Allied losses while inflicting heavier punishment on the U-boat squadrons. Equally, the emergence of Canada as a powerful ally in the war against the U-boats was a huge boost. Canada's navy had been very small at the start of the war but an amazing period of growth meant that Canadians were soon shouldering much of the burden in the north Atlantic. May 1941 witnessed one of the most significant events of the campaign. A British ship, HMS Bulldog, attacked and disabled U-110. In a strange twist of fate, this boat was commanded by the same officer who had fired the first torpedoes of the war, sinking the SS Athenia. The crew of the Bulldog managed to seize the boat's Enigma machine, a remarkable piece of equipment that decoded the commands and directions sent to the U-boats which they then used to co-ordinate their attacks against convoys. The capture of the Enigma was so valuable that it had to be kept top secret. The machine was passed to expert cryptographers at Station X Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom - who managed to use it to break the German naval codes. In so doing, convoys could be directed away from the U-boat wolfpacks. This code battle continued throughout the war.

Survivors from the SS Athenia are rescued by a passing ship. Many victims of U-boat attacks would not be so fortunate.

A convoy and her escort. Sailors maintain a constant lookout for U-boats.

The U-boat's effectiveness was honed further by the German air force's use of bases in France and Norway. Long range reconnaissance aircraft could now locate convoys and direct the U-boats to them, leading to the development of the "wolfpack" tactic, whereby a number of U-boats would gather and co-ordinate their attack against a convoy. The wolfpacks would usually attack at night and on the surface, overwhelming the escort ships and largely nullifying the one weapon the escorts had to detect submarines underwater ASDIC, an early form of sonar. By the end of 1940, three million tons of Allied shipping had been sunk. The U-boat crews called this "The Happy Time".

However, one major problem remained for the convoys: the mid-Altantic Gap. This was a vast area of ocean that could not be reached by Allied aircraft and within which the U-boats could operate at will. In an effort to provide the convoys with much needed air support, Catapult Armed Merchant vessels were developed. These were ordinary ships fitted with a rocket powered catapult, that could launch a single aircraft, usually a small fighter like the Hurricane. The major drawback with this weapon was that the pilot would have to ditch into the sea when his fuel ran out because there was nowhere to land!

HMS Sterling launches a depth charge attack.

Unknown Merchant Navy sailor

Halifax Memorial, Canada

This problem was overcome by building escort carriers. These vessels were much smaller than the Royal Navy's attack carriers and were initially manufactured using an older "donor" vessel, the flight deck essentially being constructed on top of the vessels original hull once any guns or superstructure had been removed. Escort carriers served throughout the war and made a valuable contribution, not only to the Battle of the Atlantic, but to many of the Allies other offensive operations.

The mid-Atlantic Gap was finally closed by using such vessels in conjunction with new long-range aircraft, which became available to the Allies in the second half of 1943. They were immediately effective in countering German reconnaissance aircraft, sinking or damaging many U-boats and forcing others to remain submerged.

weapons and aircraft meant that in both April and May of 1943 the Germans lost 45 U-boats. More than the loss of the vessels, Uboat crews were hard to train and replace, while the effect on morale was devastating. On the 23 May 1943 the U-boats were called off by the German Naval Command. The battle did not end there, but the threat had been greatly diminished. Victory in the Battle of the Atlantic paved the way for the invasion of mainland Europe in 1944 and the ultimate Allied victory.

A dramatic picture, taken from HMS Bulldog, showing the captured submarine U-110, from which the Allies secured a vital Enigma machine.

The Cost The Turning Point

Despite the many innovations being employed by the Allies, U-boats continued to inflict heavy losses on Allied shipping. The U-boats had a second Happy Time just after the United States of America joined the war in December 1941. Initially, the Americans were slow to learn from the experiences of the Commonwealth seamen and in the first few months of 1942 some 200 ships, mostly petrol tankers, were sunk off the United States' east coast. In June the U-boats sank more than 830,000 tons of shipping, the worst month of the war for the Allies, but in July American industrial might began to have a significant effect on the battle. July 1942 was the first month of the war that replacement shipping began to exceed losses. The turning point of the battle of the Atlantic came in May 1943. By this time there were some 200 operational U-boats but, with US production reaching its peak, even this formidable force could not sink enough ships to prevent supplies getting through. Victory for the Allies in the industrial battle coincided with unprecedented success against the U-boats. The new tactics, intelligence, At the end of the Second World War Winston Churchill, Britain's Prime Minister, wrote that "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril". With so much of the war effort resting on support and supplies from beyond Britain's shores, his fear was amply justified. In human terms the Battle of the Atlantic was a cruel and costly campaign that claimed a very high number of casualties on both sides. An estimated 80,000 Allied seamen were lost, while some 28,000 out of 41,000 U-boat crew perished.

A Sunderland flying boat of Coastal Command watches over a convoy.

The brave men of the Merchant Marine are remembered with honour at the Tower Hill Memorial in London.

While Commonwealth casualties from this campaign are buried in cemeteries and churchyards in many lands, the vast majority have no grave but the sea and are remembered on one of the Commission's memorials to the missing according to the service and the area of operations in which they died. Members of the Royal Navy who have no known grave are commemorated on one of the three principal naval memorials built by the Commission in the United Kingdom at the manning ports of Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham (each the subject of a separate information sheet). In addition, there are memorials at Lowestoft and Liverpool for members of the Royal Naval Patrol Service and members of the Merchant Navy who died as a result of enemy action while serving with

the Royal Navy. At Tower Hill in London there is a memorial (the subject of a separate information sheet) to those members of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets who died as a result of enemy action. In Canada, the Halifax Memorial commemorates the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve, the Canadian Merchant Navy, and merchant seamen from Newfoundland who died during the Second World War and have no grave but the sea. Members of the Fleet Air Arm are commemorated on their own memorial at Leeon-the-Solent and the names of airmen serving with Royal Air Force Coastal Command will be found on the panels of the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for marking and maintaining the graves of those members of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars, for building and maintaining memorials to the dead whose graves are unknown and for providing records and registers of these burials and commemorations, totalling 1.7 million and found in most countries throughout the world.
For further information contact: Commonwealth War Graves Commission 2 Marlow Road Maidenhead Berkshire SL6 7DX United Kingdom

Enquiries on location of individual burials or commemorations may be directed to the office below or through the Commission's Internet site at www.cwgc.org. The Commission is grateful to the Imperial War Museum for permission to reproduce photographs.

Tel: (01628) 507200 Fax: (01628) 771208 E-mail: casualty.enq@cwgc.org

Published by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2 Marlow Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 7DX, England. Tel: 01628 507200 Fax: 01628 771208 Web site: www.cwgc.org E-mail: casualty.enq@cwgc.org 04/03