Battle of the Atlantic

[NavyKitty]

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign[4][5] in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and mainly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States from September 13, 1941.[6] The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) after their Axis ally Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940.

As an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a tonnage war: the Allied struggle to supply Britain and the Axis attempt to stem the flow of merchant shipping which enabled Britain to keep fighting. From 1942 onwards, the Germans also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the British Isles in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. The defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Germans. Winston Churchill was later to state:[7] The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome.

The outcome of the battle was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of 783 U-boats.

The name "Battle of the Atlantic" was coined by Winston Churchill in February 1941.[8] It has been called the "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history.[9] The campaign began immediately after the European war began and lasted six years. It involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theatre covering thousands of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage, as new weapons, tactics, counter-measures, and equipment were developed by both sides. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses to U-boats continued to war's end.

 

NOTE: The Royal Canadian Navy had the 3rd largest navy in all of WWII and if it wasn't for Canada's support the UK's defence would have faltered.

[Windhover118]

If you are going to do a direct copy and paste from wikipedia then atleast remove the end notes. We appreciate the effort but take some pride in your post, put your own personal flare on the story. Nice video though. Good find.

[Snakehead1234]

Meh Canada had a borrowed navy from the UK. Their navy may have been large but it did't mean its warships were large. We had several people here request a Canadian tech tree without first researching the actual ships they operated in WWII. Little did they know that the biggest things the Canadians had was heavy cruisers which are British. So they will be in the British tech tree anyways.

[NavyKitty]

I understand my error for copying pasting the wiki article, but what about they're destroyers and cruisers?

 

surely the HMCS Athabaskan was a Canadian built ship

[Crag_r]

Mclovin602, on 26 March 2013 - 10:21 AM, said:

surely the HMCS Athabaskan was a Canadian built ship

Depends on which ship of that name we are talking about, one of the Tribal class destroyers were built in the UK, the other tribal was built in Halifax with the Iroquois-class destroyer there as well. Both the Tribal designs were a direct British version anyway.

[NavyKitty]

Crag_r, on 26 March 2013 - 11:20 AM, said:

Depends on which ship of that name we are talking about, one of the Tribal class destroyers were built in the UK, the other tribal was built in Halifax with the Iroquois-class destroyer there as well. Both the Tribal designs were a direct British version anyway.

I meant the one commissioned in 1945 saw service in the Korean war was doubly named "train buster" for destroying enemy supply trains during the Korean war, then later was decommissioned in 1969

i did some home work, and i understand most of Canada's Navy was built by UK or US, but the flower class corvette was built in Canada and was the main escort for the merchant convoys that help carry over 100,000,000 tons of supplies during WWII.

Small little known fact that the corvettes had to "Earn" their guns, by the time they arrived to Britain intact they would have the ability to mount a gun on their ships, most of the ships during their first passage across the Atlantic had painted black wooden guns

where i got that was from a veteran from the HMCS Sackville the last commissioned flower-class corvette serving now as a floating museum.