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 that
really frightened me during the
war. If we had lost the battle
of the Atlantic there was
every 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 MidAtlantic 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?