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Essay On The Battle Of The Atlantic

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Importance of the Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of World War Two. Fought between the Allies, led by the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and the Axis, led by Nazi Germany, the battle would directly lead to the defeat of Nazi Germany. It was fought over millions of miles of ocean, between thousands of warships and millions of sailors, and the most crucial battle of the entire war. As Winston Churchill said in 1941, “Everything turns on the Battle of the Atlantic.”

In September of 1939, the battle would begin with the war. Germany would quickly overrun Poland, and in 1940, took over France and Norway. The Fall of France and Norway had a huge impact on the Battle of the Atlantic, which …show more content…

Merchant ships sunk went from 120 to 39, and 15 U-Boats would be lost. In total, Germany would lose 25% of their entire U-Boat fleet, leading their commander, Karl Donitz to declare “We have lost the Battle of the Atlantic.”

Although the battle would continue for 2 more years, Germany was never able to threaten Britain’s lifeline again. The last actions would take place on May 8th, the last day of the war. The battle lasted 5 years and 8 months; from September 3rd of 1939 until May 8th of 1945. The Canadian navy had grown from just 6 ships in 1939 to the third largest navy at the end of the war, behind only the Royal Navy and the US …show more content…

Involvement began in 1939 when Canada only had a small navy of 6 warships. Canada was forced to defend the entire Western part of the Atlantic while sending supplies through its merchant navy to the beleaguered United Kingdom and played a crucial role throughout the battle. Canada fought through all 5 years of the battle, and a Canadian, Rear Admiral Leonard W. Murray, would be the overall commander of all Allied troops in the Western Atlantic Theater, the only Canadian theatre commander of the war. The role of Canada in the Battle of the Atlantic was the most crucial role the country would play in any battle of the Second World War and established Canada as one of the major Allies and a key member of the Allied forces. By the end of the conflict, the Royal Canadian Navy was the third largest in the world, and had, as one of the major powers, fought and defeated Nazi Germany in the longest and most important battle of World War II.

The Battle of the Atlantic would also be extremely costly to both sides. Nazi Germany would lose over 800 warships, with ~30 000 sailors being lost. Over 75% of U-Boat crews died during the battle. The Allies would suffer even more casualties, losing 3 500 merchant vessels totalling an astonishing 21 million tons, as well as losing ~36 000 naval sailors and ~36 000 sailors of the merchant

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No submarines are to be included. Germany will pay for all the damages done to the civilian population and property of the Allied Governemnts.” The Germans also lost 13 percent of their land to the Allied Forces. This way a big part in Hitlers rise to power because it showed weakness in the current Gernman leadership. The people were tired of having to pay lots of money for mistakes by the government.

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Great Britain especially was hurt by the U-boats as Britain had relied on supplies from other nations in order to not only fight in the war, but also protect itself from a Nazi invasion. The German U-boats were effective because of the lack of proper armorment on shipping vessels moving to and from Great Britain and that the U-boats often hunted in wolf-packs, where multiple submarines would stay close together to hunt and sink specific targets. England was losing

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This is the longest battle in World War Two, from the beginning of the war till the end of the war. “Only by gaining control of the Atlantic could the Allies hope to transport across the seas the millions of troops and millions of tons of supplies needed to assault and liberate axis held empire” (Sarty, 4) . “To gain control of the North Atlantic to bring crucial supplies to Britain while German u-boats tried to stop this” (W.A.B. Douglas and Brian Dubreuil). To help gain control of the Atlantic the navy grew in size. At the beginning of the war “fewer than 3500 half were professional the rest were seamen who received a few weeks of training and ordinary citizens, students, business people, teachers who received some basic training one night per week for a week or two each summer”

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The first of these arrived on January 26, 1942 (“World War II in Europe”). On January 13, what is known as the Battle of the Atlantic began with German U-Boats attacking ships off the east coast of the United States (“Timeline of World War II”).

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Research shows that the loss was only temporary. The Germans planned to travel across the Meuse River, onto Antwerp, intending to trap the Allies within a week. They were to take the Allies’ fuel depots to keep their tanks going. However, the Allies started to fight back, hindering the Germans’ progress. Allied counter-attacks became so frequent to where the Germans failed to capture any oil, and barely made to the Meuse within the given time.

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The Germans focus all attacks mainly on the English Channel, and eventually, Hitler made the decision to go through with his plan called Operation Sea Lion and try to invade England. However, because of Canada and the Allies, the Germans did not invade Britain. They lost because, on September 15th, 1942 Germans launched 2 large aerial assaults both of which were defeated by the RAF/RCAF. Over 80 Luftwaffe planes were destroyed (March, N. pag)! After realizing that they were losing badly the Germans made the decision to forever postpone Operation Sea Lion and give up on trying to invade England, so Germany didn’t end up invading England.

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The Battle of Britain had taken place over the skies of Great Britain in the summer of 1940. Being part of the Allied forces fighting against Nazi Germany ruled by the dictator Adolf Hitler, Great Britain had to face a serious obstacle. The German’s successful blitzkrieg tactics over the continental Europe from 1939 to 1940 stunned the Allied forces, which contributed to their early victories during the initial part of the war. The Nazi Germany soon defeated and occupied much of France in 1940, Britain’s only allies in Europe. History.com quoted that after the fall of France, “Britain now stood alone against the power of Germany’s military forces…” (History.com, 2017).

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Japanese Imperial Navy only had a rough estimate of 21,000 men. Japan was outnumbered by many, many soldiers. Japan lost around 20,000 of their men, which was almost their whole army (Andrews). Americans had around 5,900 people killed and 17,400 wounded (Cowley). This was the only battle in which the United States Marine Corps had more casualties than Japan (10).

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Based on the measures taken by Churchill regarding the French Fleet and Franco-German armistice, he pursued the issue aggressively, and it made sense from a military standpoint. From the perspective Churchill, the possibility of Germany having possession of the fleet presented a danger to the Royal Navy. Although the Royal Navy held the title as the largest and most powerful navy in 1940, there were vulnerabilities that the enemy could exploit.9 The Royal Navy suffered significant damage in previous military operations, particularly at the Battle of Dunkirk, the Norwegian campaign, and the North Atlantic convoy duty.10 Some of Britain’s bigger ships were also spread out in order to guard against German service raiders.11 Additional factors

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https://za.pinterest.com/pin/477803841701945016/ https://www.thinglink.com/scene/756634879264817154 info http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-britain http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/battle_of_britain.php https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Britain-European-history-1940 Battle of Britain tactics In order to invade Britain, the Germans had to have control in the air over the English Channel, otherwise the RAF and the Royal Navy would have been able to destroy their invasion force before it reached the shore. It has been postulated by many naval experts that due to the type of flat-bottomed barge built by the Germans, simply

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This is also known as the battle of the Bulge. The battle consisted of the loss of about 200,000 soldiers total. Eventually this led to the victory of the Allied forces. Without this siege the Axis powers may have eventually won World War II. Later on the United States plots a plan after s attack on Pearl Harbor.

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World War II and the Battle for Britain On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler initiated World War II within Europe, leading the Nazi-German army with the invasion of Poland. Prior to the invasion, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, signed the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact. Two days afterwards on September 3rd, France and England declared war against the Nazi’s. The German-Soviet Pact would allow the Nazi’s to invade Poland and attack the rest of Europe without interdiction from the Soviet Union’s army.

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The Germans also had lost one of its good ships and almost lost two other good ships. “Both fleets clashed again as the Germans sailed for port. The German ship “Lutzow” was sunk. “Seydlitz” and “Derfflinger” were badly damaged” (History Learning Site). After the war had finished and both teams were claiming victories from their perspective of view.

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It is also known as The Blitz or the London Blitz. This battle is a great example of perseverance, as many major cities in Britain were brutally bombed nightly for months (Trueman, C N). Britain used RADAR to detect these bombers and other enemy aircraft (Trueman, C N). In order for Germany to take Britain, they needed control of the English Channel so the navy couldn’t stop their ships before invading (Trueman C N). However, they never got that far because the Germans underestimated the stubbornness of the British and their refusal to give up their

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While on the other hand the Allied Forces had powerful allies such as the USA which could contribute greater resources of men and materials. Furthermore, the British had put in place a Naval Blockade prevent the passing of cargo of any ships that attempted to pass through, this was very effective and starved much of Germany’s population. Lastly, Germany’s two front with Russia greatly weakened German forces and had larger repercussions later on. Although these are all important causes, the most factor that

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