Question:

I would like a paper on how the battle for the Atlantic won the war in Europe for the Allied powers in World War II.

Answer:

The Battle of the Atlantic

Introduction

The name ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ was brought forward by Winston Churchill in 1941 to refer to a key campaign that was part of the World War II. The battle of Atlantic was one of the largest, longest as well as the most complex naval battles in the history of war, beginning on September 3, 1939, and continuing till May 8, 1945. The fighting on and under the water was crucial to both sides of the battle, and would ultimately determine the war outcome since the control of Atlantic Ocean was very essential for Great Britain. During this war Great Britain required constant supplies of food and other raw materials from around the world, which were imported using vulnerable ships.  Winston Churchill noted that the battle of Atlantic held the first place in the mind of those who were tasked with the responsibility of achieving victory.

For Great Britain to wage a successful war against any of its enemies, it needed a steady importation of materials without which it could not expect victory in the European arena. Moreover, Australian and Canadian troops would be required to be transported to Europe to reinforce the British armed forces.  The Britain’s success in the war would translate to regular and secure passage of ships carrying essential war supplies across the Atlantic Ocean. These supplies would be used to wage an offensive against the Axis powers (Budiansky 2000, p. 64)[1]. This paper explores the beginning of the World War II, the different war-related activities that took place during the Battle of the Atlantic, the roles played by various allied powers in the battle, the instruments used, and the way this battle finally ended.

The beginning of the war

The Battle of Atlantic began when the Germans invaded Poland on 1^st September 1939 and eventually came to an end in Europe after Germany losing and surrendering on 7^th May 1945. Germany, in combined efforts with Italy and Japan, constituted the Axis powers, and they were fighting against Great Britain and France and later on the United States and the Soviet Union, altogether known as Allied powers. The devastation and destruction caused by the Battle of Atlantic were great. It has been very difficult to quantify how many people lost their life during the war.  It is merely approximated that between 30 and 35 million people perished in Europe while about 55 million people lost their lives all over the world. This includes six million Jews who were murdered in the holocaust (Gardner, 1999, p.152)[2].

The Battle of Atlantic resulted from Nazi’s desire to control the Europe and the need to establish dominance of the Germanic-Nordic Aryans. The Nazi ideals of racial anti-Semitism and Lebensraum which meant the need for more living space for the German people were closely related. Despite the fact that Nazis did not have a functional plans aimed at total annihilation of the all Jewish people before 1941, the idea of the holocaust was basically contained in the ideology of Nazi (Stafford, 1997, p. 78)[3].

Soon after rising to national power in Germany in 1933, Adolf Hitler was determined to resuscitate the German economy, consolidate German army for war and acquire territory. He formed an alliance with Italy, Japan and other countries. When he took over the control of Czechoslovakia in early 1939, most of the world came to realize that this would not go for long before a war broke out. In late 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union shocked the world by signing a non-agreement known as the Nazi –Soviet Pact; this was due to the fact that formally, they were enemies (Erksine, 1977, p. 20)[4].

General war activities between 1939 and 1945

On 1^st September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.  Several days later France and Great Britain whose government had promised to protect Poland, declared war against Germany. The two countries however never sent troops to Poland therefore Germany and Soviet Union out of greed divided up the newly acquired Poland territories according to the stipulated pact.

1940

It was not until April 1940 when Nazi made their next move which involved the invasion of several Western European countries. The German troops invaded Denmark and Norway on 9^th April; Denmark surrendered almost instantly while Norway resisted for a while though did not hold for long. On 10^th May the Germans went further and invaded the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Belgium using the Blitzkrieg strategy of war. The Netherlands was conquered in five days while Belgium surrendered on 28^th May. At the battle of Dunkirk in Northern France, about 350,000 Allied troops, French, Belgian and British managed to evacuate but France fell to Germany.  Paris was taken into control by the Germans on 14^th June and a new government headed by World War I hero Marshal Philippe Petain was formed to negotiate a French surrender. Italy in turn had officially joined the war on 10^th June and henceforth worked together with Germany. France then signed armistice agreement with Italy on 24^th June and with Germany on 22^nd June. This resulted to France being divided up, whereby its Northern part was occupied by the Germans while a large part of its southern region was controlled by French administration based in the spa town of Vichy. Italian authorities also took a small section in the south. Generally by the end of June 1940, Germany together with its partners dominated Europe (Harper 1999, p. 155)[5].

Soviet Union, in the meantime, entered the Baltic States including, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.  By the end of June Soviet Union had occupied North Bukovina and Bessarabia. Germany, in august 1940, mediated between Romania and Hungary and as a result Germany gave out northern Transylvania to Hungary thus gaining its support.  In October 1940, Italy tried to attack Greece from Albania although it did not succeed as expected.

Germans had basically planned to take control of their major opponent Britain and end the war in early 1940 but due to growing technical difficulties, the date kept being pushed further. The British Loyal Air Force totally hindered the German Air Force from carrying out its operation and so it changed its tactics to include bombing of British cities to kill the citizens’ morale.These assaults later came to be known as Blitz. However, contrary to the German expectations, this strategy did not work. By the beginning of 1941 it was unclear who could beat the other between Germany and British.

In the meantime, Egypt which was under the British control, got invaded by Italy in September 1940. The Italians eventually failed to conquer, and to make things worse, it was put under attack by the British. Germany responded by sending troops to North Africa, where war occurred for almost two years.

1941

In early 1941 the British hand an advantage after gaining control of Cyrenaica in Libya but later this changed when the German force entered the scene. Meanwhile in Iraq, the British took control of Baghdad at the end of May 1941. This resulted in the end of the anti-Jewish program that had been ignited there.

Meanwhile, in Europe at the end of 1940, Hitler had begun planning how he would attack the Soviet Union, one of his allies, which was part of his ideological desire to obtain more space for Germany. An order by Hitler was issued out in March 1941 called “Kommissarbefehl” which called for the killing of communists as well as every political officer of Soviet armed forces.

In early 1941, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Romania officially joined the Axis alliance although the Yugoslav government was later overthrown by anti-Nazi military group. As a result Germany invaded Greece and Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia the aim was to overthrow the anti-German government while in Greece the German objective was to help the Italian forces who were carrying out operations in their fight against British. After postponing the attack several times, in June 1941 Germany finally launched its surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. The German forces consisted of three million men, including Romania, Hungarian and Finnish units. In spite of brave resistance in few areas, millions of soviet soldiers were soon killed. In July the German force freely overran Baltic States where the local population actively assisted the Germans. The Germans, move in towards the south and into Ukraine in early September and conquered Kiev and then Kharkov and Odessa in late October.  In November they also attacked and conquered the Crimea and then laid siege to the city of Sevastopol in Crimea in mid-November. Key German attacks brought them to Smolensk and Minsk. Both in the Briansk-Viazma region and Ukraine, Soviet armies were greatly defeated and most of the soldiers were captured and taken prisoners. Germans further continued their advance on Moscow and by late December 1941, they had almost reached Russian capital, Moscow. However, it is at that point when a turnaround occurred; in early December, the Soviet forcefully launched a counteroffensive and pushed German forces back way from Moscow.  Germans were not confident as before and hence were forced to keep fighting the bitter Russians throughout the winter (Hinsley, 1993, p. 213)[6].

1942

At the beginning of 1942, the Germans tried to rekindle their offensive. By conquering the Don River basin, they managed to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad, a strategically essential city from their stand point. In September they went beyond Crimean Peninsula and later occupied the Caucasian oil fields.  Around mid-September the German forces had fully penetrated Stalingrad and the Soviet troops held onto the war desperately. In the following month the Soviet forces renewed their counter-offensive operations and closed in on 22 German divisions that comprised of 300,000 soldiers.

In June 1942 a turning point occurred on the pacific front occurred when the Japanese were defeated by US in the battle for the control of the Island of Midway.  In August, the American troops later landed on the Solomon Island. In the following month, a Japanese fleet was defeated although it finally cost the lives of many soldiers on both sides.

1943

In January 1943, the Soviet offensive that occupied Leningrad relieved the city from a year and a half of German siege. On February 1943 the German army involved in fighting in Stalingrad finally surrendered to the Soviet Forces. Some 91,000 German soldiers were captured and taken prisoners.

Despite the mutual distrust, the Americans, Soviets and British agreed to operate together against the German forces. Initially, Americans had intended to aid the Soviets and British with war materials. According to the Lend-Lease Act which was approved by the US congress, the Soviet Union thus became the beneficiary of the massive American assistance.  On December 1941, the Japanese forces attacked the US naval base located at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii which resulted to massive losses of life and even equipments.  At this point the US was almost powerless to protect the Wake islands and Guam, both of which fell to the Japanese on mid-December. The Japanese later invaded Philippines in late December and had conquered them by May 1942. The British, in December 1941, Surrendered to the Japanese in Hong Kong and in January of the following year the Japanese invaded and conquered the Netherlands and East Indies. The other activities that followed included overrunning of Malaysia, the fall of Singapore in mid-February and the teaming up of Thailand with Japan (Roberts, 2008, p. 11)[7]. In March the same year the Japanese went further and conquered Burma. They also threatened to invade India but were stopped by the British. Furthermore, the Allies who mainly included Australians and New Zealanders halted the Japanese advance in New Guinea where some 100,000 tons of materials that belonged to Japan was sunk in what is known to be Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 (Keegan, 1989, p. 203)[8].

In July 1943, the Allied forces led by the General Dwight D. Eisenhower invaded Sicily in Southern Italy. This led to the resignation and later imprisonment in July of Benito Mussolini the fall of the military government. Later, the Germans released Mussolini and established a Fascist government in northern Italy. While the Allies liberated Florence in mid-August and Rome in early June 1944, the Germans took control of the northern Italy until April 1945 (Kahn, 1980, p. 639)[9].

1944

Throughout 1943, the soviet liberated most of the Ukraine and by the beginning of 1944 much of Poland was liberated. As a tactic to advance southwards, the Allied caused the king of Romania to change his loyalty and thus overthrow the pro-Nazi dictator called Antonescu. Later in August, Romania joined the Allied Powers and thus joined the fight against German forces. On early September the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria. Bulgaria surrendered later and with ease the soviets took control of Sofia, the capital in mid-September. In March 1944 Hungary, one of the German allies, attempted to make peace with the Allied powers but Germany invaded it, appointing a pro-German government which collaborated well in the deportation of the county’s Jews. In October Hungary tried again to make an arrangement for peace agreement with the Allied powers but Germany responded by overthrowing the Horthy’s government and establishing an anti-Semitic and fascist government that would collaborate under the Arrow  Cross Party. During this period many remnants of the Hungarian Jewish community were killed.

However, the British and the American air forces collaborated to strategically bomb their enemy, German. The Americans mostly focused on daytime bombings of industrial and military targets while the British destroyed German cities at might. It was not until 1944 that the Allied air forces carried out their operations more effectively and achieved complete air supremacy.   By June the Allied forces gained more confidence and were ready for a major offensive. June 6, 1944, became known as D-Day, the day when 250,000 allied soldiers went to the shores of Normandy in northwestern France (Kahn, 1991, p. 231). By the end of July, American soldiers had broken through the German defense line. By the end of August they had managed to liberate France. At this time the Allied forces were fully poised to defeat Germany.

1945

In mid-January 1945 the Soviet Union started a powerful offensive, five days later it overran Warsaw. In 1945 the last offensive was launched both in the west and in the east. Allied forces made their way through Germany.  Due to much pressure, the Germans surrendered on May 7 and the following day was proclaimed as a victory day for Europe.  After bitter battles that cost many American lives, the US government decided to terminate the war once and for all (Kahn 1991, p. 631)[10]. This was done by dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima where more than 80,000 lives were lost. Three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. This made Japan to finally surrender on August 11 1945. Victory in Japan was officially celebrated on August 15, 1945. The war ended with the formal signing of the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945 (Keegan, 1989, p. 78).

The Battle of the Atlantic

At the core of the Battle of the Atlantic was the Allied naval ‘blockade of Germany’. This occurred one day after the declaration of war, followed by Germany’s counter – blockade. This situation existed from mid-1940 to the end of 1943. This Battle involved U-boats and other warships belonging to ‘kriegmarine’ (German navy) and the Luftwaffe’s aircraft (German Air Force). Most of the convoys mostly came from North America and most often headed to the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. They were protected by Canadian and British navies and air forces. These forces were aided by the aircrafts and ships of the United States since September 13^th 1941. The Germans were later joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy after their Axis ally Italy later joined war on 10^th June 1940.

The battle of the Atlantic was basically a tonnage war where the Allied forces struggled in all ways to supply Britain and the Axis powers made all efforts to stop the continuous flow of merchant shipping. This situation forced the British to push on with war efforts (Kahn, 1991, p. 81).  In 1939, the Germany Navy did not have the strength to challenge the combined efforts of French Navy and British Royal navy for command of the. The strategy of the German naval force relied on commerce-related raiding by the use of armed merchant cruisers, capital ships, aircrafts and submarines. During this period many German warships were fully prepared at the sea when war was declared. This included the U-boats and pocket battleships which had been moved into the Atlantic Ocean in August. These ships occasionally attacked French and British shipping lines. The linear ‘SS Athenia’ was sunk by U-30 just within hours of the declaration of war which was contrary to the orders given orders not to sink passenger ships. The U-boat fleet, which greatly determined the outcome of the war, was initially smaller though very useful, especially in mine-laying and other light operations in the British coastal waters. Most the initial German anti-shipping operations involved mane-laying by U-boats, aircraft and destroyers off British ports (Keegan, 1989, p. 98).

With the emergence of war, the French and the British immediately started a blockade of Germany though this had very little immediate effect on the German industry.  As a response the Loyal Navy quickly introduced a convoy system with an aim of protecting the trade that slowly extended to the entire Britain. This led to Loyal Navy to form anti-submarine groups which were based on aircraft carriers to carry out patrol in the shipping lanes particularly in the Western Approaches with an aim of hunting German U-boats. This approach seemed rational since U-boats had tiny silhouette which enabled it spot the surface warships with ease and also would submerge before being seen by the opponents. The carrier aircrafts did not help much; although they could spot submarine on the water surface, they had no adequate weapons to attack them. The escort destroyers hunting for the U-boats continued to carry on but later the British came to realize that the anti-submarine strategy was misguided since U-boats always proved exclusive, and the on- board conveys, denuded of cover, just added more risk (Morison,1956, p. 217)[11].

The Canadian role in the battle of the Atlantic

At the beginning of the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) consisted of seven ships and six destroyers. This small fleet was supported and operated by 1,900 men and an equal number in the Navel Reserve soldiers. At first the small fleet could not do more than patrolling the coast. In 1940, a modest naval expansion saw new ships ordered although the hurry to put those ships into the sea demanded heavy training. The fall of Europe in 1940 saw much commitment on RNC to Britain’s convoys.

When the Germans started using U-boats and wolf parks in attacking the convoys in the mid-Atlantic, Canada began providing convoy escort between Britain and the Newfoundland. The small ships built for coastal waters and even with unqualified crews were terribly attacked under harsh weather conditions by their enemies. The men and ships were pushed beyond their defense thus making the success rates against the U-boat not very encouraging.

In early 1943, Britain withdrew the Canadian mid-oceans group which was badly battered and replaced it with the better-equipped and modern Royal Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) troops to fight the wolf parks.  This ended with a great success and eventually the submarines were withdrawn from the mid-Atlantic. Although this was just a turning point in the war, Germany still had some 200 U-boats still available, as well as new tactics and equipment, which continued being used to attack Allied shipping lanes.

With the Allied forces pushing to build up more supplies in Britain to invade Normandy, RCN took a critical role in escorting convoys. It also made a significant contribution to the actual invasion. Despite the fact that U-boats had little success in attacking the fleets, they continued to invade the shipping lanes in Canadian and Britain coastal waters. This made Canadian fleets to become heavily engaged. They engaged in Newfoundland Canadian home waters, where they had to protect the strategically-essential transatlantic convoys (Padfield 1995, p. 218)[12].

The Italian role in the Battle of Atlantic

The Germans receive assistance from their allies. From early August 1940, a flotilla of 27 submarines from Italy carried out operations from the Batasom base, where they attacked Allied shipping lanes across the Atlantic. The Italian submarines, developed for fleet operations in the Mediterranean, were not well designed to suit the Atlantic conditions unlike the German U-boats. Despite this fact, the 32 submarines that carried out operations managed to sink 109 ships weighing some 593,864 tons. The Italians also succeeded in their use of human torpedo chariots to disable several British ships in Gibraltar. Although the Italians had these successes, their interventions were not positively regarded by Donitz (Pitt, 1977, p. 124)[13].

USA in the Battle of the Atlantic

The attack on Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war on the US had an instant effect on the campaign.  However, Donitz quickly arranged to attack the shipping lane off the East coast of America. The U.S did not have a direct experience on modern naval war and its shores totally lacked defense. The U-boats simply came and comfortably picked out ships that were clearly silhouetted against the sky. The British agreed to build coastal escorts and give them to the U.S. The first U-boats reached U.S. waters at the beginning of January 1942 and by the time they left, 156939 tones of shipping content had been sunk without any loss. U.S had been given various types of U-boats including Type IXs, Type IXs, and Type VIIs, which were supported by Type XIV (Padfield, 1995, p. 218).

Statistics

For both parties, the number of casualties was not easy to establish during Battle of the Atlantic; the number still remains controversial due to the incompleteness of the information acquired. In spite of the controversial figures, some general statistics are important since they illustrate the intensity of the battle. Throughout the war, some estimated 630 U-boats got lost at sea to allied action, 42 percent of which were sunk by ships, 40 percent by aircraft, and 6 percent by combined action. Three were captured by the allied forces while another 120 u-boats were lost through mines and bombing. Some 153 u-boats were captured through surrender and 215 were obtained at the end of war. Germany made more than 1,000 U-boats during the war and lost about 764 through allied action.

On their part, the allies lost an estimate of 2750 merchant ships and more than 40,000 seamen. By the end of the battle the allies had lost approximately 175 warships of all kinds. The RCN lost about 24 warships during the war, 14 got sunk by the u-boats and about 2,000 RNC members lost their lives in the battle of Atlantic. The RNC escorted about 25,000 merchant ships and destroyed 31 U-boats. By the time war came to an end, RNC had expanded to a extent that it had nearly 100,000 men and women, as well as 270 ships which contributed significantly in efforts of the allied forces (Chuck, 1985, p. 101).

Instruments used in the Battle of the Atlantic

Germany began the war with just 45 operational u-boats and soon afterwards built 9 more. Among the operational u-boats, 29 included the long-range types VII and IX while the others were small-sized coastal marines that were used in Baltic and North Seas. It was not until the last hunt of the Bismarck in May 1941 that surface raiders basically posed a great threat although they rarely attacked Canadian soldiers. Admiral Donitz’s aim was to hijack Allied shipping lines and foreclose the Americans from closing the Atlantic Ocean. This looked easier said than done due to the fact that although the Navies from the Allied powers had neglected ASW throughout the inter-war period, they hurriedly gained proficiency. At the beginning, the u-boats carried out their operations independently against the convoys, which successfully switched in 1941 into wolf parks.

Concerted efforts by the Allied forces, with aid of the new tactics, equipment and the tactical advantage gained from the crashed Germany signal code, lastly turned the tide. Meanwhile, the rapidly increasing number of u-boats facilitated the war against allied ships, waged in the waters of North America. This was done with considerable freedom until the time when Americans began serious hunter-killer operations. At this time the u-boats continued to roam about Newfoundland and Canadian waters for the better part of 1942, destroying about 70 vessels which included 21vessels in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The critical point of the operations by the u-boats remained the Atlantic, particularly when the allies begun to prepare forces in Britain. By mid and late 1943, the technological and industrial developments begun to gain pace and strength, coupled with a reduction in the number of ships lost. The Allied powers were building merchant ships at a greater rate than the Germans could sink them. The sea-air cooperation of the allied began being a hindrance to the operations of the u-boats. When the German industry started being overwhelmed and failed to keep pace with the great losses of its U-boats, the course of the war changed completely (Syrett, 2002, p. 211)[14]. The battle of the Atlantic was coming to an end.

The final years of Battle of the Atlantic

Germany had made several trials to upgrade the force of the U-boats while still waiting for the new-generation U-boats, which included the Elekroboot and Walter. However, the upgrades improved the aircraft defense, and better torpedoes and radar detectors were introduced. They enabled U-boats to run under water off their fuel engines. The response to the offensive in early September 1943, in the northern part of Atlantic saw initial success but was later followed by more losses and fewer victories; eight large ships and six war ships had to be sunk following the loss of 39 U-boats. The German Air Force also introduced the long-range bomber and the guided glider bomb, which basically claimed a higher number of lives although the Allied air superiority stopped them from being a major threat (White, 2002, p. 188)[15].

To cope up with Allied air power, Axis allies advanced the anti-aircraft armament of the U-boats, and developed special equipments that enabled easier ways of attacking planes.  Despite the advancement, diving remained the best chance to survival from a U-boat whenever there was an encounter with aircraft. As per German sources, only six aircrafts were successfully shot down by U-boats in six missions. This showed that the technology applied was not appropriate for countering the Allied air forces.

The Germans tried to make advancements on their torpedoes such that they could operate under specified programs which would enable them locate their enemies with ease, but the Allied powers immediately developed counter-measures, both technical and tactical. All measures by Germans were ineffective and by 1943, Allied air strength was so strong to an extent that U-boats were being attacked in the Bay of Biscay immediately after leaving port. Basically the Germans had technically lost the race. They thus did not have any other choice but to use lone-wolf equipment to attack British coastal waters and to prepare to protect France from being invaded.

On the two years that followed, a lot of U-boats were sunk through combined Allied efforts. As the allied armies entered North Germany and into the U-boat bases, more than 200 boats were scuttled in an effort to avoid capture. An attempt was made to flee those of high value into Norway, though 23 boats were sunk while attempting this journey. The last actions of Battle of the Atlantic occurred on May 6, 1945 which included sinking of SS Black Point and destruction of U-881 and U-853 in different incidents. The remaining U-boats either at the port or sea, 174 in total were surrendered to the Allied forces. With the Allied powers winning the battle, continuous supplies got into North Africa and Britain for eventual liberation of Europe (White, 2006, p.189).

Conclusion

In summary, the Allied forces won the battle of the Atlantic in a convincing style. The allied forces demonstrated superiority on all fronts beginning from equipment, industrial production of intelligence, to command and control as well as operational research. This was not so easy since it took nearly four years to reach the end. At the end, Britain stopped to be a fortress under siege; instead it became the European assembly area for the great liberation.  For British, Canadian and American naval and marine air forces, the wait for signs of victory lasted until May 1943 when the fight against Admiral Donitz’s submarine wolf parks started. It would take some two years before these wolf parks were defeated.

The Allied strategy of war tended to envisage a two-phase attack on Germany. This strategy, which revolved on attacking the u-boats and then rendering them ineffective, work out well for the Allied forces. The success of the Battle of the Atlantic was based team effort. Significant contributions were also made by the Allied airmen and Sailors, North American industrial capacity as well as the efforts of many mathematicians and scientists who cracked the Germany codes and further invented new, more sophisticated weapons. 

References

Budiansky, Stephen. Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Code-breaking in World War II, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Erksine, Ralph. Afterword to Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre 1939-1945, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1977.

Gardner, Walter. Decoding History: The Battle of the Atlantic and Ultra. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999.

Harper, Stephen. Capturing Enigma: How HMS Petard Seized the German Naval Codes, Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 1999.

Hinsley, Fredrick. British Intelligence in the Second World War, New York: Syndicate of Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Kahn, David. “Codebreaking in World Wars I and II: The Major Successes and Failures, Their Causes, and Their Effects.” The Historical Journal 23, no. 3 (1991): 617-639.

Kahn, David. Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes 1939-1943. New York: Barnes & Nobel Books, 1980.

Keegan, John. The Second World War, New York: Penguin Books, 1989.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Atlantic Battle Won: May 1943-May 1945. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956.

Padfield, Peter. War Beneath the Sea: Submarine Conflict During World War II. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

Pitt, Barrie. The Battle of the Atlantic, Alexandria: Life-Time Inc., 1977.

Roberts, Chuck. Battle of the Atlantic: Allied Communication Intelligence December 1942 -May 1945, HyperWar Foundation. http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Ultra/SRH-009/index.html (accessed July 2, 2008).

Stafford, David. Churchill and Secret Service. New York: The Overlook Press, 1997.

Syrett, David, ed. The Battle of the Atlantic and Signals Intelligence: U-Boat Tracking Papers, 1941-1947. Aldershot:Ashgate, 2002.

White, David Fairbank. Bitter Ocean: The Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1945. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006.

[1] Stephen Budiansky. Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

 

[2] Stephen Harper. Capturing Enigma: How HMS Petard Seized the German Naval Codes, Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 1999.

[3] David Stafford. Churchill and Secret Service, New York: The Overlook Press, 1997.

 

[4] Ralph Erksine. Afterword to Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre 1939-1945, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1977.

[5] Harper, Stephen. Capturing Enigma: How HMS Petard Seized the German Naval Codes, Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 1999.

[6] Fredrick Hinsley. British Intelligence in the Second World War, New York: Syndicate of Cambridge University Press, 1993.

[7] Chuck Roberts. Battle of the Atlantic: Allied Communication Intelligence December 1942 -May 1945, HyperWar Foundation.

[8] John Keegan. The Second World War, New York: Penguin Books, 1989.

[9] David Kahn. Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes 1939-1943, New York: Barnes & Nobel Books, 1980.

[10] David Kahn. “Codebreaking in World Wars I and II: The Major Successes and Failures, Their Causes, and Their Effects.” The Historical Journal 23, no. 3 (1991): 617-639.

[11] Samuel Morison. The Atlantic Battle Won: May 1943-May 1945. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956.

[12] Peter Padfield. War Beneath the Sea: Submarine Conflict During World War II. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

[13] Barrie Pitt. The Battle of the Atlantic, Alexandria: Life-Time Inc., 1977.

[14] David Syrett. (ed). The Battle of the Atlantic and Signals Intelligence: U-Boat Tracking Papers, 1941-1947. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.

[15]David White. Fairbank. Bitter Ocean: The Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1945. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006.