Battle Of The Atlantic Research Paper

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest maritime operation of WWII, lasting 6 years, spanning from the declaration of war on the 3rd September 1939 until the Germans eventually surrendered in 1945 . The German Navy was completely outclassed and comprehensively outnumbered by the Royal Navy and its allies, therefore a conventional battle would not be sustainable. The German Navy therefore resorted to an unconventional tactic for the time by deploying packs of hunter submarines into the Atlantic Ocean, which provided a physical and psychological blockade around the British Isles. Their aim was to prevent vital stores from reaching their destination and therefore limiting the allies’ war effort.
This essay will investigate whether the Royal Navy was prepared for the Battle of the Atlantic. It will look at each navy’s starting position and the run up to the announcement of war. It will then detail the Royal Navy’s opinion of the German Navy and how this affected the allies’ tactics whilst crossing the Atlantic. Finally it will detail a change in the tactics utilised by the …show more content…
The policy of appeasement was sought by the then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in response to the rise of Adolf Hitler, his Nazi Party and their advancement in Europe . Secretly however the nation prepared for war . The Kreigsmarine had slightly grown during the German naval rearmament in the 1930’s but due to the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935, the German Navy were limited to 35% of the total tonnage of the Royal Navy. In January 1939 Adolf Hitler ordered Plan Z; which was his way of overruling the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and directed the Kreigsmarine to challenge the Royal Navy’s surface fleet in strength and power. Luckily the order was rescinded early, just after the outbreak of the war, to concentrate on the production of German U-boats