The Allied Air Campaign Against Hitler's U-boats

The Allied Air Campaign Against Hitler's U-boats written by

Timothy S. Good and published by Frontline Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 256

No weapon platform sank more U-boats in the Second World War than the Allied aircraft.

Whether it was an American plane operating from American escort carriers, US aircraft

from Royal Air Force bases, or British aircraft from bases throughout the world, these

officers and men became the most decisive factor in turning the tide of the Battle of the

Atlantic against the German submarine threat. While the German crews could threaten

escort vessels with torpedoes, or avoid them by remaining submerged, their leaders

never developed an effective strategy against aircraft.

However, the Allied aircraft did not enjoy much early success. British, Canadian and Australian air crews that fought the U-boats from 1939 until 1941 achieved few triumphs. They possessed neither the aircraft nor the bases necessary to deliver consistent lethal attacks against German submarines.

In 1941, the Royal Air Force finally began implementing an effective aircraft response when it initiated training on the American-built Consolidated B-24 Liberators. Supported by other types then in service, these four-engine bombers would prove to be decisive. With America’s entry into the war, the United States Navy and the United States Army Air Forces also began employing Liberators against the U-boats so that by mid-1943, the Admiral Karl Dönitz, commander of U-boat forces, withdrew his submarines from the North Atlantic in recognition of the Allied aircraft’s new dominance.

From Dönitz’s retreat to the end of the war, Allied aircraft continued to dominate the U-boat battle as it shifted to other areas including the Bay of Biscay. Dönitz eventually ordered his U-boats to remain on the surface and engage Allied aircraft as opposed to submerging. This approach did lead to the demise of some Allied aircraft, but it also resulted in even more U-boat being sunk. Most critically, Dönitz acknowledged with his new policy that he knew of no tactics or weapons that would defend his submarines from Allied aircraft. In the end, it was a matter of choosing whether his submariners would die submerged or die surfaced. Either way, Allied aircraft prevailed.

This book The Allied Air Campaign Against Hitler’s U-Boats was a book I was quite interested to read, mainly because its not a subject I have read too many books about. But this book can certainly be said to be a very comprehensive book full of much detail and knowledge, the author Timothy S. Good certainly knows quite a bit about this subject. The book was written in chronological order and we learn a lot about the planes, communications, various operations and fighting between the two sides and the locations of war in the Atlantic. The only downside I found really to the book was that it was very US-centric and coming from an area that was heavily involved in the campaign on the Atlantic, I was hoping to learn a little more about my area. But other than that it was a very comprehensive and detailed read, and one I will pick up and read again soon.

The U-Boat War - A Global History from 1939-1945

The U-Boat War - A Global History from 1939 to 1945 written by Lawrence Paterson and

published by Osprey Publishing. - £25 - Hardback - Pages 336

The accepted historical narrative of the Second World War predominantly assigns U-boats to the so-called 'Battle of the Atlantic', almost as if the struggle over convoys between the new world and the old can be viewed in isolation from simultaneous events on land and in the air. This has become an almost accepted error. The U-boats war did not exist solely between 1940 and 1943, nor did the Atlantic battle occur in seclusion from other theatres of action. The story of Germany's second U-boat war began on the first day of hostilities with Britain and France and ended with the final torpedo sinking on 7 May 1945. U-boats were active in nearly every theatre of operation in which the Wehrmacht served, and within all but the Southern Ocean. Moreover, these deployments were not undertaken in isolation from one another; instead they were frequently interconnected in what became an increasingly inefficient German naval strategy.

This fascinating new book places each theatre of action in which U-boats were deployed into the broader context of the Second World War in its entirety while also studying the interdependence of the various geographic deployments. It illustrates the U-boats' often direct relationship with land, sea and aerial campaigns of both the Allied and Axis powers, dispels certain accepted mythologies, and reveals how the ultimate failure of the U-boats stemmed as much from chaotic German military and industrial mismanagement as it did from Allied advances in code-breaking and weaponry.

This book is divided into three parts with the first two-thirds covering the first half of WW2 and the final third covering the second half. With the first half of the book covering the building and supply of U-Boats and their availability, it would seem from reading that Germany wasn’t ready with regards to the U-Boat situation with many not fully finished or engines that were not entirely up to standard. 

Having read a number of books previously about the U-Boats and the war, there were quite a few bits that I already knew about that might be new to other people, like the fact that torpedoes used to be unreliable weapons and in fact mines would often be more dangerous for shipping due to the fact that they could be laid more quickly and could be concentrated or less so.

I’m going to say that the first half of the book was better and it seemed more full of content and specifications, the second half lacked a little, but was still quite enjoyable. I found the bibliography at the back of the book looks very good and I recognised a few of the names mentioned so I will probably follow up by doing some further reading on the subject. As I said I really enjoyed this book, and I find the U-Boat gets relatively less attention than the ground or air-based war combat. It is certainly a good book I would recommend to others that want to gain more knowledge about the U-Boat situation in WW2. I would like to thank Osprey Publishing for allowing me to read this advanced copy.