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British countermeasures were largely ineffective. The most effective defensive measures proved to be advising merchantmen to turn towards the U-boat and attempt to ram, forcing it to submerge. [16] Over half of all attacks on merchant ships by U-boats were defeated in this way. This response freed the U-boat to attack without warning, however. [17]
The U-boat campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Allies, largely in the seas around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean, as part of a mutual blockade between the German Empire and the United Kingdom.
Total Allied losses in May were 58 ships of 299,000 long tons (304,000 t), of which 34 (134,000 long tons (136,000 t)) were lost in the Atlantic. On 24 May 1943, Admiral Dönitz — shocked at the defeat suffered by the U-boats — ordered a temporary halt to the U-boat campaign; most were withdrawn from operational service.
U-995, a typical VIIC/41 U-boat on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial. U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars.The term is an anglicized version of the German word U-Boot ⓘ, a shortening of Unterseeboot (under-sea boat), though the German term refers to any submarine.
British destroyers were diverted from the Atlantic. The Norwegian campaign and the German invasion of the Low Countries and France imposed a heavy strain on the Royal Navy's destroyer flotillas. Many older destroyers were withdrawn from convoy routes to support the Norwegian campaign in April and May and then diverted to the English Channel to ...
U-331 passed Gibraltar on 30 September, destroyed a 372-ton British landing craft on 10 October, and sank HMS Barham on 25 November 1941. [13] U-75 passed Gibraltar on 3 October, sank two 372-ton British landing craft on 12 October, and sank the 1,587-ton Volo of convoy ME 8 before being sunk by convoy escort HMS Kipling on 28 December 1941. [14]
An outline of British military history, 1660–1936 (1936). online; Dupuy, R. Ernest and Trevor N. Dupuy. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. to the Present (1993). Fortescue, John William. History of the British Army from the Norman Conquest to the First World War (1899–1930), in 13 volumes with six separate map volumes.
A U-boat shells a merchant ship which has remained afloat after being torpedoed. The early phase of the Battle of the Atlantic during which German Navy U-boats enjoyed significant success against the British Royal Navy and its Allies was referred to by U-boat crews as "the Happy Time" ("Die Glückliche Zeit"), [1] and later the First Happy Time, after a second successful period was encountered.