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THE ROLE OF AIRPOWER IN THE DEFEAT OF THE GERMAN U-BOAT OFFENSIVE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

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Yellow belly
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:18 pm

THE ROLE OF AIRPOWER IN THE DEFEAT OF THE GERMAN U-BOAT OFFENSIVE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Post by Yellow belly » Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:11 pm

If Germany had prevented merchant ships from carrying food, raw materials, troops and their equipment from North America to Britain, the outcome of World War Two could have been radically different. Britain might have been starved into submission, and her armies would not have been equipped with American-built tanks and vehicles.

The last months of 1942 had been a virtual paradise for the German U-boats. Within the space of twelve weeks they had sunk no fewer than 271 ships, totalling just over one and a half million tons. Provided with greater resources and a more efficient organisation than they ever possessed in the First World War, the German U-boat command was now making a supreme effort to sever the Atlantic supply lines and frustrate the launching of an Allied offensive in Europe. Moreover, if the Allies had not been able to move ships about the North Atlantic, it would have been impossible to project British and American land forces ashore in the Mediterranean theatres or on D-Day. Germany's best hope of defeating Britain lay in winning what Churchill christened the 'Battle of the Atlantic'. The Battle of the Atlantic was known as the longest military campaign in World War II, lasting the duration of the War and seeing the sinking of over three and a half thousand Allied ships.

With a substantial fleet of deadly U-boats, Nazi Germany was attacking the convoys heading eastward from North America across the Atlantic to resupply war-torn Europe. "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril," British Prime Minister Winston Churchill reportedly said while reflecting on the WW2.

Originally convoys started to be used in the beginning of the World War Two in 1939. The system of convoys provided for formation of large groups of merchant ships under the escort of military vessels for making sea trips. Such a system is organizationally complicated and hardly effective since speed of any convoy does not exceed speed of its slowest ship.

By the end of the war, Hitler's Kriegsmarine, the navy of Nazi Germany, had built 1,162 U-boats, which is short for the German word "Unterseeboot,"or undersea boat.


When the war began the RAF Coastal Command was far from ready for it. It had nothing to attack let alone sink the German U-boats. The U-boat weapon available at the time was the anti-submarine bomb that was far from effective and required a direct hit to do any damage. To make matters worse the Command was always secondary to the Bomber Command for equipment and aircraft.

When the war began the Coastal Command only had 3 Operational Groups, 15, 16 and 18 with Group 17 taking care of training.


One week after the war began Coastal Command set up a base in Gibraltar to cover the southern part of the Bay of Biscay and the waters closest to this entry into the Mediterranean. This was a very important base of course.

Operations in Iceland began in May 1940 and by 1942 its aircraft were providing convoy cover and giving U-boats major troubles in those waters previously free of aircraft.
The most successful squadrons were the No. 86 and No. 120 squadrons each with 14 U-boats sunk. These were the most successful U-boat hunters in the war. No. 224 followed them with 12 kills and No. 179 with 11 kills.

Over six arduous years and often in appalling circumstances, thirty-six Fleet Air Arm Squadrons played a vital role in contributing to the diminution, mastery and then eradication of the German threat. Swordfish, Albacores, Avengers, Martlets and Sea Hurricanes all flew some of the most hazardous missions. Extreme exhibitions of courage in the face of both adversity and enemy action were commonplace.
The unsung heroes who provided the crucial air cover and helped turn the tide of the War were Naval pilots, many of whom joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) at the start of the war, flying the obsolescent Fairey ‘Swordfish’. These flimsy biplanes and their aircrews, with an average age of 21, flew from the pitching decks of merchant ships, in all that the Atlantic could throw at them, including mountainous seas and bitter cold. They patrolled in an area known as the mid-Atlantic gap, the 500 mile wide gap in the middle of the Atlantic, out of range of land based Allied aircraft. Here the U-boats had almost complete freedom to operate; freedom to surface and recharge their batteries and to communicate by radio with their brother wolves, their home bases and their long range Condor bomber aircraft scouting for convoys.

Retired Squadron Leader Mike Pugh-Davies has studied the engagement of allied aircraft verses the U boat menace during WW2 and has been invited to give a talk on THE ROLE OF AIRPOWER IN THE DEFEAT OF THE GERMAN U-BOAT OFFENSIVE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Mike joined the RAF in 1976 after gaining a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Loughborough University. Trained as a navigator, he flew in Canberra, Phantom and Tornado aircraft and as a NATO evaluator he flew in a number of other front-line aircraft.
He has served on operations in the Falkland Islands, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Qatar. He has filled a variety of staff appointments in both the RAF and NATO; his last job being an instructor in the Air Warfare Centre, RAF Cranwell.
Mike retired from the RAF as a squadron leader after 36 years of service. He gained a masters degree in Air Power Studies from the University of Birmingham in 2012 and has lectured on a range of aviation history subjects throughout Lincolnshire and the United Kingdom.

It will be held in the WW2 gymnasium, now known as the Peter Scoley Hall, on Wednesday, 22nd August 2018, beginning at 7.30pm: Admission is £5.00 for non members to include refreshments. It is free to members of Friends of Metheringham Airfield and veterans of 106 Squadron.

For further information please telephone 07486 947 095
John Shipton
Friends of Metheringham Airfield
Lincoln
War time home to 106 Squadron

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