How German Submarines Almost Defeated the Allies - Battle of the Atlantic Documentary

It’s safe to say the early part of the second world war did not go well for the British Empire or its allies. But though defeats in Europe and the loss of France as an ally were serious disasters, the top of Britain’s government remained in no doubt that the greatest threat to their survival and the continuation of the war was to be found at sea, in the form of German U-Boat submarines which for four long years would terrorise the Atlantic and threaten the suffocation of Britain’s entire war effort.

0:00 - The U Boat
2:10 - The First U-Boat 'Happy Time'
4:57 - Surfshark VPN
6:10 - America's Undeclared War Against the U-Boats
8:34 - US Navy put ships in convoy challenge (impossible)
10:00 - The U-Boat's damaging impact on the US war economy

Credits:

Animation for this video by:

Artwork Lead:

Written, Directed and Produced by:

Sources:

Evan Mawdsley, The War for the Seas
Corelli Barnett, Engage the Enemy More Closely
Phillips Payson O’Brien, How the War was Won
Captain Stephen Roskill, The War At Sea, Vols 1-3
The Defeat of the Enemy Attack on Shipping 1939-45, ed. Eric J. Grove

Music Credits:

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Other music and SFX from Epidemic Sound

[historigraph]

Thanks for watching everyone! There will be an episode 2 to this series looking at the Allied comeback from 1942-43 out quite soon. You can get early access to it (typically about a week before the public release) by supporting the creation of these videos on Patreon: patreon.com/historigraph

[joshuapearson]

never really seen how much of an effect the u boats had on the Allied war effort, 40% drop in the number of divisions and a 20% drop in aircraft production. did not know how big a problem it was.

[TheWayne]

"They had us in the first half, not gonna lie." - Winston Churchill, 1945, probably.

[inklinggirl]

Glad that someone has gone more deeply into the Battle of the Atlantic and the U-Boats

[looinrims]

“It’s safe to say the early part of the Second World War didn’t go well for the British empire or her allies.”

That’s a British level understatement

[SennaAugustus]

It's often said the Enigma codes were just broken through the work of Bletchley Park, but it's no coincidence that the major breakthrough came in May 1941 with the capture of documents from U-110 by HMS Bulldog.

[NoireBIanc]

The balls on the uboat commander to sneak into scapa flow and sink royal oak is unbelievable

[abdullahrizwan]

The early losses of merchant ships during the Battle of the Atlantic had a profound impact on the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) namely the role and type of ships that it would operate. Because of the U-boat threat (and also Canadian shipbuilding capabilities), the RCN focused on commissioning escort ships mainly the flower class corvettes and later the river class frigates This focus was such that despite having the fourth largest navy by the end of the second world war, Canada had no capital ships and just two cruisers. Along with a few dozen destroyers, the rest of the ships were small and mainly built for escort duty including corvettes (mainly Flower class) Frigates (mostly River class) and minesweepers (Bangor class).

[Ensign_Nemo]

There were several previously neutral nations such as Norway, Greece, the Netherlands, and Vichy France that eventually joined the Allied cause (usually after being attacked by the Axis) that contributed large merchant shipping fleets. For example, Norway had the world's fourth largest fleet at over four million tons, and about 85% of it escaped and joined the Allies. This shipping made a significant contribution to Allied victory, although these ships could not be replaced during the war as those countries' shipyards were occupied by the Axis.

[oligultonn]

I'm an Icelander and my great grandfathers brother died at sea when his fishing vessel was either hit a mine, was torpedoed or engaged with the deck gun of a u-boat in early 1941.

[WolfsongFlyHalfFullHeart]

Germany had an amazing ambush strategy with their u-boats but now as time has become more modern and war weapons and transports became more advance soon came ways to find u-boat well within 2 miles of a ship, there are so many stories during war time which surpass some of the greatest works of fiction because it’s as if the stories are close to home due to most people having a relative or yourself as a defender of your soil, I’m so pleased you tell these stories with such a passion as us the viewers are as passionate about learning about wartime history

[brokenbridge]

I had heard that the Battle of the Atlantic was one of the few fears Churchill had. And now I have a better idea of why. He was right to worry. But we all know it turned out alright in the end.

[Jon.A.Scholt]

Could not have quicker faster; any day a new Historigraph video drops is holiday!

[avipatable]

Superb, as always. Thank you Historiograph :)

[wedgeantillies]

Great video and brilliant use of statics and factual information to show just how much of a deadly pain in the ass and havoc uboats played with allied shipping and logistics during the battle of the altantic and early efforts that were taken to counter them with limited success. Looking forward to watching the next video and seeing how the allies turn the tide in this battle with new tactics and massive attritional numbers of new warships designed to defend convoys and hunt down the uboats. .

[leggdad]

Thank you for yet another excellent video. My (young) Father served on a US built Captain class frigate loan leased to the RN - HMS Dacres. Not only did this vessel undertake escort duties in the North Atlantic, it also supported the D-Day landings in 1944, and survived the war, before being returned after the war. Without the critical support of the US at this time, we surely would have eventually succombed to the nazi threat.

[robgraham]

Very nice precis on the Battle of the Atlantic. Looking forward to the next part.

[davidhochstetler]

This was incredibly interesting. Especially the percentage of strength allocated to the Army dropping by almost half

[jg]

Enjoyed this! Thanks for another video

[Boxmediaphile]

I think the U boats were more closer to crippling Britain in WW1 than they were in WW2