What if Germany's U-boats had won the Battle of the Atlantic and starved Britain into submission? |
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They recovered code-books and minefield plans from sunken German U-boats in World War One. |
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German U-boats, sometimes assisted by Italian submarines, were the main weapon of attack, but aircraft and surface raiders also participated. |
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Six months after Pearl Harbor, U-boats landed eight German marines on American shores for sabotage missions. |
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As part of the surrender terms, the Royal Navy received 176 U-boats as spoils of war. |
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German U-boats sank the battleship Barham in the east and the carrier Ark Royal, which had helped keep Malta supplied with aircraft, in the west. |
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This approach would be similar to that adopted to fight German U-boats in the Second World War. |
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Just as in the First World War, U-boats nearly brought the UK to its knees. |
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In 1940, the U-boats started to take a real toll against merchant shipping. |
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At sea German U-boats were sinking so many merchant ships that Britain was close to starvation. |
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For eight days they ploughed on through waves and walls of bombs and torpedoes, through unending swarms of screaming Stukas and U-boats. |
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Often, in the mid-Atlantic, after forcing U-boats to crash-dive, carrier planes dropped homing torpedoes on the submarines. |
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During WWII, German U-boats sank more than 5000 merchant vessels and many Allied warships. |
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In all, 55 ships, submarines, U-boats and airplanes were sunk in Narvik harbour and the surrounding fjord. |
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As bad luck would have it, nine German U-boats stumbled across the manoeuvres and torpedoed the ships, sinking two ships and damaging a third. |
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Canadian aircraft and ships, alone or in consort with other ships or aircraft, sank 50 U-boats. |
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Four boats were sunk by torpedos from U-boats in September and November 1942 while docked on Bell Island to take on iron ore. |
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The landing flotilla had to sail by the Gulf of Biscayne, teeming with U-boats, before entering the Mediterranean. |
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Days later, German U-boats sank three American ships. |
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Fall 1940: prowling like wolves through the North Atlantic, German U-boats are hunting for Allied merchant navy convoys. |
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Dozens of dangers were avoided, from strafing shells from German U-boats to the freezing cold of the Atlantic. |
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Naval authorities select the route, avoiding concentrations of U-boats, which crisscross the Northern Atlantic. |
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In 1939 he was an officer sailing in convoys that faced German U-boats in the desperate bid to keep Britain supplied with food and vital raw materials. |
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The war news was bad, including the bombing of English cities in the Battle of Britain and British naval losses to German U-boats in the Atlantic. |
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Attacking while on the surface allows U-boats to make full use of their speed and manoeuvrability. |
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It did not, however, have the latest 'very long-range' aircraft needed to reach the Black Pit, which harboured packs of U-boats ready to attack. |
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German U-boats would wait silently in the firth for targets. |
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In three weeks and a half, 30 U-boats were destroyed by the Allies, in regard of 50 merchant ships sunk. |
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Destroyers of the escort screen raced out and drove the U-boats off. |
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The German U-boats were shooting on the boats, so most of the niter they were trying to import to make nitroglycerin was at the bottom of the ocean. |
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We sailed out wide as usual, looking for U-boats. |
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Roosevelt slowly but steadily increased the US Navy's assistance to the Royal Navy in convoying supplies across the Atlantic, even when American warships began to skirmish with German U-boats. |
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The crowded shipping routes in the gulf and river, the many deepwater hiding places for U-boats, and the problems of underwater detection equipment in the complex waters seemed to make defence methods ineffective. |
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For ten months, while cryptologists worked on breaking the new code, the Allies were deprived of the valuable information that allowed them to escape U-boats. |
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Equipped with reciprocating piston steam engines because Canadian shipyards did not have the technical expertise to produce high-performance engines, their speed was limited to 16 knots, i.e. they were slower than U-boats. |
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In January 1917, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the country's leader, was convinced that Britain could be starved in five months if U-boats were allowed to engage in unrestricted submarine warfare. |
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Once again the navy organized convoys and the air force kept as many aircraft overhead as they could, but the U-boats continued to take their toll. |
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In this connection, it should be noted that recent reports show a tendency for U-boats to follow one another in to the attack from the same direction. |
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By mid-1943, it was clear that no matter how many merchant ships German U-boats still could send to the bottom, torpedoings could no longer outpace the production of new ships. |
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Similarly, he describes the use of the schnorkel by German U-boats, but he does not mention it by its now well-known name. |
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London, many British cities and the English Channel ports were bombed unmercifully, and the U-boats, using their brand new bases in France, attacked convoys and independently-routed ships almost at will. |
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Warned of approaching U-boats by land-based radio-detection stations, by the decipherment of wireless communications and by British intelligence services, EAC would send out patrols to locate, and attack them. |
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Other U-boats in the area, notified by radio, zero in on the target. |
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The U-boats, averaging eight on each of the shipping routes, picked off independents and stragglers and made daring single-handed attacks on convoys. |
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The proportion of force available after this close screen has been provided should be employed to harass and attack U-boats which are gaining position or waiting to attack on the outskirts of the convoy. |
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Due to the high concentration of Germans patrolling the region, and the fear of being attacked by prowling German U-boats, strict orders were given that forbade any merchant ship from stopping for even a moment. |
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These were used alongside radar and the improved Asdic equipment to more efficiently detect U-boats. |
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Merchant ships are still relatively safe when they leave North American harbours as Germany has only 24 short-range U-boats, based in the North Sea. |
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By mid-1943 it was clear that, no matter how many merchant ships German U-boats could still send to the bottom, sinkings would no longer outpace the production of new ships. |
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It was in this air gap that U-boats were at their most effective. |
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After all, German u-boats had killed more U.S. sailors in the north Atlantic than died at Pearl Harbor. |
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Many Allied ships were torpedoed during World War 2 by the dreaded German U-Boats, which actively patrolled up and down the Firth of Forth. |
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