1 WW 2 History Club 25-Mar-2015 Battle of the Atlantic

2 Meeting Agenda 1.Pledge of Allegiance 2.Administration 3.Battle of the Atlantic Introduction 4.Video 5.Brian Evans (Graf Spee) 6.Clint Westberry (USCG in WW2) 7.Q&A 8.Closing

3 WW2 Vets WW2 vets are meeting before each regular Wednesday meeting ( 1:30 to 3:00 ) See Lou Branch

4 WW2 Vets WW2 vets are meeting for breakfast at Lil’ Bits Cafe (off Rte 466) the Tuesday following each regular Wednesday meeting See Lou Branch

5 Web Site The place to find out what is going on The place for interesting items on WW2 (daily)

6 Future Meetings 4 th Wednesday of the month Colony Cottage  Mar 2015:Battle of the Atlantic  Apr 2015:Plots to Kill Hitler  May 2015:POWs  Jun 2015:German Military Commanders  Jul 2015:British Military Commanders  Aug 2015:End of War Alternatives  Sep 2015:Beginning of War Alternatives

7 Movie Night 3 rd Wednesday of the month Seabreeze Rec Center  Mar 2015:Pursuit of the Graf Spee  Apr 2015:Valkyrie  May 2015:Unbroken  Jun 2015:TBD  Jul 2015:TBD

8 WWII Book Club NEW!! 4 th Friday of the month Colony 1PM to 3PM Apr 2015:Killing Hitler: The Plots, … May 2015:Unbroken details on web site

9  WW2 Vets flown to Wash DC  Over 400 vets so far  Lots more in the queue  Next regular Mission is today (that is why Mark is not here)  WW2HC donated $3,500 in Feb’15

10 WW 2 History Club 25-Mar-2015 Battle of the Atlantic

11 Battle of the Atlantic  Longest campaign of WWII (ignoring Sino- Japanese campaigns)  Sep 1939 to May 1945 (5 years, 8 months, 5 days)  One of the few things that really scared Churchill  Entire strategy for defeating Germans relied on the ability of the Allies to transport men and material across the Atlantic

12 Battle of the Atlantic  3,500 merchant ships sunk, 36,000 merchant seaman killed  175 warships sunk, 36,200 sailors lost  740 RAF aircraft lost  783 U-boats sunk, ~ 30,000 sailors lost  As a percentage of those who served, the most lethal service was the Merchant Marine

13 Battle of the Atlantic A see-saw battle (with the advantage mostly to the Germans) until mid 1943; suddenly it was all but over:  Naval Enigma was broken  Long range aircraft (B-24) closed the mid ocean gap  Leigh Light  Merchant aircraft carriers and later escort carriers  Sea scanning radar  Destroyer escorts (better adapted, built in larger numbers)  Hunter-killer groups and better tactics

14 Battle of the Atlantic Many cutting edge technologies were honed during this campign:  RADAR  SONAR  Operations Research  Sub hunting  Codes and ciphers  “Ahead Throwing” weapons

15 Call Letters of Trans-Atlantic Convoys: HX: fast convoys (9 knots or over) sailing from Halifax or New York SC: slow convoys (under 9 knots) sailing from Sydney, Nova Scotia, Halifax or New York ON: westbound convoys sailing from Great Britain to North America ONS: slow westbound convoys sailing from Great Britain to North America Call Letters of Canadian Coastal Convoys: BX:Boston to Halifax XB:Halifax to Boston SQ:Sydney to Quebec City QS:Quebec City to Sydney

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19 Who Knew?  3-Sep-1939, U-30 sinks the Athenia, a passenger liner with 1100 passengers outbound from the UK -- and The Battle of the Atlantic starts. By the then rules of war, it should not have been sunk; the u-boat captain was almost court martialed; instead the Germans covered it up and blamed the British  09-May-1941, U-110 is attacked by Royal Navy vessels and is scuttled. But before it sinks, the British recover a naval enigma machine and several relevant codes. This is consider to be the most significant u-boat “sinking” of the war  Captain Fritz-Julius Lemp was the U-boat commander in both incidents