The Battle of the Atlantic

Though doubts exist about how effective the bombing of Germany was in winning the war, there is no doubt as to the importance of the war at sea. Control of the sea was vital for both economic and strategic reasons. The side which controlled the sea could prevent essential supplies reaching the other side and this would starve the enemy into submission and force its war economy to grind to a halt. It was essential to control the sea in order to attack German occupied Europe. If the Allies had not controlled the Mediterranean and the Channel, they would not have been able to invade Sicily and Italy in 1943, nor land in Normandy.

The battle to control the Atlantic was crucial for Britain's survival since most of her food, weapons and oil came across the Atlantic. The Germans relied on their submarines (U-boats) to sink the merchant ships bringing these supplies to Britain. Unfortunately for the Germans, they had only 46 submarines at the start of the war and two years later they still had only 65. Hitler did not believe that a U-boat campaign against British merchant shipping could win the war. It is quite possible that if the Germans had been able to use a big enough U-boat fleet in 1940 and 1941 against Britain, they could have won the Battle of the Atlantic and forced Britain to surrender through starvation and lack of vital supplies.

However, when the Germans did have enough U-boats - 200 by 1943 - the British had the invaluable assistance of the United States to provide aircraft and naval escorts for their merchant convoys. The U-boat menace to Atlantic shipping was eventually beaten off to ensure Allied control of the seas.

Neil Demarco: The era of the Second World War; Oxford University Press, 1993/2000, page 48