Introduction
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of World War II, running from 1939 through the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, and was at its height from mid-1940 through to about the end of 1943.
The Battle of the Atlantic primarily pitted the U-boats and armed merchantmen of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) against Allied convoys. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and the South Atlantic and going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were later aided by ships and aircraft of the United States. The German U-boats and armed merchantmen were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) after Fascist Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940.
The name "Battle of the Atlantic", first coined by Winston Churchill in 1941, is a partial misnomer for a campaign that began on the first day of the European war and lasted for six years, involved thousands of ships and stretched over hundreds of miles of the vast ocean and seas in a succession of more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters. Tactical advantage switched back and forth over the six years as new weapons, tactics and counter-measures were developed by both sides. The British and their allies gradually gained the upper hand, driving the German surface raiders from the ocean by the middle of 1941 and decisively defeating the U-boats in a series of convoy battles between March and May 1943. New German submarines arrived in 1945, but they were too late to affect the course of the war.
One of the finnest U-boots was U-49 of the U-Boat ace Werner Breiberg.
Werner Breiberg,the commander of U-49.
Born in Osterfeld, Prussian Province of Saxony (Germany) and raised in Leipzig, Breiberg joined the Handelsmarine (German Merchant Navy) in the summer of 1923, studying for just three months at the Seaman's College in Finkenwarder in Hamburg, before going to sea as a cabin boy on the full rigged three-master Hamburg. His first voyage touched at the Azores, Pensacola, Hobart (Tasmania) and Falmouth. While sailing to Cork in October 1925 the ship was caught in a storm and ran aground near Dublin, the vessel was abandoned and later declared a wreck. Breiberg and the crew were taken to Bremerhaven and then Hamburg, where Breiberg was given his papers as seaman and found the cost of items he had drawn on board exceeded his six months of wages. Aiming for his master's certificate he quickly signed on the Oldenburg, which was another full rigger (as noted in Jost Metzler's "The Laughing Cow"[1]). Jost Metzler, who later commanded U-69, was taken under Prien's wing when an ordinary sailor aboard the sailing ship Oldenburg (now the Suomen Joutsen). He relates at the beginning of his book "The Laughing Cow: The Story Of U-69" how his relationship with Prien was "very strained" at first, and how Prien, as a young seaman, "could on occasion be very hard and unjust." Later they would become good friends. He obtained his mate's ticket and a wireless operator's certificate, becoming Fourth Officer of the San Francisco out of Hamburg, again, the ship was involved in a collision with another vessel in fog near the Hoheweg lighthouse. As look-out Breiberg was summoned to an enquiry at the Marine Court the Nautical Court House in Bremerhaven, where the weather was blamed.
Breiberg passed his captain's examination in January 1932 but could not find work as German shipping severely contracted during the Depression years. He returned to Leipzig and, failing to find work, went to the Assistance Board. In March 1932 he joined the National Socialist Party. (In "Wolf Pack: The Story of the U-Boat in World War II, Gordon Williamson states that the Navy did not accept members of the NSDAP or the SS and one was obliged to revoke their membership in these parties before joining the Navy.) In August, he joined the voluntary labor corps of Vogtsberg at Olsnitz. In January 1933 he joined the Reichsmarine, which was bringing in Merchant Navy personnel in order to quickly increase its strength after the loss of the Niobe. Prien was accepted as an ordinary sailor, but with officer aspirations. He underwent normal training and served on the light cruiser Königsberg before he was posted for U-Boat training at Kiel. At the end of training he was posted to U-26 at Deschimag in Bremen as First Officer of the watch.
Breiberg progressed steadily in rank, from Fähnrich zur See (midshipman) in 1933, to Oberfähnrich zur See (senior midshipman) in 1935, Leutnant zur See (sub-lieutenant) also in 1935, then Oberleutnant zur See (lieutenant) in 1937. He was appointed to the command of the new Type VIIB U-49 on her commissioning (17 December 1938) and promoted to Kapitänleutnant (lieutenant) on 1 February 1939.
Unterseeboot 49 (U-49) was a German type VII B U-Boat (submarine). She was laid down on February 25, 1937 at Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel and went into service on December 17, 1938.
It was a VIIB type
Displacement: Surfaced 769 tons, submerged 871 tons
Length: Overall 67.1 m, pressure hull 50.5 m
Beam: Overall 6.2 m, pressure hull 4.7 m
Draft: 4.74 m
Propulsion
and power: Surfaced: 2 supercharged Germaniawerft, 6 cylinder, 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesels totalling 2,800 - 3,200bhp(2,400 kW). Max rpm: 470-490.
Submerged:
Speed: Surfaced 17.7 knot (33 km/h), submerged 7.6 knot
Test depth: 230 m (754 ft). Calculated crush depth: 250-295 m (820-967 ft)
Range: Surfaced 15170 km (8200 miles) at 10 knots (19 km/h), submerged 150 km (80 miles) at 4 knots (7 km/h)
Complement: 44-52 officers & ratings
Armament: 5 53.3cm Torpedo tubes: 4 bow, 1 stern (14 torpedoes or 26 TMA or 39 TMB mines))
1 C35 88mm gun/L45 deck gun with 220 rounds
Various FLAK weaponry.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of World War II, running from 1939 through the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, and was at its height from mid-1940 through to about the end of 1943.
The Battle of the Atlantic primarily pitted the U-boats and armed merchantmen of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) against Allied convoys. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and the South Atlantic and going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were later aided by ships and aircraft of the United States. The German U-boats and armed merchantmen were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) after Fascist Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940.
The name "Battle of the Atlantic", first coined by Winston Churchill in 1941, is a partial misnomer for a campaign that began on the first day of the European war and lasted for six years, involved thousands of ships and stretched over hundreds of miles of the vast ocean and seas in a succession of more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters. Tactical advantage switched back and forth over the six years as new weapons, tactics and counter-measures were developed by both sides. The British and their allies gradually gained the upper hand, driving the German surface raiders from the ocean by the middle of 1941 and decisively defeating the U-boats in a series of convoy battles between March and May 1943. New German submarines arrived in 1945, but they were too late to affect the course of the war.
One of the finnest U-boots was U-49 of the U-Boat ace Werner Breiberg.
Werner Breiberg,the commander of U-49.
Born in Osterfeld, Prussian Province of Saxony (Germany) and raised in Leipzig, Breiberg joined the Handelsmarine (German Merchant Navy) in the summer of 1923, studying for just three months at the Seaman's College in Finkenwarder in Hamburg, before going to sea as a cabin boy on the full rigged three-master Hamburg. His first voyage touched at the Azores, Pensacola, Hobart (Tasmania) and Falmouth. While sailing to Cork in October 1925 the ship was caught in a storm and ran aground near Dublin, the vessel was abandoned and later declared a wreck. Breiberg and the crew were taken to Bremerhaven and then Hamburg, where Breiberg was given his papers as seaman and found the cost of items he had drawn on board exceeded his six months of wages. Aiming for his master's certificate he quickly signed on the Oldenburg, which was another full rigger (as noted in Jost Metzler's "The Laughing Cow"[1]). Jost Metzler, who later commanded U-69, was taken under Prien's wing when an ordinary sailor aboard the sailing ship Oldenburg (now the Suomen Joutsen). He relates at the beginning of his book "The Laughing Cow: The Story Of U-69" how his relationship with Prien was "very strained" at first, and how Prien, as a young seaman, "could on occasion be very hard and unjust." Later they would become good friends. He obtained his mate's ticket and a wireless operator's certificate, becoming Fourth Officer of the San Francisco out of Hamburg, again, the ship was involved in a collision with another vessel in fog near the Hoheweg lighthouse. As look-out Breiberg was summoned to an enquiry at the Marine Court the Nautical Court House in Bremerhaven, where the weather was blamed.
Breiberg passed his captain's examination in January 1932 but could not find work as German shipping severely contracted during the Depression years. He returned to Leipzig and, failing to find work, went to the Assistance Board. In March 1932 he joined the National Socialist Party. (In "Wolf Pack: The Story of the U-Boat in World War II, Gordon Williamson states that the Navy did not accept members of the NSDAP or the SS and one was obliged to revoke their membership in these parties before joining the Navy.) In August, he joined the voluntary labor corps of Vogtsberg at Olsnitz. In January 1933 he joined the Reichsmarine, which was bringing in Merchant Navy personnel in order to quickly increase its strength after the loss of the Niobe. Prien was accepted as an ordinary sailor, but with officer aspirations. He underwent normal training and served on the light cruiser Königsberg before he was posted for U-Boat training at Kiel. At the end of training he was posted to U-26 at Deschimag in Bremen as First Officer of the watch.
Breiberg progressed steadily in rank, from Fähnrich zur See (midshipman) in 1933, to Oberfähnrich zur See (senior midshipman) in 1935, Leutnant zur See (sub-lieutenant) also in 1935, then Oberleutnant zur See (lieutenant) in 1937. He was appointed to the command of the new Type VIIB U-49 on her commissioning (17 December 1938) and promoted to Kapitänleutnant (lieutenant) on 1 February 1939.
Unterseeboot 49 (U-49) was a German type VII B U-Boat (submarine). She was laid down on February 25, 1937 at Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel and went into service on December 17, 1938.
It was a VIIB type
Displacement: Surfaced 769 tons, submerged 871 tons
Length: Overall 67.1 m, pressure hull 50.5 m
Beam: Overall 6.2 m, pressure hull 4.7 m
Draft: 4.74 m
Propulsion
and power: Surfaced: 2 supercharged Germaniawerft, 6 cylinder, 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesels totalling 2,800 - 3,200bhp(2,400 kW). Max rpm: 470-490.
Submerged:
Speed: Surfaced 17.7 knot (33 km/h), submerged 7.6 knot
Test depth: 230 m (754 ft). Calculated crush depth: 250-295 m (820-967 ft)
Range: Surfaced 15170 km (8200 miles) at 10 knots (19 km/h), submerged 150 km (80 miles) at 4 knots (7 km/h)
Complement: 44-52 officers & ratings
Armament: 5 53.3cm Torpedo tubes: 4 bow, 1 stern (14 torpedoes or 26 TMA or 39 TMB mines))
1 C35 88mm gun/L45 deck gun with 220 rounds
Various FLAK weaponry.
