The advancing German Army trapped British and French soldiers on the beaches around Dunkirk, France.
The beach at Dunkirk was on a shallow slope so no large boat could get near to the actual beaches where the men were. Therefore, smaller boats such as private vessels and fishing boats were needed to take on board men who would then be transferred to a larger boat based further off shore. The nine-day evacuation, the largest of its kind in history and an unexpected success, saved 338,000 Allied troops from capture by the Nazis.
In World War Two, after the escape at Dunkirk , the Battle of the Atlantic was Britain’s next nightmare. As an island Britain needed to bring in a vast amount of food and military equipment to survive the war.
The German submarine force (U-boats) severely damaged their ability to survive the war – hence Churchill’s quote above when he feared we would be starved out of the war.
A great deal of Britain's raw materials came from America and therefore had to cross the Atlantic. In normal times this journey could be hazardous because of the weather but in the war the German submarines proved a very real threat. Nazi Germany had to goal to "starve Britain" by blocking all foreign aid.
German submarines hunted in what were called wolf-packs. British supply ships crossed in convoys and the ships that brought in their food and other goods were slow and they could barely protect themselves. After leaving America they were reasonably safe while in American water and they were also more safe when they approached British waters as they could give the ships fighter plane cover. It was in the mid-Atlantic that British ships were at their most vulnerable and where the U-boats could run riot.
German submarines had direct access to the Atlantic once France had fallen in the spring of 1940. Massive submarine pens were built near Bordeaux and the impact they had can be seen from the following figures :
1939 : 222 ships sunk (114 by submarine)
1940 : 1059 ships sunk (471 by submarine)
1941 : 1328 ships sunk (432 by submarine)
1942 : 1661 ships sunk (1159 by submarine)
1943 : 597 ships sunk (463 by submarine)
1944 : 247 ships sunk (132 by submarine)
1945 : 105 ships sunk (56 by submarine)
So how did Britain survive this onslaught?
1) New ships were developed called corvettes which were very lightly armored which made them much faster but very heavily armed with depth charges which enabled all corvettes to hear submarines underwater.
2) Ironically bad weather helped us as submarines could not shoot torpedoes when there was a heavy swell and thus the merchant ships were safer during storms.
3) The invention of new ‘planes such as the Short Sunderland helped as it gave convoys valuable air cover and a submarine has to be near the surface to use torpedoes and as such becomes a sitting target for ‘planes guarding a convoy.
Watch this video on Dunkirk
Play The Battle of Britain.
Comment on the blog:
What did you learn that you thought was interesting?
The British army left behind half a million amunition stores and hundreds of weapons on the beach of Dunkirk!!!
ReplyDeleteAAh! I know! Couldn't they have destroyed them before they evacuated? Its so awful they just left all if it to the Germans. :/
DeleteOkay, there were many interesting things on this blog! And lots of cool facts. But what I'm still flabbergasted about is the number of ships that sink. Year by year, and even day by day! Also, thinking more into it, imagine how many people died that were on those ships. It's beaky devastating.
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DeleteWhat I thought it was interesting that civilians would volunteer to drive the boats out instead of having it be an assigned job.
ReplyDeleteI learned that when you are being bombed, there are so many different choices u have.
ReplyDeleteLots of awesome stuff. I knew about the Evacuation at Dunkirk, but I didn't know it was codenamed 'Operation Dynamo.' I thought this story would make an awesome movie and learned that there is a 1958 movie called 'Dunkirk' about it and a July 21, 2017 movie directed by Christopher Nolan (The Batman movies, Inception) that is about Operation Dynamo. I thought it was cool that Bertram Ramsey was the head honcho of the whole operation. It was probably a lot of stress for him. I didn't know that the Belgian army gained the Allies 24 more critical hours. It was cool that poor weather hindered the Luftwaffe from attacking during early stages of the operation. The Luftwaffe ended up doing lots of damage, but just not quite enough. Also, 40,000 French men were left behind, which created bitterness between French and British armies.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot of things on this blog, but one thing that I found most interesting is that when German U-Boats hunted they are called wolf-packs. I also learned that they always attack at night.
ReplyDeleteWhat I thought was interesting is the multiple boat tactics and how each one has its advantages. Some of them have requires teamwork but leaves the supply boats vulnerable to attack.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that storms actually gave the ships an advantage.
ReplyDeleteI thought tons of things were really interesting on this blog but what caught my eye most is the number of ships sank each year. Especially in 1942. 1661 were sunk and 1159 were sunk by submarines! That's crazy too me!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was cool that they got 338,000 allied troops safely to Britian! That's a lot of people!
ReplyDeleteI learned that the a bunch of French soldiers 'quite' fighting and then came out of hiding when they found that the last ship was leaving. I suppose that is why they say the British think of French as cowardly. (Just an observation, no ill will towards either party intended.)
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how after the French defeat, the Germans had complete control of the Atlantic ocean with their U-boats.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how the evacuation saved 338,000 people in such a short period of time.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised and thought it was sad that they had to leave all those soldiers behind at Dunkirk, but I like how they made such a big, huge effort to save their men.
ReplyDeleteI thought the battle of the Atlantic game was really fun!
I thought that the germans be called a wolf pack when they were trying to flush out great britian was interesting
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