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In the Spring U-boat production began
to rise, which allowed Doenitz to consolidate the tactics
he had gradually introduced over the autumn. These were
termed ‘wolf-packs’ by the British.
A number
of U-boats worked together under the immediate command
of a leader and the more distant control of U-boat headquarters
ashore. Once a convoy was located a single U-boat shadowed
it during daylight hours, reporting its position and any
change of course. The pack was then positioned ahead of
the convoy, which it could comfortably outstrip, and when
night fell worked together under a strictly-controlled
plan. |
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| Feb: |
Admiral Hipper, a heavy cruiser, sank
seven ships in an unescorted convoy.
The Admiralty moved the HQ of Western Approaches Command
from Plymouth to Derby House, Liverpool. |
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| Mar 7th: |
| Provided the first ‘Happy Time’ for
the U-boats, they sank a total of 217 merchant ships. |
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| Mar 17th: |
| HMS Vanoc uses Type 286 radar, which
could detect surfaced U-boats, for the first time to detect
and sink U-100. |
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| April: |
| Western Approaches Command took control
of RAF Coastal Command aircraft. |
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| May 24th: |
| HMS Hood sunk and Prince of Wales damaged
by German battleship Bismark. The battleship Bismark sunk. |
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| May 8th: |
| U-110 captured by HMS Bulldog after
attack by Bulldog and HMS Broadway and the corvette HMS
Aubretia. Enigma code machine and accompanying material
taken. Crucially the crew of U-110 had been taken below
decks aboard HMS Bulldog before the U-boat had been boarded
and therefore did not know that the Enigma machine had
been taken. |
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| May 27th: |
| HX129 convoy first to be escorted “end-to-end” across
Atlantic; Canadian Navy joined. |
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| June: |
| British cryptographers at Station X
(Bletchley Park) crack the German ‘Dolphin’ code
allowing rapid and regular access to U-boat signal traffic
in the Atlantic. |
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| Sept 16th: |
| HX150 from Halifax was the first convoy
with American escorts to Iceland.. |
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| Oct 19th: |
| SS Lehigh sunk off African coast by
U-126. |
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| Oct 27th: |
| U-96 departed St Nazaire on its 7th
patrol, source of film “Das Boot”. |
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| Dec 7th: |
| Japanese attacked the US Pacific Fleet
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. |
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| Dec 11th: |
| Germany declared war on America. |
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| Dec 17th: |
| The Royal Navy’s first escort
aircraft carrier, HMS Audacity, covering Convoy HG76, secured
its first kill, U-131. |
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| Dec 21st: |
| After a running battle, Audacity was
sunk by U-751. |
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