U-boat

Examples of U-boat in the following topics:

• The Setbacks in the Atlantic

  • Although German naval strategy was initially successful, it faced challenges due to flaws in the U-Boat technology.
  • The escorting destroyers promptly forced U-39 to surface and scuttled it, becoming the first U-boat loss of the war.
  • Admiral Karl Dönitz, commander of the U-boat fleet, had planned a maximum submarine effort for the first month of the war, with almost all the available U-boats out on patrol in September.
  • Although the narrow fjords gave U-boats little room for maneuver, the concentration of British warships, troopships, and supply ships provided countless opportunities for the U-boats to attack.
  • In more than 20 attacks, a U-boat did not sink a single British warship.

• Conflict in the Atlantic

  • The defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Germans, Winston Churchill later wrote,
  • The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued until war's end.
  • The U-boat fleet, which was to dominate so much of the Battle of the Atlantic, was small at the beginning of the war; many of the 57 available U-boats were the small and short-range Type IIs, useful primarily for minelaying and operations in British coastal waters.
  • Much of the early German anti-shipping activity involved minelaying by destroyers, aircraft and U-boats off British ports.
  • The Germans lost 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 sailors killed, three-quarters of Germany's 40,000-man U-boat fleet.

• The Battle of the Atlantic

  • The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 (withdrawn on Hitler's orders) and defeating the U-boats by mid-943, though losses to U-boats continued to war's end.
  • The defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Germans.
  • In 1941, material captured by the Royal Navy allowed all U-boat traffic to be read for several weeks, until the keys ran out.
  • In 1941, Enigma intercepts enabled the British to plot the positions of U-boat patrol lines and route convoys around them.
  • The Germans lost 783 U-boats and approximately 28,000 sailors, nearly three-quarters of Germany's 40,000-man U-boat fleet.

• American Neutrality

  • Although World War I began in Europe in 1914, the U.S. pursued a policy of neutrality until 1917.
  • The American public increasingly came to see Germany as the villain after news of atrocities following the invasion of Belgium in 1914 and the 1915 sinking of the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania by a German U-Boat, in defiance of international law.
  • Possessing only nine long-range U-boats as the war began, Germany nevertheless had ample shipyard capacity to build hundreds more.
  • German U-Boats torpedoed ships without warning, but claimed its submarines dared not surface near armed merchant ships and were too small to rescue passengers and crew, leaving many to drown in the frigid waters surrounding the United Kingdom.
  • 1915 painting depicting the sinking of the Lusitania by the German U-Boat U-20.

• Homefront Security

  • With America's entrance into World War II, German U-boats began to operate along the East Coast.
  • The CAP's top leaders requested that the War Department give them the authority to directly combat the U-boat threat.
  • In May 1942, a CAP crew were flying a coastal patrol mission off Cape Canaveral when they spotted a German U-boat.
  • The U-boat crew also spotted the aircraft, but not knowing that it was unarmed, attempted to flee.
  • The U-boat became stuck on a sandbar, and consequently became an easy target.

• Neutral Rights and Submarines

  • While Germany only had 9 long-range U-boats at the start of the war, it had ample shipyard capacity to build the hundreds needed.
  • In February, 1915, the U.S. warned Germany about misuse of submarines.
  • Wilson issued a warning to Germany that it would face "strict accountability" if it sank more neutral U.S. passenger ships.
  • 1915 painting depicting the sinking of the Lusitania by the German U-Boat U-20.
  • Analyze how the Allied and German blockades, Germany's use of U-boats, and the Lusitania incident interfered with America's stance of neutrality.

• A Strained Neutrality

  • When the war began, the U.S. proclaimed a policy of strict neutrality—"in thought and deed", as President Woodrow Wilson put it.
  • When a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania in 1915, with 128 Americans aboard, Wilson said, "America is too proud to fight," and demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships.
  • Wilson repeatedly warned that the U.S. would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare, in violation of international law and U.S. ideas of human rights.
  • Immigrants from Eastern Europe usually cared more about politics in their homeland than politics in the U.S..
  • This political cartoon depicts U.S.

• Relative Velocity

  • Galileo observed the concept of relative velocity by using an example of a fly and a boat.
  • He observed that while you are aboard the boat, if you see a fly, you can measure its velocity, $u$.
  • You can then go back on land and measure the velocity of the boat, $v$.
  • Is the velocity of the fly, $u$, the actual velocity of the fly?
  • To obtain the velocity of the fly relative to the shore, $s$, you can use the vector sum as shown: $s=u+v$

• Commitment to Vietnam

  • Johnson assumed the U.S.
  • Maddox engaged 3 North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats in a sea battle, resulting in several North Vietnamese casualties.
  • On August 2, 1964, the U.S.S.
  • Maddox, conducting an intelligence mission along the coast of North Vietnam, allegedly fired upon and damaged several torpedo boats; the boats had been stalking the Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin.
  • While the Johnson administration claimed Vietnamese boats had fired first, subsequent investigations suggest that the battle was initiated by the Maddox.

• African and Asian Origins

  • The boat-builders from Southeast Asia may have been one of the earliest groups to reach the shores of North America.
  • One theory suggests people in boats followed the coastline from the Kuril Islands to Alaska, and then down the coasts of North and South America as far as Chile .
  • For example, early travelers might have followed the southern coastline of Asia, crossed about 250 kilometers (155 miles) of sea - probably by simple boats or raft - and colonized Australia by around 50,000 years ago.