![]() ![]() U-boats in the Second World War German submarine U-52 Dönitz called his strategy of submarine warfare Rudeltaktik, which literally translates as " pack tactic" but referred specifically to the hunting tactics of wolves and submarines were known by their nickname of graue Wölfe (grey wolves). Under Karl Dönitz as FdU developed co-ordinated attack tactics based on Bauer's plan and his own experience and trials of the new tactics in 1936 proved successful. In October 1918 another attempt at a co-ordinated attack was made in the Mediterranean, when two U-boats attempted a co-ordinated attack on a convoy one of them was sunk and its commander, ObLt Karl Dönitz, was taken prisoner.ĭuring the interwar years the German Navy was forbidden to have U-boats but began to re-arm in 1935. During the period of operation, 19 homeward and 11 outward convoys passed through the patrol area without loss and two U-boats (a third of the force) had been destroyed. UB 72 was caught on the surface by British submarine D4, torpedoed and sunk. U-70 found convoy HS 38 but managed only one torpedo attack, which missed. In May 1918 six U-boats under the command of KL Rucker, in U-103, were operating in the English Channel U-103 made contact with a troop convoy but was rammed and sunk by the troopship Olympic before she could attack. This proved easier to propose than to carry out and proved disastrous when tried. The shore station would monitor radio transmissions and the commander in the HQ boat would co-ordinate the attack. These boats would be supported by a forward base on land and a headquarters and supply vessel, such as the Deutschland-class converted U-cruisers equipped with radio and supplies of fuel and torpedoes. In early 1917 Hermann Bauer, the Commander of the High Seas U-boats ( Führer der Unterseeboote ) proposed establishing patrol lines of U-boats across convoy routes, in order to mass for attack on any convoy reported. The logical remedy for the U-boat Arm was to gather U-boats similarly into attacking formations. By gathering up merchant ships into convoys the British Admiralty denied them targets and presented a more defensible front if found and attacked. Wolfpacks fell out of use during the Cold War as the role of the submarine changed and as convoys became rare.ĭuring the Handelskrieg (German war on trade) Allied ships travelled independently prior to the introduction of the convoy system and were vulnerable to attacks by U-boats operating as 'lone wolves'. In the Pacific the American submarine force was able to devastate Japan’s merchant marine, though this was not solely due to the wolfpack tactic. In the Atlantic during the Second World War the Germans had considerable successes with their wolfpack attacks but were ultimately defeated by the Allies. The idea of a co-ordinated submarine attack on convoys had been proposed during the First World War but had no success. It was used principally by the U-boats of the Kriegsmarine during the Battle of the Atlantic, and by the submarines of the United States Navy in the Pacific War. The wolfpack was a convoy attack tactic employed in the Second World War.
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