Search - Black May : The Epic Story of the Allies' Defeat of the German U-Boats in May 1943

The invasion of Europe wasn't going to happen until we won another battle - the Battle of the Atlantic. This sea battle lasted for six years and cost thousands of live and untold millions of dollars. And this doesn't count all the money, fuel, steel, men and time that went into getting ships safely across - either way.

There were many factors that joined together to win this battle: advances in sonar and radar, development and refinement of sub-killing tactics, the use of escort carriers, better torpedoes and depth charges, breaking the Ultra code, speeding production of ships to replace those lost, and more. But probably the most important was overcoming the stupid prejudices and misconceptions of some of our senior naval officers. And that doesn't even count how lucky we were that the Germans didn't have all the U-boats they wanted at the beginning of the conflict.

While convoys only lost about 7% of the total number of shipping that crossed back and forth during the war, this still hurt. Imagine if we didn't know where the subs were waiting (thanks to Enigma). Unlike in the Pacific, where the Japanese lost tens of thousands of troops to drowning when their transports were sunk, the Allies were pretty lucky in the Atlantic.

To understand how close we came to losing this war with much heavier losses, read Gannon's Operation Drumbeat before reading Black May. However, either can be read on its own or in reverse order.

An awesome historical narrative of the allies totally stuffing the German U-boats, starting in May of 1943. The Allies destroyed 41 U-boats and damaged 37 others in one month.