World War II Battles: Timeline | HISTORY
Battle of Leyte Gulf: October 23-26, 1944. In World War II's largest naval battle, the Allies invade the Philippines to retake the commonwealth ...
control of Atlantic Ocean
World War II's longest continuous campaign takes place, with the Allies striking a naval blockade against Germany and igniting a struggle for <anchor>control of Atlantic Ocean</anchor> sea routes. The Axis, with its U-boats, responds with a counter-blockade that is at first successful, but the Allies' use of convoys, aircraft and technology eventually turns the tide. Over five years, thousands of ships engage in 100-plus battles in the Atlantic Ocean with approximately 100,000 lives lost.
Battle of the Atlantic
Battle of the Atlantic[Skip to main content](#main)

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  - Notable Ships    - [Notable Ships - Main](/browse-by-topic/ships.html)
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  - [Events](/news-and-events/events.html)
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    - [2024](/news-and-events/news/2024.html)
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    - [2013](/news-and-events/news/2013.html)
  - Notices    - [Notices - Main](/news-and-events/notices.html)
  - Podcasts    - [Podcasts - Main](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history.html)
    - [Ep. 1 - Navy Deck Logs and Sailor Poetry](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history/deck-logs-poetry.html)
    - [Ep. 2 - Women's Naval History](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history/podcast-navy-women.html)
    - [Ep. 3 - An Invaluable Resource (Part 1)](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history/podcast-invaluable-resource.html)
    - [Ep. 4 - An Invaluable Resource (Part 2)](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history/podcast-invaluable-resource2.html)
    - [Ep. 5 - H-Gram #82 with Director Cox](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history/podcast-director-cox.html)
    - [Ep. 6 - Artifacts of the Navy on D-Day](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history/podcast-d-day-artifacts.html)
    - [Ep. 7 - Of Mutts and Men](/news-and-events/anchored-in-history/podcast-of-mutts-and-men.html)
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  - Loan Programs    - [Loan Programs - Main](/get-involved/loan-programs.html)
    - [How to Borrow](/get-involved/loan-programs/how-to-borrow.html)
    - [Conditions for Loans](/get-involved/loan-programs/conditions-for-loans.html)
    - [Loan Program Qualification Application](/get-involved/loan-programs/loan-program-qualification-application.html)
    - [Loaned Artifact Condition Report](/get-involved/loan-programs/loaned-artifact-condition-report.html)
    - [Facilities Report](/get-involved/loan-programs/FacilitiesReportForm.html)
    - [Facilities Report: Navy Commands](/get-involved/loan-programs/FacilitiesReportNavyCommand.html)
  - Donate Materials    - [Donate Materials - Main](/get-involved/donate-materials.html)
    - [Navy Archives Donations](/get-involved/donate-materials/archives-branch-donate.html)
    - [Navy Art Collection Donations](/get-involved/donate-materials/art-donation-page.html)
    - [Navy Curator Donations](/get-involved/donate-materials/navy-curator-donations.html)
    - [Navy Photo Archives Donations](/get-involved/donate-materials/photo-archives-donations.html)
    - [Navy Department Library Donations](/get-involved/donate-materials/navy-library-donations.html)
    - [Navy Underwater Archaeology Return Program](/get-involved/donate-materials/ua-return-program.html)
    - [Navy Donation FAQs](/get-involved/donate-materials/donation-faqs.html)
  - [New Year's Day Deck Log Contest](/get-involved/deck-log-contest.html)
  - Grants and Fellowships     - [Grants and Fellowships - Main](/get-involved/grants-and-fellowships.html)
    - [Past Award Recipients](/get-involved/grants-and-fellowships/past-award-recipients.html)
  - [Employment](/get-involved/employment.html)
  - Partner Organizations    - [Partner Organizations - Main](/get-involved/partner-organizations.html)
    - [Foundations](/get-involved/partner-organizations/foundations.html)
    - [Agency Partners](/get-involved/partner-organizations/agency.html)
  - Essay Contest    - [Essay Contest - Main](/get-involved/essay-contest.html)
    - [2023 Winners](/get-involved/essay-contest/2023-winners.html)
    - [2022 Winners](/get-involved/essay-contest/2022-winners.html)
    - [2021 Winners](/get-involved/essay-contest/2021-winners.html)
    - [2020 Winners](/get-involved/essay-contest/2020-winners.html)
    - [2019 Winners](/get-involved/essay-contest/2019-winners.html)
    - [2018 Winners](/get-involved/essay-contest/2018-winners.html)
    - [2017 Winners](/get-involved/essay-contest/2017-winners.html)
  - For Educators    - [For Educators - Main](/get-involved/for-educators.html)
    - [Lesson Plans](/get-involved/for-educators/lesson-plans.html)
    - [Activities](/get-involved/for-educators/activities.html)
  - Annual Navy History and Heritage Awards    - [Annual Navy History and Heritage Awards - Main](/get-involved/nhhc-awards-program.html)
    - [NHHC Awards Program FAQs](/get-involved/nhhc-awards-program/award-faqs.html)
- About Us  - [About Us - Main](/about-us.html)
  - Leadership    - [Leadership - Main](/about-us/leadership.html)
    - [Director](/about-us/leadership/director.html)
    - [Deputy](/about-us/leadership/deputy-director.html)
    - [Former Directors](/about-us/leadership/former-directors-redirect.html)
  - Organization    - [Organization - Main](/about-us/organization.html)
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Battle of the Atlantic

Countering the U-Boat Threat and Supplying the Allies

[![Blue Jackets Loading A Depth Charge Rack ](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset/image.img.jpg/1557504381342.jpg)](/our-collections/art/exhibits/conflicts-and-operations/wwii/the-art-of-mcclelland-barclay/blue-jackets-loading-a-depth-charge-rack.html)

Blue Jackets Loading a Depth Charge Rack. Painting, oil on canvas; McClelland Barclay; 1940–42. Navy Art Collection, accession #48-031-L.

The Battle of the Atlantic pitted the German submarine force and surface units against the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and Allied merchant convoys. The convoys were essential to the British and Soviet war efforts (read more about the Arctic convoys to the USSR in ["Convoy is to Scatter"](/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/Convoy-is-to-Scatter.html) and [The Ordeal of PQ-17](/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/pq-17.html)), and, later, supported the build-up and sustainment of U.S. forces in the European theater of operations.

The ultimate cost of victory in this vast area of operations was sobering: Between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied merchant ships (14.5 million gross tons) and 175 Allied warships were sunk, and 72,200 Allied naval and merchant seamen lost their lives (read more in [Extraordinary Heroism and Conspicuous Courage](/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/naval-armed-guard.html)). The Germans lost 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 sailors, three quarters of Germany's 40,000-man submarine force.

For a closer examination of the operational and strategic evolution of this transoceanic struggle, see the essay **[Battle of the Atlantic: An Overview](/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/overview.html).**

[![Photo #: 80-G-K-1063 USS Roper](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_1096117264/image.img.jpg/1488222431234.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nara-series/80-g-k/80-G-K-01000/80-G-K-1063.html)

80-G-K-1063. USS Roper (DD-147) escorting a convoy (background) out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1942. Roper, commissioned in 1919, was typical of the often-outdated surface escorts utilized at this time.

[![North Atlantic Convoy, 1942](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_988026977/image.img.jpg/1488228928962.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nara-series/80-g/80-G-20000/80-g-21187-north-atlantic-convoy--1942.html)

80-G-21187. North Atlantic convoy of 24 ships steaming south of Newfoundland, Canada, on 28 July 1942.

[![USS PC-556](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_1583316201/image.img.jpg/1488228981877.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/80-G-14000/80-G-14940.html)

80-G-14940. A Coast Guardsman sets the fuse of a depth charge on a “K-gun” projector, October 1942.

[![U-442 in front of burning tanker of convoy TM in January 1943.](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_198995247/image.img.jpg/1488284656888.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-111000/NH-111257.html)

NH-111257. German submarine U-442 running on the surface near a burning tanker, January 1943.

[![S-079 Captain Frank K.B. Wheeler Collection](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_1243310468/image.img.jpg/1515186557513.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/alphabetical---donations0/w/s-079-captain-frank-k-b--wheeler-collection.html)

S-079, Captain Frank K. B. Wheeler collection. Bridge scene on board USS Kearny (DD-432) in the cold North Atlantic, 1944.

[![Blasting Nazi wolf packs: planes of escort carrier save convoy, 16 July 1943.](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_1393937705/image.img.jpg/1488285436795.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-111000/NH-111313.html)

NH-111313

[![Blasting Nazi wolf packs: planes of escort carrier save convoy, 16 July 1943.](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_1903756405/image.img.jpg/1488285252044.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-111000/NH-111308.html)

NH-111308

[![Fighting the foe from Salerno to Tarawa--Depth charge blasts Nazi sub](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_1649990447/image.img.jpg/1488285305396.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-111000/NH-111284.html)

NH-111284

[![Blasting Nazi wolf packs: planes of escort carrier save convoy, 16 July 1943.](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_807043727/image.img.jpg/1488285536884.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-111000/NH-111311.html)

NH-111311

This striking series of photos from July 1943 shows attacks on a German U-boat by aircraft from a U.S. Navy escort carrier. (NH-111313, NH-111308, NH-111284, and NH-111311, above.)

[![USS SANTEE (CVE-29)](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_1094945485/image.img.jpg/1488225951093.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/19-N-34000/19-N-34871.html)

19-N-34871. USS Santee (CVE-29), an escort carrier. The “jeep carriers” or “baby flattops” were often built using merchant ship hulls. They were typically half the length and had a third of the displacement of larger fleet carriers, and were also slower, carried fewer planes, and were less well armed and armored than these. However CVEs were cheaper and could be built quickly. They were ideally suited to provide continuous air cover for slow-moving merchant convoys. Later in the war, escort carriers also formed part of antisubmarine hunter-killer groups.

[![Escort Carrier (CVE) flight operations](/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/atlantic/_jcr_content/body/media_asset_893199080/image.img.jpg/1488285671278.jpg)](/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/80-G-K-15000/80-G-K-15217.html)

80-G-K-15217. Flight operations on board a CVE: A Grumman F6F Hellcat is being readied for take-off.

**The following selected documents in the NHHC library—from both U.S. and German sources—provide fascinating insights into many aspects of Battle of the Atlantic operations:**

- [_History of Convoy and Routing: United States Naval Administration in World War II_](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/h/history-convoy-routing-1945.html)
- [_German Submarine Activities on the Atlantic Coast of the United States and Canada_](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/g/german-submarine-activities-atlantic-coast.html)
- [_The U-Boat War In The Caribbean: Opportunities Lost_ (Naval War College Paper by CDR Karl M. Hasslinger, USN)](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/u-boat-in-the-caribbean.html)
- [_ULTRA and the Campaign Against the U-Boats in World War II_ (NSA Studies in Cryptology)](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/current-doctrine-submarines-usf-25-a.html)
- [_German Naval Communication Intelligence: Battle of the Atlantic, Volume III_](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/b/battle-atlantic-volume-3-german-naval-communication-iIntelligence.html)
- [_Technical Intelligence From Allied Communications Intelligence: Battle of the Atlantic, Volume IV_](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/b/battle-of-the-atlantic-volume-4-technical-intelligence-from-allied-communications-intelligence.html)
- [_German Navy U-Boat (Submarine) Headquarters War Logs from World War II_](/research/library/research-guides/german-navy-u-boat-submarine-headquarters-war-logs-from-world-war-ii.html)
- [_U-94 Sunk By USN PBY Plane and HMCS Oakville 8-27-42: Post Mortems on Enemy Submarines—Serial No. 5_](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/u94-sunk-usn-pby-plane-hmcs-oakville-8-27-42.html)
- [_German U-Boat Casualties in World War II_](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/united-states-submarine-losses/german-u-boat-casualties-in-world-war-two.html)
- [_The Conduct of the War at Sea_ (Essay by Former Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz, German Kriegsmarine)](/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/conduct-of-war-at-sea.html)

**Sources and suggested reading:**

Cressman, Robert J., _The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II_. Annapolis, MD/Washington, DC: Naval Institute Press/Naval Historical Center, 1999.

Dimbleby, Jonathan. _The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War_. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Gannon, Michael. _Operation Drumbeat: The Dramatic True Story of Germany’s First U-Boat Attacks Along the American Coast in World II_. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1990.

Howarth, Stephen, and Derek Law, eds. _The Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1945: The 50th Anniversary International Naval Conference_. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994.

Morison, Samuel Eliot, _History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. I—The Battle of the Atlantic, September 1939–May 1943_. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948.

———, _History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. X—The Atlantic Battle Won, May 1943–May 1945_. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956.

Runyan, Timothy J., and Jan M. Copes, eds., _To Die Gallantly: The Battle of the Atlantic._ Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.

Van der Vat, Dan. _The Atlantic Campaign: World War II’s Great Struggle at Sea_. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.

* * *

### Footnotes

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Published: Tue Jan 12 07:27:01 EST 2021

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