Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War

The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril, wrote Winston Churchill in his monumental history of World War II. His fear was shared by many. The North Atlantic was arguably the true front of the war for Europe, and the stakes there were terrifyinglyhigh. Had Germany succeeded in cutting off the supply of American ships, England might not have held out. In a cable to Churchill in May 1941, Franklin Roosevelt put it plainly, I believe the outcome of this struggle is going to be decided in the Atlantic and unless Hitler can win there he cannotwin anywhere in the world in the end. Hitler knew what was at stake. The shipping lanes of the Atlantic became the main target of the Kriegsmarine operations early in the war. Between 1940 and 1945 the death rate there was higher than in any other theater of the entire war, for both sides. The enemy was always and constantly there andwaiting, lying just over the horizon or lurking beneath the waves. The conflict