Page 61 - All About History - Issue 19-14

The Deadly Wolfpack

Otto Kretschmer was the most successful German
U-boat commander of WWII, sinking 47 ships

As lone hunters, the German U-boats of

World War II were deadly killing machines.

When attacking in groups, or ‘wolfpacks’,

they were so devastating they almost won

WWII for Hitler… Written by Will Lawrence

inston Churchill paces up and down were co-ordinated, in what came to be known
his war room, his anxiety rising. as ‘wolfpack’ (wolfsrudel) attacks, and they
It is the winter of 1940, the year is scored a string of staggering successes – such as
drawing to a close, and more bad the harrowing of convoy SC-7, which German
W news has reached his ears. Britain submariners dubbed ‘the night of the long knives.’
is suffering terrible casualties in the Battle of the This violent confrontation unfolded on the evening
Atlantic. The nation’s war leader knows his besieged of 18 October 1940, as an Allied flotilla of 35
country is in grave danger; German U-boats are merchant ships and six escorts sailed from Nova
stalking the Atlantic’s grey waters like packs of Scotia in Canada laden with vital supplies destined
wolves. During 1940 alone they sink almost 500 for ports in the United Kingdom.
cargo ships, totalling close to 2.4 million tonnes. The convoy was slow – a number of ships ferried
Britain looks set to starve. “Our lifeline even across steel ingots and iron ore – and proved easy prey for
the broad oceans was endangered”, Churchill would prowling U-boats. Three lone hunters, U-124, U-48
write in his acclaimed history, The Second World and U-38, sunk four ships on October 16 and 17.
War. “I was even more anxious about this battle Then, on the following night, Admiral Karl Dönitz,
than I had been about the glorious fight called the the chief of the German U-boat Waffe, co-ordinated
Battle of Britain.” a five-sub wolfpack attack upon the remainder of
It was a fear well placed. During the first 16 the beleaguered fleet. The results were devastating.
months of World War II, U-boats destroyed more Tucked away at his headquarters in Lorient,
than 700 Allied vessels. These silent killers France, Dönitz ordered U-46, U-100, U-101, U-123
were at their most lethal when their efforts and U-99 – the latter captained by the deep-sea

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