The North Atlantic Run: The Submarine war and the Allied Response In September 1939, with the beginning of World War II, German U-boat operations got under way against allied forces; the allies responded to the U-boat threat with a number of counter measures. The combined affect of protection of ships by convoys, harassment of U-boats by airplanes, and other anti-submarine warfare measures, reduced the ability of the U-boats to cut Britain off from her suppliers in North America. In order to assess the effectiveness of the allied response, it is first necessary to look at the U-boats. In looking at the U-boats it is not only necessary to look at the various types of U-boats and their deployment, but also to look at the German's goals and the tactics that they employed in an attempt to reach those goals. The Treaty of Versailles ending world war one prohibited Germany from having any U-boats. When the treaty was changed under The Anglo-German Naval agreement, one of the things that the Germans did to rebuild their navy was to rebuild the U-boat wing. Their first U-boats were for general sea-going and coastal abilities, the U-boats first built for this purpose were types I and II. The type I had a surface speed of 17.75 knots and 8.25 knots submerged on electric engines, for armament it had 4.1 inch and 22 mm. anti-aircraft guns and six torpedoes. In comparison, the type II had speeds of 13 knots surfaced and 7 knots submerged with three torpedoes and one 20 mm. anti-aircraft gun. The type II was smaller than the type I. The Germans developed other U-boats between types III and VII, but the most popular model came with the type VII. The type VII had a displacement of 500 tons and with about 700 built, became the German's main U-boat. It was equipped with a 3.5-inch anti-aircraft gun, four bow torpedo tubes, a single stern torpedo tube, and carried 14 torpedoes; it had a surface speed of 16 knots. The Germans also built several other U-...
