- Author
- Letter Writer
- Subjects
- WWII operations, Letter to the Editor
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- July 1992 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
I enjoyed Sub Lieutenant A J Staal’s essay printed in your December 1991 issue of The Naval Historical Review.
However, I would take issue with his statement “they continued their tactic of inflicting maximum damage on allied merchant shipping and almost succeeded in achieving a complete maritime blockade of Britain in early 1945”. (para 4, page 9).
It is well documented that March 1943 was probably crisis time of the battle in the Atlantic, and the high point of the German U-boat effort.
May I offer just one quote from “The Battle of the North Atlantic”. The official account of the fight against the U-Boats 1939-1945 London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office 1946. “The months of April and May, 1943, will probably be chosen by future historians as the critical period when the offensive at sea finally passed into the hands of the allies”. Perhaps 1945, as quoted by S/LT Staal, is indeed, a misprint.
Mackenzie J Gregory