Operation Sea Lion

U-Boat Campaign

Germany had very clear that defeating Great Britain by sea was going to be impossible without having a surprise factor and technological advantages, reason why they developed the U-Boat campaingn. U-Boat is an abbreviation that stands for “Unterseeboot” which is a German term that means undersea boat. This term only refers to the submarines used in the World War II as a German secret weapon to defeat the strongest navy of that time. The main idea was to send the U-Boats and wait for the right moment to make a surprise attack.

Another reason why the U-Boats were used was because the Treaty of Versailles limited the German surface Navy into only six battleships, six cruisers and 12 destroyers which was nothing compared to the British Navy. This is another way of rebellion against the Treaty of Versailles, which was one of the causes of the war.

The following chart shows us a comparison between the Allies Navy and the German Navy.

Warship type	Royal Navy Home waters & Atlantic	French Navy  Atlantic and Channel	German Navy (Kriegsmarine) European waters + Atlantic Station
Battleships	9	2	3 + 2
Carriers	4	1	-
Cruisers	35	3	7
Destroyers	95	20	22
Submarines	25	-	41(U-boats) + 16
Totals	168	26	73 + 18
	plus escorts	-	plus torpedo boats

Source BRITISH and COMMONWEALTH NAVIES at the Beginning and End of World War 2http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignRoyalNavy.htm

As we can see the U-Boats were the biggest thread for Great Britain and they also were essential in the Battle of the Atlantic, which at first was being won by Germany, but ended up becoming a failure for the Axis powers.  The main weapon that the U-Boats had was the torpedo, which managed to destroy about 3,000 allied ships.

The U-Boats were used during all the Operation Sealion and were updated each time. At the beginning of the war Germany counted with only 57 U –Boats and for the next years about 1,100 of them was made. There were different types of U-Boats but the most common was the Type VII , the “workhorse”, about 700 of them were used for the destruction of the enemy ships.  Another idea that was developed later in the war was the “Schnorchel” which was a retractable pipe which supplied air to the diesel engines while submerged at periscope depth, allowing the boats to cruise and recharge their batteries while maintaining a degree of stealth.  This however wasn’t a solution because they had many technical incovenients.

At the end, the U-boats campaign was a well thought idea but  ended up beign a failure because the Royal Navy managed to localized them with radars and the suprise attack only worked at the start. Germany understimated the enemy and wasn’t able to defeat the greatest navy of the time.

by: Fernanda Zurek

Why was so important for Germany to defeat Great Britain?

It has been always known that one of Germany´s greatest enemies of all times was Great Britain. But why was it? Why was so important for Hitler to defeat Great Britain?  There are many factors that answer this question.

To start, Germany had a strong feeling of revenge that was growing stronger and stronger each time and a lot of it was because of the Treaty of Versailles. One of the biggest represents of it, next to France and the United States was Great Britain. Hitler wanted to rebel against what was accorded in the Treaty of Versailles, and by defeating them he was going to prove it was possible.

Another reason was that Germany had already defeated France and United States was following isolationism, so they didn’t consider it a thread and the only big enemies left were Russia and Great Britain. If Hitler was able to defeat Great Britain he will get rid of the Allies, have almost the entire western control and will only need to focus on Russia to have the complete power. He will also prove that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were wrong and that nothing could stop him. 

There was also the issue about the Navy. Britain’s Navy was the biggest Navy of all times and had been never defeated by the Germans which made them even more attracted to the idea of achieving it.  They will have the glory of finally defeating them and of making Britain and the other Allied Powers pay for all what Germany had to after World War I.

              vs 

The next important factor was the ideologies. Great Britain was a constitutional monarchy but still supported democracy and was completely against the fascist governments, like for example Nazism. So, in order to defeat democracy Germany had to defeat one of its main supporters. This will made it easier for Nazism to spread and to have the control of the entire Europe.

In conclusion, it was important for Germany to defeat Great Britain because they will be able to have almost the entire control of Europe and because they had a feeling of revenge that came from years before and by defeating Great Britain they will prove their point and make them pay as they made Germany before.