German U-Boats – Why are they called Wolfpacks?

Learn more today about German U-Boats in the Second World War and the wolfpacks which roamed the Atlantic Ocean

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During the second world war, German U-Boats heavily targeted the shipping lines between the Unites States and the United Kingdom, this happened in the Atlantic Ocean.

The U-Boats used a tactic called the Wolfpack, this was basically a mass-attack against the conveys used during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Although the wolfpacks proved a serious threat to Allied shipping, the Allies developed countermeasures to turn the U-boat organization against itself.

U-boats usually patrolled separately, often strung out in co-ordinated lines across likely convoy routes only being ordered to meet after one located a convoy and alerted the commander of the submarines

As many U-boats as possible would try and reach the scene of the attack.

Often the U-Boat commanders were given a probable number of U-Boats that would show up, and then when they were in contact with the convoy, make call signs to see how many had arrived.

If their number were sufficiently high compared to the expected threat of the escorts, they would attack.

Most notably was the fact that wolfpacks required extensive radio communication to coordinate the attacks.

This left the U-boats vulnerable to a device called the High Frequency Direction Finder, which allowed Allied naval forces to determine the location of the enemy boats transmitting and attack them.

Equally, effective air cover, both long-range planes with radar, and escort carriers and blimps, allowed U-boats to be spotted as they shadowed a convoy (as they usually waited for the cover of night to attack) This meant they could also be spotted easily.

Of the U-boats, 519 were sunk by British, Canadian, or other allied forces, while 175 were destroyed by American forces

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This video is purely for educational purposes only. All audio has been produced by SuperDuperFacts.

All images used have been legally purchased from Fotolia, shutterstock or used under the Creative Commons License.

All voice overs produced in London, England and recorded in the SuperDuperFacts recording studio.

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