The Convoy War

Britain could not continue the Second World War without the ships that crossed the Atlantic. They carried grain for its people, oil for its aircraft and warships, weapons for its armies and the industrial materials that kept its factories working. Germany understood this dependence and sent its U-boats to sever the lifeline. The Convoy War tells the sweeping story of the merchant ships, submarines, escorts and aircrews who fought one of the longest and most consequential campaigns of the Second World War. It follows Karl Dönitz’s development of wolf-pack tactics, the devastating Happy Times, the struggle to close the mid-Atlantic air gap and the convoy battles that brought Britain dangerously close to a shipping crisis. From the freezing Arctic route to Russia and the desperate convoys supplying Malta to Operation Drumbeat off the American coast, the conflict spread across oceans and continents. Radar, sonar, codebreaking, HF/DF, escort carriers and long-range aircraft gradually transformed the hunted convoys into a powerful defensive and offensive system. At the same time, American and Canadian shipyards launched Liberty ships and other merchant vessels faster than the U-boats could destroy them. At the centre were civilian merchant seamen who sailed repeatedly through torpedoes, storms, fire and freezing water because nations depended upon the cargo inside their holds. This is the story of the ships that kept the Allied war alive-and of the immense human price paid to ensure that the cargo continued to arrive.