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U-boat
U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the German term refers to any submarine. Austro-Hungarian Navy submarines were also known as U-boats. U-boats are most known for their unrestricted submarine warfare in both world wars, trying to Commerce raiding, disrupt merchant traffic towards the UK and force the UK out of the war. In World War I, Germany intermittently waged unrestricted submarine warfare against the United Kingdom, UK: a first campaign in 1915 was abandoned after strong protests from the US but in 1917 the Germans, facing deadlock on the continent, saw no other option than to resume the campaign in February 1917. The renewed campaign failed to achieve its goal mainly because of the introduction of Convoys in World War I, convoys. Instead the campaign ensured final defeat ...
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Battle Of The Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, Allied naval Blockade of Germany (1939–1945), blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German (navy) and aircraft of the (air force) against the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, United States Navy, and Merchant Navy (United Kingdom), Allied merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States beginning on 13 September 1941. ...
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Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz (; 16 September 1891 – 24 December 1980) was a German grand admiral and convicted war criminal who, following Adolf Hitler's Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide, succeeded him as head of state of Nazi Germany during the Second World War in April 1945. He held the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Government following German Instrument of Surrender, Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies of World War II, Allies weeks later. As Oberkommando der Marine, Supreme Commander of the Navy beginning in 1943, he played a major role in the naval history of World War II, naval history of the war. He began his career in the Imperial German Navy before the First World War. In 1918 he was commanding , and was captured as a prisoner of war by British forces. As commander of ''UB-68'', he attacked a convoy in the Mediterranean while on patrol near Malta. Sinking one ship before the rest of the convoy outran his U-boat, Dönitz began to formulate the concept of U- ...
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Black May (1943)
Black May refers to a period (May 1943) in the Battle of the Atlantic campaign during World War II, when the German U-boat arm (''U-Bootwaffe'') suffered high casualties with fewer Allied ships sunk; it is considered a turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic. Background After February battles around convoys SC 118, ON 166, and UC 1, Black May was the culmination of the March–May 1943 crisis in the Battle of the Atlantic. March The U-boat offensive reached its peak in March, with a series of major convoy battles, first around convoys HX 228, SC 121, and UGS 6; then followed the battle for Convoy HX 229/Convoy SC 122, the largest convoy battle of the war. Allied losses for March totalled 120 ships of , of which 82 () were lost in the Atlantic. The German U-boat arm (''U-Bootwaffe'') (UBW) lost 12 U-boats during this time. Post-war, the official Royal Navy history - by Capt. Stephen Roskill - concluded, "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communications betw ...
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Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branches, along with the and the , of the , the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the grew rapidly during German rearmament, German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines. ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War, non-intervention, but in reality supporting the Francoist Spain, Nationalists against the Second Spanish Republic, Spanish Republicans. In January 1939, Plan Z, a massive shipbuilding programme, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the United Kingdom, British Royal ...
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Wolfpack (naval Tactic)
The wolfpack was a convoy attack tactic employed in the Second World War. It was used principally by the U-boats of the during the Battle of the Atlantic, and by the submarines of the United States Navy in the Pacific War. The idea of a co-ordinated submarine attack on convoys had been proposed during the First World War but had had no success. In the Atlantic during the Second World War, the Germans had considerable successes with their wolfpack attacks but were ultimately defeated by the Allies. In the Pacific, the American submarine force was able to devastate Japan’s merchant marine, though this was not solely due to the wolfpack tactic. Wolfpacks fell out of use during the Cold War as the role of the submarine changed and as convoys became rare. World War I During the (German war on trade) Allies of World War I, Allied ships travelled independently prior to the introduction of the convoy system and were vulnerable to attacks by U-boats operating as 'lone wolves'. By gatheri ...
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U995 2001 1 B
German submarine ''U-995'' is a German Type VII submarine#Type VIIC.2F41, Type VIIC/41 U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine''. She was Keel laying, laid down on 25 November 1942 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany, and Ship commissioning, commissioned on 16 September 1943 with ''Oberleutnant zur See'' Walter Köhntopp in command. She is preserved at Laboe Naval Memorial near Kiel. Design German Type VII submarine#Type VIIC/41, German Type VIIC/41 submarines were preceded by the heavier German Type VII submarine#Type VIIC, Type VIIC submarines. ''U-995'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam (nautical), beam of , a height of , and a draught (ship), draught of . The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 Motor–generator, double-acting electric mot ...
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Submarine
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or informally to refer to remotely operated vehicles and Autonomous underwater vehicle, robots, or to medium-sized or smaller vessels (such as the midget submarine and the wet sub). Submarines are referred to as ''boats'' rather than ''ships'' regardless of their size. Although experimental submarines had been built earlier, submarine design took off during the 19th century, and submarines were adopted by several navies. They were first used widely during World War I (1914–1918), and are now used in many navy, navies, large and small. Their military uses include: attacking enemy surface ships (merchant and military) or other submarines; aircraft carrier protection; Blockade runner, blockade running; Ballistic missile submarine, nuclear deterrenc ...
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Convoys In World War I
The convoy—a group of merchantmen or troopships traveling together with a naval escort—was revived during World War I (1914–18), after having been discarded at the start of the Age of Steam. Although convoys were used by the Royal Navy in 1914 to escort troopships from the Dominions, and in 1915 by both it and the French Navy to cover their own troop movements for overseas service, they were not systematically employed by any belligerent navy until 1916. The Royal Navy was the major user and developer of the modern convoy system, and regular transoceanic convoying began in June 1917 with the assistance of the US and other Allied navies. They made heavy use of aircraft for escorts, especially in coastal waters, an obvious departure from the convoy practices of the Age of Sail. As historian Paul E. Fontenoy put it, " e convoy system defeated the German submarine campaign."Paul E. Fontenoy, "Convoy System", ''The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social and Mili ...
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Austro-Hungarian Navy
The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', ) was the navy, naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated ''SMS'', for ''Seiner Majestät Schiff'' (His Majesty's Ship). The k.u.k. Kriegsmarine came into being after the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, and ceased to exist in 1918 upon the Empire's defeat and subsequent collapse at the end of World War I. Before 1867, the Imperial Austrian Navy or simply the Austrian Navy, saw action in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian expedition against Morocco (1829), the Second Egyptian–Ottoman War, the First Italian War of Independence, First and Second Italian War of Independence, Second Italian unification, Wars of Italian Independence, the Second Schleswig War, and the Third War of Italian Independence. Following Austria's defeat by Prussia and Italy during the Seven Weeks' War, the Austrian Empire Austro-Hungarian C ...
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Befehlshaber Der Unterseeboote
The ''Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote'' or BdU (Eng: "Commander of the U-boats") was the supreme commander of the German Navy's U-boat Arm (''Ubootwaffe'') during the First and Second World Wars. The term also referred to the Command HQ of the U-boat arm. The title was established in June 1917, replacing the role of "Leader of the U-boats" ('' Führer der Unterseeboote'', or FdU) for the High Seas Flotillas. The first incumbent was ''Kapitan zur See/Kommodore'' Andreas Michelsen, previously head of the High Seas Fleet’s destroyer force. The post was abolished with the end of the war. It was revived on 17 October 1939, when Karl Dönitz was promoted to rear admiral (''Konteradmiral''). His previous title had been FdU, a position he had held from January 1936. On 31 January 1943 Dönitz was promoted to grand admiral (''Großadmiral'') and became supreme commander (''Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine'') of the entire Kriegsmarine, replacing Erich Raeder Erich Johann Alber ...
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Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships such as freighters and tankers without warning. The use of unrestricted submarine warfare has had significant impacts on international relations in regard to both the First World War and the Second World War. Its history has been dominated by German decision making. There have been attempts to limit the use of unrestricted naval warfare, with some dating back to before the turn of the 20th century as an extension of rules for surface raiders. While initially submarines operated successfully by attacking on the surface using deck guns, attacking without warning while submerged reduces the opportunity for the target to escape or defend itself if armed. History Customary naval law (specifically, so called cruiser rules) specified that while enemy warships may be attacked freely, civilian and neutral ships can only be interfered with if carrying contraband (announced previously i ...
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