Atlantic Escorts: Ships, Weapons & Tactics in World War II

The Atlantic submarine war was the longest and hardest-fought campaign of the Second World War, and this book explores the ships, technology, and tactics employed by the Allies. It outlines inter-war developments in technology and training and describes the later preparations for the war. The author analyzes the resulting designs of sloops, frigates, corvettes, and destroyer escorts and attempts to determine their relative effectiveness.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 176 pages
Publication date: 08 June 2022
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Winston Churchill once remarked that the submarine war in the Atlantic was the only campaign of the Second World War that truly frightened him. If the lifeline to North America had been severed, Britain would never have survived; there would have been no buildup of US and Commonwealth forces, no D-Day landings, and no victory in Western Europe. Furthermore, the battle raged from the first day of the war until the final German surrender, making it the longest and arguably hardest-fought campaign of the whole war. The ships, technology, and tactics employed by the Allies form the subject of this book. Beginning with the lessons seemingly learned from the First World War, the author outlines inter-war developments in technology and training, and describes the later preparations for the second global conflict. When the war came, the balance of advantage swung back and forth between U-boats and escorts, with new weapons and sensors introduced at a rapid rate. For the defending navies, the prime requirement was numbers, and the most pressing problem was to improve capability without sacrificing simplicity and speed of construction. The author analyzes the resulting designs of sloops, frigates, corvettes, and destroyer escorts and attempts to determine their relative effectiveness. While the basic characteristics of these ships are well known, this was the first book to look at their cost-effectiveness in terms of anti-submarine warfare. Based on a lifetime's experience of designing warships, the author's fascinating insights, presented in this new softcover edition, will be of interest to enthusiasts and valuable to naval historians alike.

Weight: 726g
Dimension: 221 x 276 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399020046