Dönitz's Last Gamble: The Inshore U-Boat Campaign, 1944-45

by Lawrence Paterson

By the end of 1943 the German submarine war on Atlantic convoys was all but defeated, beaten by superior technology, code-breaking and air power. With losses mounting, Dönitz withdrew the wolfpacks, but in a surprise change of strategy, following the D-Day landings in June 1944, he sent his U-boats into coastal waters, closer to home, where they could harass the crucial Allied supply lines to the new European bridgehead. Caught unawares, the British and American navies struggled to cope with a novel predicament -in shallow waters submarines could lie undetectable on the bottom, and given operational freedom, they rarely needed to make signals, so neutralizing the Allied advantages of decryption and radio direction-finding. Behind this unpleasant shock lay an even greater threat, of radically new sub- marine types known to be nearing service. Dönitz saw these as war-winning weapons, and gambled that his inshore campaign would hold up the Allied advance long enough to allow these faster and quieter boats to be deployed in large numbers.

This offensive was perhaps Germany's last chance to turn the tide, yet, surprisingly, such an important story has never been told in detail before. That it did not succeed masks its full significance: the threat of quiet submarines, operating singly in shallow water, was never really mastered, and in the Cold War that followed the massive Soviet submarine fleet, built on captured German technology and tactical experience, became a very real menace to Western sea power. In this way, Dönitz's last gamble set the course of post-war anti submarine development.

REVIEWS

.,."recommend highly to anyone interested in submarine warfare of WW2, and for anyone interested in understanding how that effected naval warfare into the 21st Century. ...very high quality history." IPMS, 11/2008

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published July 23, 2008

About the author

Born and raised in New Zealand, but now living in southern Italy. I've been interested in history, particularly WW2 history, since I can remember.

Reviews

[Bill Tress · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story and analysis of the German U-boat battles of World War Two off the British Isles in 1944 -45, aptly named the inshore battles. I would not describe this book as a novel but rather as an analysis of Donitz’s decisions required by technology advances and the allies having won the open ocean convoy battles. This is the result of Paterson’s in-depth research of Donitz’s U-boat activity inshore around the British isles in 1944. Paterson was able to track their activities, their kills, and their sinking in minute detail. A bonus of this fine book is the addition of pictures of boats and the officers who maned them.
Paterson is a New Zealander, and he has a distinctive way of speaking and writing; the reader can adopt with a little concentration.
The book is meticulously researched, it presents records of submarine activity from BdU (German U-Boat Command) files, personal correspondence, and German and British intelligence. Ships and U-boats are identified, the commanders, the missions, and the results. His narratives are in detail and are combined with actual communications between sea captains and BdU, this focus on details makes this a firsthand account from primary sources of British and German U-boat activity in 1944 -45.
By 1944, the allies using technical advances had rendered U-boat activity in the Atlantic ineffective and costly considering the loss of U-boats and submariners. The BdU was working on improved U-boat technology, yet it was maybe a year or so away. They were developing a new style of submarine, the so-called “electric-boat” with its high submerged speed, automated torpedo reloading and advanced firing system. These new boats were in the works, but their development was slowed by the Allied bombing of factories and supply lines in major German cities. In the meantime, Donitz had to develop a new strategy for his U-boats to survive.
The submarine pens on the French coast were in jeopardy after the allies reached the continent on D-Day. He therefore moved his U-boats to the fjords of Norway where they could be more effectively hidden and yet still able to strike Allied shipping particularly in-shore in the British Isles. He modified his U-boats with a rudimentary snorkel system. This innovation enabled submerged charging of their inadequate battery banks. Equipped with the snorkel the U-boat could travel and operate primarily submerged, thus curtailing the ability to detect them with allied radar.
Many interesting perspectives were shared in this work e.g., evolving tactics and evolving technology. This reader found most interesting at wars end how sailors were assigned to land combat operations. Finally, this war ended, and Donitz ordered his submarines to surface and fly a black flag, signaling surrender. Paterson did a superb job with rich narrative and intimate knowledge of his subject.

[mat · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few rare books on the subject of the submarine warfare in the last months of the WWII. Latest submarine technology developed in Germany during WWII employed in the last months of the WWII could or could not thwart Allied D-Day efforts and rekindle the Battle of the Atlantic?