Meantime, the battle at Kursk begins. Ambassador Oshima asks about the significance of the action from his sources in Berlin. He reports to Tokyo that he was told: “The action is chiefly intended to straighten out the German line and is not the real thing.”41 On July 9, Oshima reports that the Germans have failed in their U-boat war. The major news in this message to Tokyo is that because of new Allied techniques in defending convoys, the U-boats are ordered to end their wolf-pack attacks.42 This is the best news Prime Minister Churchill and his staff could receive.
