Tactics and Operational Research in the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII

This study concerns the naval campaign in the 1939-1945 conflict between the Allied and Axis forces known as the ‘Battle of the Atlantic’. To facilitate the understanding of this battle a computer-based battle model of a typical engagement between the opposing forces was created. The key naval assets in this conflict were the Allied merchant ships carrying vital supplies that were organised into convoys and were escorted for their protection by warships. On the Axis side were submarines (U-boats) including their organisation into Wolf Packs. The Axis goal for the U-boats was the cutting off of the supply of vital war materials, especially oil and fuel, that were carried in the Allied convoys to Britain and the Allied forces in the UK, Mediterranean theatre and on the Russian front. Allied air power played a key role eventually, as did radio signal detection and interception. The focus of the modelling work was on the battles over the convoys SC107 and TM1, which represented serious Allied failure and Axis tactical, but not strategic, victory. The model created was a convoy centric kinematic one and was not a dynamic model of forces and accelerations. During this study, it was found that the U-boat commanders were not using their U-boats and torpedoes to the full efficiency that they could have achieved. The reason lay in the direct orders to attack individually and not simultaneously. A counterfactual aspect was created in the model to explore the effects of simultaneous formation attacks by all the members of a Wolf Pack. A profound increase in sinking of convoy ships per U-boat was obtained and reductions in U-boat losses identified. If used this could have led to a temporary Axis victory in the Atlantic in 1942-1943, and might even have delayed Allied victory and impacted post war Europe.