Why The Wolf Packs Couldn't Escape The British Sloop That Hunted Them Across The Black Pit
Forgotten Naval History
63,323 views
For four years the U-boat wolf packs owned the mid-Atlantic "Black Pit," and no escort could catch them, until Captain Frederic "Johnnie" Walker and his sloop HMS Starling stopped protecting convoys and started hunting. This is the story of the Royal Navy's deadliest submarine killer of World War II, the man who turned the hunters of the Atlantic into the hunted.
In the worst months of the Battle of the Atlantic, German U-boats were sinking Allied ships faster than Britain and America could build them, striking from below and vanishing in the "blind moment" before any depth charge could fall. Conventional escorts could drive a submarine under, but they almost never killed it. Then one passed-over anti-submarine specialist changed the rules. Walker's 2nd Support Group was free to leave the convoy and hunt a single contact to exhaustion, and his "creeping attack" silenced the one warning every U-boat crew relied on, the sound of the attacking ship speeding up overhead.
This video follows that revolution to its climax on 19 February 1944, the sinking of U-264, the first schnorkel-equipped U-boat ever destroyed, during the legendary patrol on which Walker's group sank six U-boats in seventeen days. Walker's 2nd Support Group sank more U-boats than any other unit of the war, and HMS Starling sank more than any single warship in the Royal Navy. By any reckoning he is the most successful anti-submarine commander in history.
TOPICS COVERED
→ Captain Johnnie Walker, HMS Starling and the 2nd Support Group
→ The mid-Atlantic "Black Pit" and why convoys were defenceless there
→ The creeping attack, the barrage and the hold-down explained
→ The hunt and sinking of U-264, the first schnorkel boat lost
→ The "six U-boats in one patrol" cruise of January to February 1944
→ Convoy HG 76 and the ramming of U-574
→ Western Approaches Command, WATU, HF/DF, radar and ULTRA
→ German countermeasures: the acoustic torpedo, schnorkel and Type XXI
→ Why Dönitz and the U-boat arm could not answer the support groups
MAJOR RESEARCH SOURCES
→ Terence Robertson, "Walker R.N." (1956)
→ Alan Burn, "The Fighting Captain: Frederic John Walker RN and the Battle of the Atlantic"
→ Stephen Roskill, "The War at Sea 1939–1945" (Official History)
→ Karl Dönitz, "Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days"
→ Axel Niestlé, "German U-Boat Losses During World War II"
→ Jürgen Rohwer, "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two"
→ uboat.net U-boat and commander databases
→ Imperial War Museum and Royal Navy archival records
FURTHER READING
→ Mark Williams, "Captain Gilbert Roberts RN and the Anti-U-Boat School"
→ Donald Macintyre, "U-Boat Killer"
→ Clay Blair, "Hitler's U-Boat War"
→ John Terraine, "Business in Great Waters: The U-Boat Wars 1916–1945"
If these stories matter to you, subscribe to Forgotten Naval History for more of the ships, the crews and the forgotten actions that decided the war at sea. Leave a like to keep these names visible, and if a relative of yours served in the Royal Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic, tell us his name and his ship in the comments, because that is how the memory survives.
#BattleOfTheAtlantic #JohnnieWalker #NavalHistory
20 Comments
Stoker Petty Officer Bert Latham
He went back to Murmansk in the mid to late 80s with the North Russia Club. Some 20 something Russian lads asked the group if they came to the Rodina during the Great Patriotic War. When the lads were told yes, my dad and his mates were not allowed buy another drink! And those lads were born 15 to 20 years after the war ended.
We went on the Belfast, moored near Tower Bridge and on the bridge he pointed at the signal lamp and said he'd used that!
Why The Wolf Packs Couldn't Escape The British Sloop That Hunted Them Across The Black Pit
Forgotten Naval History
63,323 views
For four years the U-boat wolf packs owned the mid-Atlantic "Black Pit," and no escort could catch them, until Captain Frederic "Johnnie" Walker and his sloop HMS Starling stopped protecting convoys and started hunting. This is the story of the Royal Navy's deadliest submarine killer of World War II, the man who turned the hunters of the Atlantic into the hunted.
In the worst months of the Battle of the Atlantic, German U-boats were sinking Allied ships faster than Britain and America could build them, striking from below and vanishing in the "blind moment" before any depth charge could fall. Conventional escorts could drive a submarine under, but they almost never killed it. Then one passed-over anti-submarine specialist changed the rules. Walker's 2nd Support Group was free to leave the convoy and hunt a single contact to exhaustion, and his "creeping attack" silenced the one warning every U-boat crew relied on, the sound of the attacking ship speeding up overhead.
This video follows that revolution to its climax on 19 February 1944, the sinking of U-264, the first schnorkel-equipped U-boat ever destroyed, during the legendary patrol on which Walker's group sank six U-boats in seventeen days. Walker's 2nd Support Group sank more U-boats than any other unit of the war, and HMS Starling sank more than any single warship in the Royal Navy. By any reckoning he is the most successful anti-submarine commander in history.
TOPICS COVERED
→ Captain Johnnie Walker, HMS Starling and the 2nd Support Group
→ The mid-Atlantic "Black Pit" and why convoys were defenceless there
→ The creeping attack, the barrage and the hold-down explained
→ The hunt and sinking of U-264, the first schnorkel boat lost
→ The "six U-boats in one patrol" cruise of January to February 1944
→ Convoy HG 76 and the ramming of U-574
→ Western Approaches Command, WATU, HF/DF, radar and ULTRA
→ German countermeasures: the acoustic torpedo, schnorkel and Type XXI
→ Why Dönitz and the U-boat arm could not answer the support groups
MAJOR RESEARCH SOURCES
→ Terence Robertson, "Walker R.N." (1956)
→ Alan Burn, "The Fighting Captain: Frederic John Walker RN and the Battle of the Atlantic"
→ Stephen Roskill, "The War at Sea 1939–1945" (Official History)
→ Karl Dönitz, "Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days"
→ Axel Niestlé, "German U-Boat Losses During World War II"
→ Jürgen Rohwer, "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two"
→ uboat.net U-boat and commander databases
→ Imperial War Museum and Royal Navy archival records
FURTHER READING
→ Mark Williams, "Captain Gilbert Roberts RN and the Anti-U-Boat School"
→ Donald Macintyre, "U-Boat Killer"
→ Clay Blair, "Hitler's U-Boat War"
→ John Terraine, "Business in Great Waters: The U-Boat Wars 1916–1945"
If these stories matter to you, subscribe to Forgotten Naval History for more of the ships, the crews and the forgotten actions that decided the war at sea. Leave a like to keep these names visible, and if a relative of yours served in the Royal Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic, tell us his name and his ship in the comments, because that is how the memory survives.
#BattleOfTheAtlantic #JohnnieWalker #NavalHistory