Prologue

This is a historical, but fictional story of the sea war that was fought between the Royal Navy and the U Boats during the period 1940 to 1942, the action is staged at the time when the U Boats were sinking British and allied shipping with little resistance.

The story also refers to DEMS {Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships) which was the arming of merchant ships, usually with outdated guns from the first world war and manned by volunteer RN ratings which did a great job, at great risk to themselves with ancient equipment...

The U Boats found that they could initially cause havoc, by operating on the surface and running up and down the columns firing their torpedoes and sometimes using their deck guns. The DEMS gunners proved quite effective over time, in stopping this maneuver.

Their were many recorded occasions when the U Boats machine gunned survivors in boats, or in the water. They were also adept at waiting near boats full of survivors, and sinking the rescue vessels who came to pick them up. Additionally survivors had to run the risk of weather and especially on Arctic Convoys. The survival rte if a ship was sunk could be measured in seconds in arctic waters...

After the USA joined the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Germany sent U Boats to the East Coast of America, and started sinking shipping which to start with travelled without escorts, and were easy targets against the background on lighting from the shore...

As the war turned against the Germans, they started fitting Schnorkels to U Boats to allow them to travel faster under water, which allowed them to run on diesels and not to be so reliant on battery power. However, there were a large number of drawbacks to schnorkelling ... Apart from the sound of the engines underwater which could be picked up easily by sonar.

The schnorkel head could not be used in very rough weather, as it had to be well clear of the water otherwise it would close down, and the diesels would take all the oxygen out of the boat, making life very uncomfortable indeed for the crew until the engines were stopped or/ and the boat could return to a suitable depth and the schnorkel head was clear of the sea...

In addition the diesel exhaust fumes had to be expelled via a separate exhaust via the schnorkel head, and the exhaust smoke was quite visible to hunting ships at times. The head could also be picked up on the more sophisticated radar that came into use later in the war.

The Royal Navy tried using Schnorkels on a number of Submarines Post war and the new A type submarines and the exiting T and S class boats were fitted with them, but they were not very popular by the submarine crews, and of course as nuclear powered bots came into use the need for them diminished. The Germans were very aware of these problems, and although their were benefits to schnorkelling, they built a few boats that ran on Hydrogen Peroxide. This worked well as a fuel but if it got contaminated in any way it exploded. Whether they would ever have been used in action is doubtful.

The story is fictional but based on facts.

The War at Sea

Chapter 1 »