How did the allies protect ships against U-boat attacks?

Answer 1

The main means of defence developed against U-boats was the convoy system ? groups of merchant ships in close formation under the protection of one or more escort war ships. During the Second World War, the submarine menace revived, threatening the survival of island nations like Britain and Japan which were particularly vulnerable because of their dependence on imports of food, oil and other vital war materials. Despite this vulnerability, little had been done to prepare sufficient anti-submarine forces or develop suitable new weapons. Other navies were similarly unprepared, despite the fact that every major navy had a large, modern submarine fleet. At the beginning of the war, most navies had few ideas how to combat submarines beyond locating them with sonar and then dropping depth charges on them. But sonar proved much less effective than expected, and was no use at all against submarines operating on the surface at night. The Royal Navy had continued to develop [indicator loops] between the wars but this was a passive form of harbour defence that depended on detecting the magnetic field of submarines by the use of long lengths of cable lain on the floor of the harbour. Indicator loop technology was quickly developed further and deployed by the US Navy in 1942. By then there were dozens of [loop stations] around the world. Sonar was far more effective and loop technology died straight after the war. Allied anti-submarine tactics developed to defend convoys, aggressively hunt down U-boats and to divert vulnerable or valuable ships away from known U-boat concentrations. During the course of the Second World War, the Allies developed a huge range of new technologies, weapons and tactics to counter the submarine danger. These included: * Allocating ships to convoys according to speed, so that faster ships were less exposed. * Huge escort construction programmes to mass-produce the small warships needed for convoy defence, such as corvettes, frigates, destroyers, and escort carriers. * The development of new ahead-throwing anti-submarine weapons such as the hedgehog and the squid. * High frequency direction finding (HF/DF) to pinpoint the location of an enemy submarine from its radio transmissions. * The introduction of seaborne radar. * Air raids on the German U-boat bases at Brest and La Rochelle. * Long-range aircraft patrols to find German U-boats and either sink them or force them to submerge and lose contact with the convoy. * Airborne radar. * Torpedoes active countermeasures such as Foxer acoustic decoy. * The Leigh light airborne searchlight which was used in conjunction with airborne radar to surprise and attack enemy submarines on the surface at night. * Larger convoys, which allowed more escorts to be allocated to each convoy. * The formation of support groups of escort ships that could be sent to reinforce the defence of convoys under attack. Free from the obligation to remain with the convoys, support groups could continue hunting a submerged submarine until its batteries and air supplies were exhausted and it was forced to surface. In the air many different aircraft from lighter-than-air airships to four-engined seaplanes and land-planes were used. Some of the more successful anti-submarine aircraft were the Lockheed Ventura, PBY Catalina, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Short Sunderland and Vickers Wellington. The provision of seaborne air cover was essential. At first, the British developed temporary solutions such as merchant aircraft carriers and CAM ships. These were superseded by mass-produced, relatively cheap escort carriers built by the United States and operated by the US Navy and by the Royal Navy. At this point there was a significant difference in the tactics of the two navies and criticism was aimed at the British. The Americans favoured aggressive hunter-killer tactics using escort carriers on search and destroy patrols, whereas the British preferred to use their escort carriers to defend the convoys directly. The American view was that this tactic did little to reduce or contain U-boat numbers. In the event, the tactics were complementary, suppressing and destroying U-boats. The critical Allied advantage was provided by the breaking of German naval codes (information gathered this way was dubbed Ultra) at Bletchley Park in England. This enabled the tracking of U-boat packs to allow convoy re-routings: however, whenever codes changed, convoy losses rose significantly. Much later, in the war, active and passive sonobuoys were developed for aircraft use. Don't forget the baby flat tops, escort carriers, that sailed with the convoys. Their aircraft prevented the U-boats a chance to surface and recharge their batteries.

Answer 2

Convoy system.

Additional answer

The convoys would zig zag so that if a torpedo had been fired, with a bit of luck it would miss. They also used spotter planes and depth charges.

Ans 3 - The ALLIED convoys were escorted mainly by Royal Canadian Navy ships ( at first many of them were WW1 destroyers from US) and patrolled over by Royal Air Force Coastal Command aircraft from Britain and USAF aircraft operating from Canada and Greenland.

By 1943 the Canadians had built many specialised subhunting ships, these were equipped with depth charges and bomb launchers known as 'Squid'

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Answer 3

They used a convoy system with armed ships protecting the cargo ships.

The US assisted with escort destroyers and the UK increased armament and changes convoy tactics to have any chance against the German wolf packs.

What finally changed the odds was that British code breakers decrypted the German Engima system and could get intelligence about U-boat movements and plans.

Britain used new technology like radar, and submarine attack aircraft.

Answer 4

Allied ships never travelled alone; they would travel in large groups. And in those groups, an aircraft carrier was usually included. It served a vital role in protecting sea convoys.

The carrier would send out scout planes to search the water (you could spot U-boats if they were close to the surface). If by chance it spotted a U-boat, it was destroyed with machine gun fire and bombs (the latter, to a lesser extent). It wasn't an exact science, but it worked.

Answer 5

They travelled in convoys with destroyer escorts and had air cover for part of the journey.

Answer 6

They fought like no tomorrow... they decided to hurt a bunch of people by spitting on them for fun.. that is what they did.

Answer 7

Escort destroyers, patrol aircraft, and blimps

Answer 8

Convoy system