The Battle Against The U-Boat In The American Theater [Illustrated Edition]

By Richard P. Hallion

Includes 20 Illustrations

In 1942 the Allied powers faced the most serious challenge to their control of the seas encountered in the Second World War: the menace of the U-boat. Fast, well- armed, and long-ranged, Hitler’s submarines attacked shipping throughout the North Atlantic, often within sight of America’s coastal towns and cities.
Eventually, the combination of intelligence, land and sea- based air power, and surface vessel operations from both North American and British bases ended this threat, making possible the Allied build-up for the invasion of Europe in 1944.

Flying radar-equipped long-range patrol planes, AAF airmen demonstrated the value of land-based air power against naval threats. This success has been reaffirmed consistently since the Second World War, from Vietnam and crises such as the Mayaguez incident to operations in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Harpoon-armed B-52s of our present-day global Air Force are the heirs of a sea-control tradition dating to the AAF’s A-29s and B-24s of the Second World War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tannenberg Publishing
• Release date: Nov 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781786252524

Richard P. Hallion

Richard P. Hallion holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland, and has completed specialized governmental and national security programs at the Federal Executive Institute, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has been a Curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum; a Historian with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Air Force; the Harold Keith Johnson Chair of Military History at the Army War College; the Charles Lindbergh Professor at the National Air and Space Museum; a Senior Issues and Policy Analyst for the Secretary of the Air Force; the Air Force Historian; a Senior Advisor for Air and Space Issues for the Air Force's Directorate for Security, Counterintelligence, and Special Programs; a Special Advisor for Aerospace Technology for the Air Force Chief Scientist; a Senior Advisor to the Science and Technology Policy Institute of the Institute for Defense Analyses; a Research Associate in Aeronautics for the National Air and Space Museum; and a Trustee of Florida Polytechnic University. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Royal Historical Society, and an Honorary Member of the Order of Daedalians who has flown as a mission observer in a wide range of military aircraft. He lives in Florida.

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Text originally published in 1993 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II

The Battle Against the U-Boat — in the American Theater December 7, 1941-September 2, 1945

by

Richard P. Hallion

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

Introduction 6

The Battle Against the U-Boat — in the American Theater December 7, 1941-September 2, 1945 7

The Role of The Army Air Forces in the Antisubmarine Campaign 8

Operations off the West Coast — December 1941-February 1943 10

Operations off the East Coast — December 1941-June 1942 12

Operations in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea — January-October 1942 19

Impact of Antisubmarine Campaign on German Submarine Operations 19

Operations of the AAF Antisubmarine Command — October 1942-August 1943 23

Operations from Newfoundland — October 1941-July 1943 24

Development of Antisubmarine Equipment and Tactics 27

Dissolution of the AAF Antisubmarine Command 30

AAF Contributions to the Antisubmarine War 32

Suggested Readings 34

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 35

Introduction

In 1942 the Allied powers faced the most serious challenge to their control of the seas encountered in the Second World War: the menace of the U-boat. Fast, well-armed, and long-ranged, Hitler’s submarines attacked shipping throughout the North Atlantic, often within sight of America’s coastal towns and cities.

Eventually, the combination of intelligence, land and sea-based air power, and surface vessel operations from both North American and British bases ended this threat, making possible the Allied build-up for the invasion of Europe in 1944.

This booklet, by A. Timothy Warnock of the Air Force Historical Research Agency, is one of a series tracing selected Army Air Forces activities in the Second World War. It describes the Army Air Forces’ contribution to the Battle of the Atlantic from the American Theater. A subsequent booklet will examine the campaign in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Flying radar-equipped long-range patrol planes, AAF airmen demonstrated the value of land-based air power against naval threats. This success