First Happy Time

The First Happy Time was a phase of the Battle of the Atlantic during which Germany Navy U-boats enjoyed significant success against the British Royal Navy and its allies. It started in July 1940, almost immediately after France, the United Kingdom's primary ally, was conquered by Germany (the fall of France meant that the German U-boat fleet was brought closer to the British shipping lanes in the Atlantic). When it ended is a matter of interpretation, with some sources claiming October 1940 [Hughes, Terry; Costello, John. "The Battle of the Atlantic", pg. 88] and others extending it to April, 1941. [Macintyre, Donald G. F. W. "The Naval War Against Hitler", pg. 52] The reason for this successful German period was the British lack of radar-equipped ships, which meant that the U-boats were very hard to detect when they made nighttime surface attacks (sonar could detected submerged U-boats).

From July 1940 to the end of October, 282 Allied ships were sunk off of the north-west approaches of Ireland for a loss of 1,489,795 tons of merchant shipping. [Blouet, Brian W. "Global Geostrategy: Mackinder and the Defence of the West", pg. 131]

End of the First Happy Time

Various dates and reasons for the end of the First Happy Time include:
* March 1941, with the German loss of three prominent u-boat aces: Günther Prien, Joachim Schepke and Otto Kretschmer. [cite web |url=http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/story.asp?STORY_ID=1439 |title=The Battle That Had to Be Won |accessdate=2008-06-13 |last=Milner |first=Marc |date= June 2008|work=Naval History Magazine |publisher=United States Naval Institute]

ee also

* Operation Berlin
* Convoy SC-7
* Convoy HX-84
* Convoy HX-106
* Convoy HX-112
* Convoy OB-293

References