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The British Use of Submarines in World War II

The Royal Navy's surprise assett in North Africa

Dec 27, 2008 Barry Vale

Most people think about the Royal Navy in World War II they tend to concentrate upon the British efforts to defeat the U boats rather than the Royal Navy's own force.

A Small Force

The British had learnt the hard way during World War I about how effective submarines could be with the attempt of the German U boats to cut off Britain's vital supply and trading links. The Royal Navy was more interested in protecting merchant shipping than sinking it. Besides the Royal Navy usually used its surface ships to seize enemy merchant ships.

Despite the Royal navy's traditional function of protecting British trade during the Inter-War period British submarine crews were trained to attack enemy merchant ships as well as warships if that was needed to be done. Unlike the Germans the Royal Navy had never had treaty limitations on the number of submarines they could have in service (German U-boats were banned by the Treaty of Versailles). The Inter-War budgetary restraints meant the submarine section of the Royal Navy had been neglected as priority was given to the main battle fleets.

The Over-stretched Royal Navy

Once World War II started the British submarines did not receive as much attention as the surface vessels of the Royal Navy, yet the Admiralty considered them to important nonetheless. Had the French not been defeated in 1940 the Royal Navy might not have had to use its submarines as much because its resources would not have been stretched so far.

The British used their submarines during the course of World War II to attack enemy ships when they were the best option to do so, or indeed if the Royal Navy had no surface ships available to carry out those tasks. The Royal Navy used submarines to attack targets whilst reducing the potential costs of unsuccessful missions in terms of ships lost or crews killed. The Royal Navy also considered being invaluable for carrying out secret missions, as well as being used for gathering intelligence information.

North Africa And Malta

Perhaps the single most effective use of British submarines during World War II was by those submarines that were based on the island of Malta. The Royal Navy submarines based on Malta were actually ideally located to attack German and also Italian shipping in the Mediterranean area. From their Malta bases these British submarines took a heavy toll on the German ships and Italian ships carrying munitions as well other supplies to the Axis land forces in the Middle East and North Africa.

Bibliography

Colvin J, (2004) Decisive Battles, Headline, London

Hobsbawm, E (1994) Age of Extremes, the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael

Joseph, London

Holmes R, (2007) Battlefield – Decisive conflicts in History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, and Cambridge, USA

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