Winston Churchill

[Administrator]

In July 1941 Winston Churchill said, "The Merchant Navy, with Allied comrades,
night and day, in weather fair or foul, faces not only the ordinary perils on
the sea, but the sudden assaults of war from beneath the waters or from the sky."

“But for the Merchant Navy who bring us the food and munitions of war,
Britain would be in a perilous state and ...the Army, Navy, and Air Force
could not operate." Winston Churchill, April 1941.


Churchill Broadcast in 1941:

"In order to win this war Hitler must either conquer this island by invasion or he must cut the ocean lifeline which joins us to the United States....

Wonderful exertions have been made by our Navy and our Air Force......by the men who build and repair our immense fleet of merchant ships, by the men who load and unload them, and, need I say, by the officers and men of the Merchant Navy, who go out in all weathers and in the teeth of all dangers to fight for love of their native land and for a cause they comprehend and serve.

Still, when you think how easy it is to sink ships at sea and how hard it is to build and protect them, when you remember we never have less than 2,000 ships afloat and 300 to 400 in the danger areas, when you think of the great armies we maintain...and the world-wide traffic we have to carry, can you wonder that it is the Battle of the Atlantic which holds the first place in the thoughts of those upon whom rests the responsibility for procuring the victory?"

[Administrator]

As an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a tonnage war: the Allied struggle to supply Britain and the Axis attempt to stem the flow of merchant shipping that enabled Britain to keep fighting. From 1942 onwards, the Germans also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the British Isles in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. The defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Germans, Winston Churchill later wrote,
The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome.
— Winston Churchill

The outcome of the battle was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of 783 U-boats.
The name "Battle of the Atlantic" was coined by Winston Churchill in February 1941.