Period of naval battles during the Second World War
Dixie Arrow torpedoed off Cape Hatteras by U-71, 26 March 1942
v
t
e
Atlantic campaign
Americas
United States
Caribbean
St. Lawrence
Northern Barrage
Blockade of Germany
Gibraltar
1939
River Plate
1940
HX 47
HX 49
1st Happy Time
HX 65
SC 2
HX 72
SC 7
HX 79
HX 84
Nordseetour
HX 90
1941
SC 19
SC 20
Berlin
HX 106
HG 53
OB 293
HX 112
4 April
OB 318
HX 126
Rheinübung
Denmark Strait
Bismarck
HX 133
OG 69
OG 71
SC 42
HG 73
SC 48
HX 156
HG 76
1942
Postmaster
2nd Happy Time
Torpedo Alley
SC 67
Neuland
ON 67
27 March
OG 82
ON 92
6 June
HG 84
SL 78
QS 15
ON 113
ON 115
SC 94
ON 122
Bell Island
QS 33
ON 127
Laconia
SQ 36
SC 100
SG 6/LN 6
SC 104
HX 212
SL 125
SC 107
ON 144
ON 153
ON 154
1943
TM 1
SG 19
SC 118
ON 166
UC 1
SC 121
HX 228
UGS 6
HX 229/SC 122
HX 231
Black May
ONS 5
HX 237
SC 129
SC 130
Faith
ONS 18/ON 202
SC 143
ONS 20/ON 206
Sept-Îles
ON 207
SL 138/MKS 28
SL 139/MKS 30
SL 140/MKS 31
Stonewall
Bay of Biscay
1944
Lyme Bay
26 April 1944
Capture of U-505
HX 300
WEP 3
BX 141
1945
Teardrop
Point Judith
5–6 May 1945
7–8 May 1945
The Second Happy Time (German: Zweite glückliche Zeit; officially Operation Paukenschlag ("Operation Drumbeat"), and also known among German submarine commanders as the "American Shooting Season"[1]) was a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping and Allied naval vessels along the east coast of North America. The First Happy Time was in 1940–1941 in the North Atlantic and North Sea. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, and as a result their navies could begin the Second Happy Time.[2]
The Second Happy Time lasted from January 1942 to about August of that year and involved several German naval operations, including Operation Neuland. German submariners named it the "Happy Time" or the "Golden Time," as defense measures were weak and disorganized,[3]: p292 and the U-boats were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During this period, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. This led to the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners. Although fewer than the losses during the 1917 campaign of the First World War,[4] those of this period equaled roughly one quarter of all ships sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War.
Historian Michael Gannon called it "America's Second Pearl Harbor" and placed the blame for the nation's failure to respond quickly to the attacks on the inaction of Admiral Ernest J. King, commander-in-chief of the United States Navy (USN). Because King also refused British offers to provide the US navy with their own ships, the belated institution of a convoy system was in large part due to a severe shortage of suitable escort vessels, without which convoys were seen as actually more vulnerable than lone ships.[5]
^Miller, Nathan: War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II. Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 295. ISBN 0-19-511038-2
^Duncan Redford; Philip D. Grove (2014). The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900. I.B. Tauris. p. 182
^Cite error: The named reference Gannon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Churchill (1950): page 111
^Timothy J. Ryan and Jan M. Copes To Die Gallantly – The Battle of the Atlantic, 1994 Westview Press, Chapter 7.
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