Winston Churchill famously claimed that the submarine war in the Atlantic was the only campaign of the Second World War that really frightened him. If the lifeline to north America had been cut, Britain would never have survived; there could have been no build-up of US and Commonwealth forces, no D-Day landings, and no victory in western Europe. Furthermore, the battle raged from the first day of the war until the final German surrender, making it the longest and arguably hardest-fought campaign of the whole war. The ships, technology and tactics employed by the Allies form the subject of this book. Beginning with the lessons apparently learned from the First World War, the author outlines inter-war developments in technology and training, and describes the later preparations for the second global conflict. When the war came the balance of advantage was to see-saw between U-boats and escorts, with new weapons and sensors introduced at a rapid rate. For the defending navies, the prime requirement was numbers, and the most pressing problem was to improve capability without sacrificing simplicity and speed of construction. The author analyses the resulting designs of sloops, frigates, corvettes and destroyer escorts and attempts to determine their relative effectiveness.

The Destroyer Escort was the smallest ocean-­going escort built for the United States Navy – a downsized destroyer with less speed, fewer guns, and fewer torpedoes than its big brother, the fleet destroyer. Destroyer escorts first went into production because the Royal Navy needed an escort warship which was larger than a corvette, but which could be built faster than a destroyer. Lacking the shipyards to build these types of ships in Britain, they ordered them in the US. Once the US unexpectedly entered World War II, its navy suddenly also needed more escort warships, even warships less capable than destroyers, and the destroyer escort was reluctantly picked to fill the gap. Despite the Navy's initial reservations, these ships did yeoman service during World War II, fighting in both the Atlantic and Pacific, taking on both U-boat and Japanese submarines and serving as the early warning pickets against kamikazes later in the war. They also participated in such dramatic actions as the Battle of Samar (where a group of destroyers and destroyer escorts fought Japanese battleships and cruisers to protect the escort carriers they were shielding) and the capture of the U-505 (the only major naval vessel captured at sea by the US Navy). The destroyer escorts soldiered on after World War II in both the United States Navy and a large number of navies throughout the world, with several serving into the twenty-first century. This book tells the full story of these plucky ships, from their design and development to their service around the world, complete with stunning illustrations and contemporary photographs.

John J. Sheehan, LTJG USN (ret.) John Joseph Sheehan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 27. 1935 to Margaret and Joseph Sheehan, Sr. He attended St. Timothy Parochial School in the Mayfair section of the city. He is a 1952 graduate of St. Josephs Preparatory School, (The Prep) and St. Josephs College (now University) in 1956. John enlisted in the United States Navy and graduated from the Naval Officers Candidate School in 1956. John served as Communications Officer on the USS Cross and the USS Chamber until his honorable discharge as a Lieutenant JG in 1959. Upon his retirement from the City of Philadelphia Comptrollers Office, John use the logs from the Library of Congress to research material from his real life experiences aboard ship. John lives in Philadelphia with his wife of fifty years, Ellen. He is the father of Ann Marie Matekovic, John Sheehan, Jr. and Ellyn Taylor and the grandfather of Katelyn and Laura Matekovic, Casey and Megan Sheehan and Charles, Kelley and Joseph Taylor.

A riveting account of the World War II naval career of the man who did more to win the Battle of the Atlantic than any other officer at sea. Captain F. J. Walker, RN, dedicated his life to defeating the Germans—and Karl Dönitz, Führer der U-Boote, in particular—by containing the U-boats, wearing them down, and sending them back to their bunkers. He was a formidable figure and one of the greatest fighting captains in the Royal Navy, sinking twenty U-boats. For this he was awarded a CB and four DSOs. A month after D-Day, exhausted by his continuous actions at sea against the enemy and his successful exertions to keep the U-boats out of the English Channel to ensure the safe passage of the Allied landings at D-day, he went ashore in Liverpool after a patrol. His ships and the men he had trained and inspired were already back at sea when he died on the 9 July, 1944, aged 48. His ships went on to sink another nine U-boats, bringing his flotillas’ total up to twenty-nine, before the U-boat fleet finally surrendered. Fifteen of which were sunk by Walker’s own ship, HMS Starling.

From 1942 to 1944, 15 German submarines destroyed or severely damaged 27 ships, including three Canadian warships, a U.S. Army troop transport, and the Newfoundland ferry Caribou. More than 250 lives were lost. It was the only battle of the twentieth century to take place within Canada’s boundaries, and the only battle to be fought almost exclusively by Canadian forces under Canadian, rather than alliance, high command. And for more than 40 years the battle was characterized as a Canadian defeat. But was it a defeat? Drawing on new material from wartime records—including ultra-top-secret Allied decryptions of German naval radio communications, Roger Sarty shows that Canada mounted a successful defence with far fewer resources and in the face of much greater challenges than previously known. He draws vivid pictures of the intense combat on Canada’s shores and the interplay of the St Lawrence battle with war politics in Ottawa, Washington and London. At the same time, he weaves a second story: how researchers reassembled the scattered war records in Canada, Britain, the United States and Germany and brought the long-forgotten battle to life for new generations of Canadians and international audiences.

This volume explains the evolution of maritime strategy through the twentieth century, and concludes with some speculations about its future in the next century. The forms and practices of navies and maritime strategy are analysed through the development of eight historical and contemporary topics drawn from the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War and post-Cold War period .

The text describes the development of the class, armament, major conversion programs, differences between the American and British ships, and the operational history of Buckleys in the U.S. and Royal Navies. Throughout the book, recollections and contemporary observations from the men who served aboard these ships are used to provide a personal touch to the history of these "Little Wolves."

A comprehensive overview of the strategy, operations and vessels of the United States Navy from 1941 to 1945. Although slowly building its navy while neutral during the early years of World War II, the US was struck a serious blow when its battleships, the lynchpin of US naval doctrine, were the target of the dramatic attack at Pearl Harbor. In the Pacific Theatre, the US was thereafter locked into a head to head struggle with the impressive Imperial Japanese Navy, fighting a series of major battles in the Coral Sea, at Midway, the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa in the struggle for supremacy over Japan. Having avoided the decisive defeat sought by the IJN, the US increased industrial production and by the end of the war, the US Navy was larger than any other in the world. Meanwhile in the west, the US Navy operated on a second front, supporting landings in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and in 1944 played a significant part in the D-Day landings, the largest and most complex amphibious operation of all time. Written by an acknowledged expert and incorporating extensive illustrations including photographs, maps and colour artwork, this book offers a detailed look at the strategy, operations and vessels of the US Navy in World War II.