German+Wolf+Packs-1

German Wolf Packs -

Name- Jeremy Ussenburger Age – 39 Occupation- Crew member on German U- boat
 * http://www.uboataces.com/tactics-wolfpack.shtml ||
 * http://www.uboataces.com/tactics-wolfpack.shtml ||
 * http://www.uboataces.com/tactics-wolfpack.shtml ||

Hometown – Munich Hero – Adolf Hitler Height- 6’2” Statis- Divorced five times and working on the 6th

August 21 ,1941 My commanding officer shouted orders to us as we all went to out stations. We were employing our tactic of //“Rudeltaktik”,// or wolf pack (“U-boat” 1). See, in order to insure goods to Britain and the Soviet Union, supply lines must be open (Danzer et al 553). That’s where our **U-boats** or submarines come in. We can attack the ships undetected. They don’t even know what hit them. But then Britain came up with the convoy system, where ships sail together as a group instead of as isolated, //easy//, targets. And not only that, but they sail with anti-submarine vessels and warships. This, of course, caused problems for us, as we had a hard time doing any damage at all anymore. I mean, U-boats are useful, but after Britain came up with the idea of the convoy system, they became kind of useless. That is, until some genius came up with the idea of the **wolf pack,** where all attacks on the convoys where delayed, until all U-boats (sometimes up to 40 patrolled the areas in the North Atlantic), were in position to conduct a massive, organized attack. This overwhelmed the defense, and threw them off (“U-boat” 1). If there is enough of us, one or more could get in a torpedo run (“Wolf-Pack” 1). Pretty brilliant if you ask me. I mean we’ve managed to sink as much as 350,000 tons of shipments in //one month alone// (Danzer et al 553). Come on now, how great //are// we//.// Germany really is the supreme country. Our ship is to be the **“shadower”**, we will follow the convoy out of site, and keep out allies informed of it’s position through powerful radios. My commanding officer explained that we would usually travel under water by day and on the surface at night. I can’t wait (“U-boat” 1).

August 23, 1941 Finally, all boats are in position. Now the BdU will give the orders to attack, and we’ll wreck havoc on those American losers. It’s dusk when we attack, because it makes it harder for the convoy to detect us in the darkness (“U-boat” 1) The fight is exhilarating. Some ships fire from long distances, but ours under the command of **Otto Krteschmer** goes right to the center, and fires at point blank range, picking off ships one by one. At first, the Allies attempted to fight U-boats by rushing them into an attempted attack or forcing them to submerge, because if a U-boat would fall behind a fast moving convoy if submerged for to long. But if there are multiple U-boats attacking form multiple angles splits the escorts, and the escorts are not able to keep all of the u-boats under water for long. Soon the “abandoned” boats would pop back up because of the escorts split attentions and make of surface “sprint” run to get ahead of the convoy and attack again (“Wolf” 1). At first, the Allies attempted to fight U-boats by rushing them into an attempted attack or forcing them to submerge, because if a U-boat would fall behind a fast moving convoy if submerged for to long. The attack is devastating. To the convoy. It’s great. It’s really too bad that we couldn’t employ this tactic before the fall of Franc, but we didn’t have enough ships or powerful enough radios (“U-boat” 2)

Works Cited Danzer, Gerald A,and J. Jorge Klor de Alva and Krieger Larry S and Wilson Louis E and Woloch, Nancy. __The Americans__. McDougal Littell. "German U-Boat." __U-Boat Wolf Pack Tactic__. 2005-2007. Uboataces. 23 Oct 2007 . "Wolf Packs." __Everything__. 23 Oct 2007 .