Book Review: "Black May", Michael Gannon,1998, Part 2

      England was alone against the Nazis in the early years of the war, totally dependent on resupply from the United States by way of the convoy train that stretched across the North Atlantic.  Faced with terrible weather, little or non existent air cover, and inconsistent naval escort service, the merchant marine ships were at the mercy of the U-Boat.  For years, the convoy concept was a subject of debate, despite the mounting losses among independently routed ships.  It was a cat and mouse game between 7 knot per hour ships and 12 knot per hour subs(on surface).  As the tonnage figures climbed, Allied leaders needed to come up with a better plan.  That plan was the convoy and an increase of small escort ships trained in aggressive anti-submarine warfare.   Coupled with a break through in decryption, the solving of the ENIGMA coding machine used by the German Navy to signal its subs, the Allies were now ready to reverse the fortunes of its convoys and put the U-Boats on the defensive.
      Utilizing number crunching mathematicians and convincing arguments, the Allied air forces began attacking U- Boats as they transited the Bay of Biscay into the Atlantic.  On the open sea, patrol planes now aggressively attacked surfaced subs discovered by radar that was most recently added to their aircraft.   In the end, 41 U-Boats were sunk in May, 1943, with a loss of most of their crews.  This was double the replacement rate and acknowledged by Donitz as unsustainable losses.
     Thus, the outcome of the war was pressed to its future end as a victory for the Allies over nazi Germany.   Mr. Gannon made good use of German naval archives and was able to interview several surviving German Naval personnel who agreed to talk of their experiences.  Not all would care to recall those days.   Many claims, on both sides of the periscope, had these claims altered after post conflict examination.   Claims of sinkings were changed to damaged or better.  Sizes of merchant ships were drastically altered in many cases, reducing losses by considerable amounts.
    A great read that captures the North Atlantic naval war against the submarine in all its aspects.
5 *****