The Second Happy Time was the informal name for a phase in the Second Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping along the east coast of North America. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous Military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval Military campaigns The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability The first "Happy time" had been in 1940/41. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous Military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval Military campaigns

It lasted from January 1942 to about August of that year. German submariners named it the happy time or the golden time as defence measures were weak and disorganised,^[1] and the U-boats were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During the second happy time, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3. 1 million tons for the loss of only 22 U-boats. This was roughly one quarter of all shipping sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War, and constituted by far the most serious defeat ever suffered by the US Navy. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Contents 1 Background 2 Opening moves 3 The American response 4 Counter measures get under way 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

Background

When Hitler started a war against the United States on December 11, 1941, that country was in a fortunate position. Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately Events 359 - Honoratus, the first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Where the other combatants had already lost thousands of trained sailors and airmen, and were experiencing shortages of ships and aircraft, the USA was at full strength. America had had the opportunity to learn about modern naval warfare by observing the conflicts in the North Sea and the Mediterranean, and through a close relationship with the United Kingdom. The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The US Navy had already gained significant experience countering U-boats in the Atlantic, particularly from April 1941 when President Roosevelt extended the 'Pan-American Security Zone' east almost as far as Iceland. During the early years of World War II, before the United States became a formal belligerent President Franklin D Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( The United States had massive manufacturing capacity, including certainly the largest and possibly the most advanced electronics industry in the world. Finally, the USA had a favourable geographical position from a defensive point of view: the port of New York, for example, was 3000 miles to the west of the U-boat bases in Brittany. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word, itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot ( undersea boat) and refers Brittany (Breizh bʁejs Bretagne; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a former independent Celtic kingdom and Duchy, now incorporated into

U-boat commander Dönitz, however, saw the entry of the US into the war as a golden opportunity to strike heavy blows in the tonnage war. Karl Dönitz (ˈdøːnɪts) (16 September 1891 &ndash 24 December 1980 was a German naval Commander who served A tonnage war is a Military strategy aimed at merchant shipping The German Navy no longer had its surface tankers in the North Atlantic to refuel submarines (these had been sunk by Allied forces after Ultra intelligence revealed their locations) and the standard Type VII U-boat had insufficient range to patrol off the coast of North America, so the only weapons Dönitz had on hand were the larger Type IX boats. ULTra ("Urban Light Transport" is a Personal rapid transit system from Advanced Transport Systems Ltd a company based in Cardiff, Wales. Type VIIA The Type VIIA boats were designed in 1933 until 1934 as the first of a new generation of attack U-boats Most were built at Deschimag AG Weser in Bremen with U33-36 Type IXA Type IXB Type IXC Type IXC/40 Type IXD These, however, were less maneuverable and slower to submerge, making them much more vulnerable than the Type VIIs, and few in number.

Opening moves

Immediately after war was declared with the United States, Dönitz began to implement operation Paukenschlag ("drumbeat"), requesting that 12 Type IX U-boats be made available for it. The Naval Staff in Berlin, however, insisted on retaining 6 of the precious Type IX boats for the Mediterranean theatre (where they could achieve little) and one of the remaining 6 encountered mechanical troubles. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. This left just 5 long-range submarines for the opening moves of the campaign.

Loaded with the maximum possible amounts of fuel, food and ammunition, the first of the five Type IXs left Lorient on 18 December 1941, the others following over the next few days. Lorient, or L'Orient, (An Oriant is a commune and a Seaport in the Morbihan département, of Brittany. Events 218 BC - Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal 's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Each carried sealed orders to be opened after passing 20°W, and directing them to different parts of the North American coast. No charts or sailing directions were available: Kapitanleutnant Reinhard Hardegen of U-123, for example, was provided with two tourist guides to New York, one of which contained a fold-out map of the harbour. Lieutenant Commander Reinhard Hardegen (born March 18, 1913) is a German U-Boat Commander who sank 22 ships amounting to sunk ranking

Each U-boat made routine signals on exiting the Bay of Biscay, which were picked up by the British Y service and plotted in Rodger Winn's London Submarine Tracking Room, which was then able to follow the progress of the Type IXs across the Atlantic, and cable an early warning to the Royal Canadian Navy. Cantabrian Sea redirects here Not to be confused with Biscay Bay Newfoundland and Labrador or Biscayne Bay. Y-stations were British Signals Intelligence collection sites initially established during World War I and later used during World War II. Sir Charles Rodger Noel Winn (1903–1972 was a British judge and Royal Navy intelligence officer who led the tracking of German U-boat For the history of Canada's naval forces after 1968 see Canadian Forces Maritime Command The Royal Canadian Navy ( RCN) was the Working on the slimmest of evidence, Winn correctly deduced the target area and passed a detailed warning to Admiral Ernest King in the USA of a "heavy concentration of U-boats off the North American seaboard", including the five boats already on station and further groups already in transit, 21 U-boats in all. Fleet Admiral Ernest Joseph King GCB ( November 23, 1878 &ndash June 25, 1956) was Commander in Chief United States Rear-Admiral Frank Leighton of the US Combined Operations and Intelligence Center then informed the responsible area commanders, but little or nothing was done.

The primary target area was the "North Atlantic Coastal Frontier", commanded by Rear-Admiral Adolphus Andrews and covering the area from Maine to North Carolina. The State of Maine ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States Andrews had practically no modern forces to work with: on the water he commanded seven Coast Guard cutters, four converted yachts, three 1919-vintage patrol boats, two gunboats dating to 1905, and four wooden submarine chasers. About 100 aircraft were available, but these were short-range models only suitable for training. As a consequence of the traditionally antagonistic relationship between the US Navy and the Army Air Forces, all larger aircraft remained under Air Force control, and in any case the Air Force was neither trained nor equipped for anti-submarine work. The United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II.

The American response

British experience in the first two years of World War II, which included the horrendous losses incurred to British shipping during the "First Happy Time" confirmed that ships sailing in convoy—with or without escort— were far safer than ships sailing alone. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous Military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval Military campaigns A convoy is a group of Vehicles (of any type but usually motor vehicles or ships traveling together for mutual support British recommendations were that merchant ships should avoid obvious standard routings wherever possible; navigational markers, lighthouses, and other aids to the enemy should be removed, and a strict coastal blackout (or at least a "brownout") enforced. A blackout in time of War, or apprehended war refers to the practice of collectively minimizing external Light, including upward-directed A power outage (also known as power cut, power failure, power loss, or blackout) is the loss of the Electricity supply to an In addition, any available air and sea forces should perform daylight patrols to restrict the U-boats' flexibility.

None of this was attempted. Coastal shipping continued to sail along marked routes and burn normal steaming lights. On 12 January 1942 Admiral Andrews was warned that three or four U-boats were about to commence operations against coastal shipping, but refused to institute a convoy system on the grounds that this would only provide the U-boats with more targets. Events 475 - Basiliscus becomes Byzantine Emperor, with a coronation ceremony in the Hebdomon palace in Constantinople Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Despite the urgent need for action, little was done to try to combat the U-boats. The USN was desperately short of specialised anti-submarine vessels. The shortages arose partly from President Roosevelt's 1941 decision to "loan" fifty obsolete World War I-era destroyers to Britain in exchange for foreign bases, partly because the massive new naval construction programme had prioritised other types and partly because the destroyers that were available remained inactive in port, even while freighters and tankers were being sunk in coastal waters. The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, September 2, 1940, transferred fifty Destroyers At least 25 Atlantic Convoy Escort Command Destroyers had been recalled to the US east coast at the time of the first attacks, including seven at anchor in New York Harbour.

When U-123 sank the 9,500 ton Norwegian tanker Norness within sight of Long Island in the early hours of 14 January, no warships were dispatched to investigate, allowing the U-123 to sink the 6,700 ton British tanker Coimbra off Sandy Hook on the following night before proceeding south towards New Jersey. Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, USA, its western shores directly across from Manhattan, from which the island stretches Events 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Sandy Hook is a barrier peninsula, approximately 97 kilometers (between 6 and 7 miles in length and 800 meters (0 New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. By this time there were 13 destroyers idle in New York Harbor, yet still none were employed to deal with the immediate threat, and over the following nights U-123 was presented with a succession of easy targets, most of them burning navigation lamps. New York Harbor, a geographic term refers collectively to the rivers bays and tidal estuaries near the mouth of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City At times, U-123 was operating in shallow coastal waters that barely allowed it to conceal itself, let alone evade a depth charge attack.

For the five Type IX boats in the first wave of Operation Drumbeat, it was a bonanza. They cruised along the coast, safely submerged through the days, and surfacing at night to pick off merchant vessels outlined against the lights of the cities.

• Reinhard Hardegen in U-123 sank seven ships totalling 46,744 tons before he ran out of torpedoes and returned to base,
• Ernst Kals in U-130 sank six ships of 36,988 tons,
• Richard Zapp in U-66 sank five ships of 33,456 tons, and
• Heinrich Bleichrodt in U-109 sank four ships of 27,651 tons. Lieutenant Commander Reinhard Hardegen (born March 18, 1913) is a German U-Boat Commander who sank 22 ships amounting to sunk ranking
• Ulrich Folkers on his first patrol in U-125 sank only a single 6,666 ton vessel, for which he was criticised by Dönitz (though he would later win the Knight's Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ( German language: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, often simply Ritterkreuz) was a grade of the Iron Cross )

When the first wave U-boats returned to port in early February, Dönitz wrote that each commander "had such an abundance of opportunities for attack that he could not by any means utilise them all: there were times when there were up to ten ships in sight, sailing with all lights burning on peacetime courses".

A significant failure in US pre-war planning was lack of any ships suitable for convoy escort work. Escort vessels travel at relatively slow speeds, carry a large number of depth-charges, must be highly maneouvreable and must stay on station for long periods. Fleet destroyers are equipped for high speed and offensive action and not the ideal design for this type of work. There was no equivalent of the British Black Swan class sloops or the River class frigate in the U. Black Swan class Royal Navy The first two ships were built under the 1937 Programme and the second pair under the 1939 Programme Design The River class ships were designed by naval engineer William Reed to have the endurance and anti-submarine capabilities of the ''Black Swan'' class sloops S. inventory when the war started. This blunder, highly surprising given that the USN had been involved in anti-submarine work in the Atlantic (see USS Reuben James), was further aggravated by the loss of the obsolete destroyers "loaned" to Britain through Lend-Lease, although these were barely suitable and vulnerable to counter-attack. History Reuben James was laid down on April 2 1919 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden New Jersey, launched

There was also a lack of aircraft suitable for anti-submarine patrol and aircrew trained to use them.

Offers of civilian ships and aircraft to act as the Navy's "eyes" were repeatedly turned down, only to be accepted later when the situation was clearly critical and the admiral's claims to the contrary had become discredited

By this time, the second wave of Type IX U-boats had arrived in American waters, and the third wave had reached its patrol area off the oil ports of the Caribbean. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting With such easy pickings available and all Type IX U-boats already committed, Dönitz began sending shorter-range Type VII U-boats to the US East Coast as well. Type VIIA The Type VIIA boats were designed in 1933 until 1934 as the first of a new generation of attack U-boats Most were built at Deschimag AG Weser in Bremen with U33-36 This required extraordinary measures: cramming every conceivable space with provisions, filling the fresh water tanks with diesel oil, and crossing the Atlantic at very low speed on a single engine to conserve fuel.

In the United States there was still no concerted response to the attacks. Overall responsibility rested with Admiral King, but King was preoccupied with the Japanese onslaught in the Pacific. The Pacific War was the part of World War II —and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands and in East Asia, between Admiral Andrews' North Atlantic Coastal Frontier was expanded to take in South Carolina and renamed the Eastern Sea Frontier, but most of the ships and aircraft needed remained under the command of Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, who was often at sea and unavailable to make decisions. South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. Royal Eason Ingersoll was a United States Navy Four star admiral who served as Commander in Chief U Rodger Wynn's detailed weekly U-boat situation reports from the Submarine Tracking Room in London were available but ignored.

Popular alarm at the sinkings was dealt with by a combination of secrecy and misleading propaganda. The Navy confidently announced that many of the U-boats would "never enjoy the return portion of their voyage" but that, unfortunately, details of the sunken U-boats could not be made public lest the information aid the enemy. All citizens who had witnessed the sinking of a U-boat were asked to help keep the secrets safe.

The first sinking of a U-boat by a US Navy ship off the coast of the US did not occur until April 14, 1942, when the destroyer USS Roper sank the U-85. Events 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar 's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Interwar period Following shakedown off the New England coast Roper sailed east in mid-June 1919 and after stops at Ponta Delgada Gibraltar, and It has come to light in recent years that the famous "Loose Lips Sink Ships" propaganda campaign in the US that started in 1942 was not so much designed to deny German agents knowledge of vessels' sailing times (there were no such agents anyway) but rather to keep American civilian morale high by reducing communication about how much shipping was being sunk during Operation Drumbeat. Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people

Counter measures get under way

The decision to implement convoys and blackout coastal towns to make ships more difficult to see came slowly. A blackout in time of War, or apprehended war refers to the practice of collectively minimizing external Light, including upward-directed The situation began to change in April when Andrews implemented a limited convoy system in which ships traveled only during daylight hours. Full convoys were in operation by mid-May, resulting in an immediate reduction of Allied shipping losses off the East Coast as Dönitz withdrew the U-boats to seek easier pickings elsewhere. The convoy system was later extended to the Gulf of Mexico with similar dramatic effects, thus proving that King's initial rejection of the convoy system was wrong.

In March, 24 Royal Navy anti-submarine trawlers and 10 corvettes were transferred from the UK for the defence of the US East Coast. A naval trawler is a boat built along the lines of a Commercial trawler but fitted out for Naval purposes A corvette is a small maneuverable lightly armed Warship, originally smaller than a Frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft, although many The British also transferred 53 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command to Quonset Point, Rhode Island to protect New York Harbor during July 1942. RAF Coastal Command was an organization within the Royal Air Force which defended the United Kingdom from naval threats and countered German U-boats Quonset Point is a small Peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the U New York Harbor, a geographic term refers collectively to the rivers bays and tidal estuaries near the mouth of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City This squadron moved to Trinidad in August, with a U. Trinidad ( Spanish: " Trinity " is the largest and most populous of the two major islands and S. squadron, to protect the critical sea lanes from the Venezuelan oil fields and then back to Norfolk, Virginia until the end of 1942. Norfolk is an Independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States Royal Navy ships took over escort duties in the Caribbean and on the Aruba - New York tanker run. Aruba is a -long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, north of the Paraguaná Peninsula, Falcón State, Venezuela

The Kriegsmarine, while enormously effective during this period, did not go without losses. Sinkings of German U-boats at the hands of United States forces during this time included:

• U-85: sunk 14 April by destroyer USS Roper off Cape Hatteras, first sinking in US waters
• U-352: sunk 9 May by cutter USCGC Icarus off Cape Hatteras
• U-157: sunk 13 June by cutter USCGC Thetis off Havana, Cuba
• U-158: sunk 30 June by Mariner aircraft (USN VP-74) west of the Bermudas
• U-215: sunk 3 July by Armed ASW Trawler HMS Le Tiger in position 41°29′N 66°23′W / 41.48, -66.38 by depth charges
• U-701: sunk 7 July by Lockheed Hudson aircraft off Cape Hatteras
• U-153: sunk 13 July by destroyer USS Lansdowne off Colón, Panama
• U-576: sunk 15 July by two Kingfisher aircraft and ramming by the US motor vessel Unicoi off Cape Hatteras
• U-166: sunk 30 July by USS PC-566 in the Gulf of Mexico, the only U-boat sunk in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II

See also

• Attacks on North America during World War II
• Q-Ship
• United States Merchant Marine

External links

• List of U-boat sinkings
• No 53 Squadron, Royal Air Force, list of bases
• More information about RN Armed Trawlers and the Royal Naval Patrol Service in WW2

References

• The War At Sea Vol II S W Roskill - HMSO
• The Second World War Volume IV W S Churchill - Cassel and Co
• The World War II Data Book John Ellis - BCA
• Operation Drumbeat Micheal Gannon - Harper and Row
• Merchant Shipping and the Demands of War C B A Behrens - HMSO
• The History of the Second World War E Baurer
• A History of US Naval Operations in WW2 Vol I S E Morrison - US Navy
• U-Boat War, three part Documentary - BFS Video, released in May 2001

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