New release: Decision in the Atlantic: The Allies and the Longest Campaign of the Second World War, edited by @ProfCMBell and myself, published though @KentuckyPress (May 2019) #ww2 #BattleOfTheAtlantic

The sheer breadth and depth of a book like this requires a team effort and I am ever so grateful to @ProfCMBell @GoldrickJames @timbenbow1 @h1bennett Marc Milner, Dave Kohnen, Kevin Smith and Ben Jones for having shown incredible patience. Thank you kindly, I hope you enjoy it.

Winston Churchill coined the phrase “Battle of the Atlantic” in March 1941, but it was not a battle in the conventional sense not contained to the Atlantic Ocean. This book is about the scale and complexity as experienced through Allied eyes.

Chapter 1 is Marc Milner’s tour de force on the Atlantic campaign. This is the single chapter on the Battle of the Atlantic you would read, if you only read a chapter about it. Great for anyone who wants the big picture (and also for students with essays to write, just saying)

Chapter 2 is @ProfCMBell tackling the politics and grands strategy of the Atlantic campaign. This is about Churchill and whether U-boats really were the only thing that kept him awake at night. Spoiler - not so much, it’s all a matter of priorities.

Chapter 3 by Kevin Smith looks at the issue of British industrial relations and its impact on the availability of shipping. Politics and logistics had as much of an impact as enemy action yet did fit into the prevailing post war narrative of U-boats versus convoys.

Chapter 4 by @timbenbow1 convoys is a comprehensive study of the Great Air Battle of the Atlantic. How airpower should have been applied has long been debated and a feature of most #ww2 histories, this takes the debate to the next level.

Chapter 5 by Ben Jones examines the role and evolution of naval aviation in the Atlantic campaign. Aircraft carriers were the key to securing allied maritime communications, but developing the necessary infrastructure and critical mass took time, resource and training.

Chapter 6 by @GoldrickJames is about one of the most crucial factors, always mentioned yet so little studied, the training of the ASW escort crews. What it took to work up the manpower required to turn the tide against the U-boats in 1943. This is an important chapter.

Chapter 7 by me concerns the threat of a German aircraft carrier entering the campaign through British eyes. No trivial matter as it turns out, this is about British intelligence and the RN’s evolving perception of the Kriegmarine. A new assessment of the carrier Graf Zeppelin.

Chapter 8 is Kevin Smith’s second contribution on domestic factors – this is about US politics, meat and the transportation of meat. Important stuff and illustrates that the conduct of the Atlantic campaign was influenced by factors well beyond the Atlantic itself.

Chapter 9 by @h1bennett examines the role and operations along the key British coastal routes. Often portrayed as a separate affair but was as much of the defence of allied maritime communications, in competition for resources and a factor in British internal transportation.

Chapter 10 by Dave Kohnen looks at the role of sigint in hunting a U-boat group deploying to and in the Indian Ocean. In doing so Dave shows examines the close British-US intel relationship and also shows how operational conduct of the campaign went well beyond the Atlantic.

And there you have it. This volume is not last word on the Battle of the Atlantic, there is much more to say and some of us are working on new projects. It is though a foundation from which to properly understand the complexity of the Atlantic in the Allied war effort.

A captive audience already. Some lessons might be learnt. Enjoy.

#PME #MayTheForthBeWithYou #StarWarsDay