Not including specifically Bay of Biscay, Western Approaches, English Channel, North Sea etc.


In June 1941 the Royal Navy aircraft carrier Ark Royal was instrumental in the destruction of the German battleship Bismarck. A dozen Swordfish torpedo-bombers took off from her deck launched torpedo after torpedo at the giant ship, which was crippled and sank the next day. Within weeks, the Ark Royal was destroyed while sailing off the coast of Gibraltar, torpedoed by a German U-boat. She rested, one kilometre below the surface of the Mediterranean, until her wreck was discovered by Mike Rossiter in 2004.   SWORDFISH PATROL by George E. Sadler: Swordfish Patrol is the story of a Fleet Air Arm pilot during the Second World War. After a lengthy period of pilot training in both the UK and Canada he was drafted to a Swordfish squadron.George Sadler was amongst the last group of airmen to go to war in an open cockpit, not far removed from the intrepid pilots of the First World War. But they saw no glamourous single combats over the Western Front, instead they spent long hours in below zero temperatures over the North Atlantic from HMS Nairana.   Dan van der Vat maintains in this book "The Atlantic Campaign" (1986) says "at this distance the 'Battle of the Atlantic' can more clearly be seen as a campaign of many battles spread over nearly six years of war." Churchill used the phrase 'Battle of the Atlantic' to describe the struggle over the Anglo-American lifeline in the Second World War. Click here for more details.
This book   The Battle of the Atlantic   ARK ROYAL: THE ADMIRALTY ACCOUNT OF HER ACHIEVEMENT: Issued for the Admiralty by the Ministry of Information  London : His Majesty’s Stationary Office 1942. A Sixty-four page paperback illustrated throughout with black and White photographs and three maps showing HMS ARK ROYAL’s position throughout the war.