Jacket flap blurb

In one of his many brilliant pieces of rhetorical propaganda, Churchill used the phrase "Battle of the Atlantic" to describe the struggle over the Anglo-American lifeline in the Second World War. To this day his choice of words has dominated all writing in English on the subject. Dan van der Vat, award-winning author of The Grand Scuttle and The Last Corsair argues that "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."

In The Atlantic Campaign, the first comprehensive account in English for more than a decade, Dan van der Vat reappraises the principal struggle of the Second World War at sea. The result is a fresh and questioning view of a uniquely complex and documented campaign.

By giving due attention to the largely forgotten "first round" in 1914-18 and to developments between the wars Dan van der Vat shows how the later campaign, mistakes and all, grew directly out of the earlier. How the Germans managed to stay in the U-boat business secretly and illegally even before Hitler came to power is described in unique detail.

The account of the campaign includes not only plentiful action on and under the Atlantic from the Arctic to the Cape but also the politicking ashore on both sides. All factors from radar to rationing and tankers to torpedoes have their place in this intricate and exciting narrative.

For the first time in a general account the unfairly neglected Canadian contribution is given proper weight. The author also sees the role of intelligence as exaggerated by the drama surrounding the "Ultra" revelations in the 1970s. Nor was the dangerously grudging recognition of airpower the reason for the Allied victory, even if it was the last straw for the Germans. The Atlantic Campaign, he firmly believes, was not decided by a single magic ingredient but by attrition, in which the side which had the greater resources ultimately triumphed.