Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Battle for Merchant Shipping was a campaign of attrition between the British merchant fleet and the German U-boats. If German U-boat captains torpedoed and sank more Allied ships than the British shipyards could replace, the Germans would achieve a tightening stranglehold on Britain’s supplies. #2 The Battle of the Atlantic was the struggle between the German Navy and the Allied navies, and it was extremely close. The Germans had 46 U-boats available for action at the start of the war, and sent as many of them as possible to sea several days before Poland was invaded. They sank 222 merchant ships in March 1940, but most of these sinkings had been of ships sailing alone. #3 The German admirals and the German Naval Staff had always wished and intended to introduce unrestricted warfare as quickly as the political leaders would allow them to. The admirals never ordered the U-boat captains to shoot survivors, but they did not protect them either. #4 The German victories in the spring and early summer of 1940 changed many of the factors affecting the U-boat war. The successful invasion of Norway, followed by their victories in France and the Low Countries, gave the Germans the valuable ports on the coastlines of these countries.