The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.

Winston Churchill.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music The

The Episode 365, the second happy time.

Back in episode 356, I talked about the U-boat War in the Atlantic,

up through the intelligence coup the British gained

when they captured an intact U-Vote, U-570.

That was in August 1941.

Today, I want to pick up where that episode left off in September 1941, the second anniversary

of the beginning of the war in Europe, and take up again the naval war in the Atlantic.

That previous episode was meant to take us through the end of 1941, but oh well.

Germany invaded Russia in June of 1941, and I've already told you that Churchill and Roosevelt

worried that even if the USSR wasn't completely defeated, that Stalin might seek a separate peace with Germany.

The Western Allies promised aid, but what Stalin really wanted to see was a second front open up in Europe.

That wasn't going to happen. The war in North Africa was about all the British Army was capable of at the time,

and the U.S. was still neutral, so in lieu of a second front, both countries offered aid.

One possible route for Western aid would run through Iran, cross the Caspian Sea and up the Volga River,

but that was slow going.

The quicker, easier route was to bring aid to the Soviet Arctic.

So in September 1941, the British began running aid convoys from Iceland to Archangel.

Adolf Hitler had already ordered U-boat patrols in the waters near Norway.

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