The wolfpack was a convoy attack tactic employed in the Second World War . It was used principally by the U-boats of the Kriegsmarine during the Battle of the Atlantic , and by the submarines of the United States Navy in the Pacific War . The idea of a co-ordinated submarine attack on convoys had been proposed during the First World War but had had no success. In the Atlantic during the Second World War, the Germans had considerable successes with their wolfpack attacks but were ultimately defeated by the Allies. In the Pacific, the American submarine force was able to devastate Japan’s merchant marine, though this was not solely due to the wolfpack tactic. Wolfpacks fell out of use during the Cold War as the role of the submarine changed and as convoys became rare.
42-479: K181 or K-181 may refer to: K-181 (Kansas highway) , a state highway in Kansas HMCS Sackville (K181) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title formed as a letter–number combination. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
84-428: A $ 50 million memorial centre which could include a permanent land based berth for the ship, as well as a Canadian Naval memorial and museum. HMCS Sackville underwent a major refit from February through October 2018. HMCS Sackville was used as the model for the corvette, HMCS Dodge , call sign Dicky, in the 2020 film, Greyhound . The producers of the movie took numerous 3D scans of the ship's exterior to create
126-678: A Gibraltar convoy, U-439 and U-659 collided, with the loss of both). Away from the Atlantic, the U-boat Arm had less scope for pack attacks; Operation Drumbeat against US shipping in early 1942, off the US eastern coast, and Operation Neuland in the Caribbean, were conducted by U-boats on individual patrol, until the introduction of a convoy system there saw the U-boats withdraw to easier hunting grounds. In
168-581: A depth charge. U-552 nearly sank but managed to regain control and creep back to Germany heavily damaged. Sackville ' s attacks had played a key role in allowing the 41 ship convoy to escape with the loss of only two ships. Sackville continued in her escort role until starting an extensive refit at Thompson Bros. Machinery Co. Ltd. in Liverpool, Nova Scotia in January 1943. She returned to service in April and
210-592: A failure; Hartmann found he was unable to exercise any tactical control from his boat at sea and the convoy attack was unsuccessful, while three U-boats were lost in the operation. A second attempt the following month also failed. A further attempt in June 1940 following the Norwegian campaign ( Rösing's wolfpack ) also failed, leading to a re-think of German tactics. The revised approach saw Dönitz micromanaging operations at sea from his headquarters in occupied France, relying on
252-498: A forward base on land and a headquarters and supply vessel, such as the Deutschland -class converted U-cruisers equipped with radio and supplies of fuel and torpedoes. The shore station would monitor radio transmissions and the commander in the HQ boat would co-ordinate the attack. This proved easier to propose than to carry out and proved disastrous when tried. In May 1918 six U-boats under
294-410: A leaking hatch and a crewman with internal injuries. The next day Sackville attacked U-704 as it dived, causing the submarine to break off its attack leaving Sackville to rescue two survivors from an abandoned but still floating merchant ship. Only a few hours later, Sackville detected U-552 on the surface with radar and landed a four-inch shell on the submarine's conning tower followed by
336-483: A misnomer. Donitz’s pack tactic envisaged a patrol line of six to ten boats (later, twenty to thirty or more) across a convoy route to search for targets. If a convoy was found the boats would form a pack, to mount a simultaneous attack. At the outbreak of the Second World War Germany had had 27 sea- and ocean-going U-boats, enough to mount a single patrol line in the Atlantic. Patrol lines were not named and if
378-657: A pack was formed it was referred to by the name of the skipper who had found the target. This situation improved with the fall of France and the occupation of the French Atlantic ports but U-boat construction had barely kept pace with losses and it was not until the summer of 1941 that several patrol groups were possible, creating the need to differentiate them. At first this was by location (West, Centre, South, Greenland) but in August BdU began to assign codenames, chosen for their historical or cultural value. This continued until
420-515: A series of fierce actions escorting Convoy ON-115. Deprived of air cover by heavy fog, the convoy was attacked by two successive U-boat " wolfpacks " off the coast of Newfoundland. On August 3, Sackville caught the German submarine U-43 on the surface and, as the submarine dived, made a series of depth charge attacks which badly damaged the submarine. U-43 survived but had to retreat to France for repairs with serious damage to its engines, compressors,
462-633: A series of successful pack attacks on Allied convoys in the latter half of 1940 (known as " the Happy Time " to the U-boat men). While the German pack tactic was effective, it had several drawbacks. Most notably, wolfpacks required extensive radio communication to coordinate the attacks. This left the U-boats vulnerable to a device called the High Frequency Direction Finder (HF/DF or Huff-Duff ), which allowed Allied naval forces to determine
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#1733085379757504-516: The Goeben group was formed to enter the Mediterranean and support operations there; Eisbär group were dispatched to the waters off South Africa, where they operated independently. Of those groups forming patrol lines not all found convoys or were able to form packs if they did. Where a named group formed and mounted a pack attack on a convoy, referring to it by name as a wolfpack is appropriate. In
546-692: The British Admiralty denied them targets and presented a more defensible front if found and attacked. The logical remedy for the U-boat Arm was to gather U-boats similarly into attacking formations. In early 1917 Hermann Bauer , the Commander of the High Seas U-boats ( Führer der Unterseeboote [FdU]) proposed establishing patrol lines of U-boats across convoy routes, in order to mass for attack on any convoy reported. These boats would be supported by
588-544: The CGI version for the movie. 44°38′50.85″N 63°34′09.35″W / 44.6474583°N 63.5692639°W / 44.6474583; -63.5692639 Wolfpack (naval tactic) During the Handelskrieg (German war on trade) Allied ships travelled independently prior to the introduction of the convoy system and were vulnerable to attacks by U-boats operating as 'lone wolves'. By gathering up merchant ships into convoys
630-580: The Commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies held at a memorial in the park overlooking the entrance to Halifax Harbour . Sackville typically hosts several dozen Royal Canadian Navy veterans on this day and has also participated in several burials at sea for dispersing the ashes of Royal Canadian Navy veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic at this location. In 2018, the ship underwent CAN$ 3.5 million in repairs at CFB Halifax . In 1988, Sackville
672-695: The Dominican Republic and renamed Juan Alejandro Acosta but this vessel was wrecked (along with another Flower-class corvette - Cristobal Colon , the former HMCS Lachute ) by Hurricane David in 1979. This left Sackville as the sole remaining Flower-class corvette. The ship was transferred to the Canadian Naval Corvette Trust (now the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust) on 28 October 1983 and restored to her 1944 appearance (apart from minor details in her camouflage and
714-637: The Royal Canadian Navy and later served as a civilian research vessel . She is now a museum ship located in Halifax , Nova Scotia , and the last surviving Flower-class corvette. Sackville ' s keel was laid down as Patrol Vessel 2 at the Saint John Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Saint John , New Brunswick in early 1940, the second of the Flower-class corvettes ordered by
756-642: The Royal Canadian Navy . She was launched on 15 May 1941 by Mrs. J. E. W. Oland, wife of the captain of the port, with the Mayor and entire town council of her namesake town in attendance. Sackville was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 30 December 1941 by Captain J. E. W. Oland, husband of the ship's sponsor. Her first commanding officer, Lieutenant W. R. Kirkland, RCNR was appointed on 30 December but did not join Sackville until 2 January. Kirkland
798-643: The Naval Memorial Trust in 2009 but the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled in Sackville ' s favour on 4 August 2011, concluding that the Trust had taken all necessary and appropriate precautions to secure Sackville . Sackville makes her first appearance each spring when she is towed by a naval tugboat from HMC Dockyard to a location off Point Pleasant Park on the first Sunday in May to participate in
840-743: The Pacific the United States Navy (USN) used individual patrol and pack tactics; the South West Pacific command (SoWePac) under Rear-Admiral Ralph Christie , based at Brisbane and Fremantle favoured the individual patrol, while the Central Pacific command, under Rear Admiral Charles Lockwood at Pearl Harbor (SubPac) used the pack tactic. American wolfpacks, called coordinated attack groups , usually comprised three boats that patrolled in close company and organized before they left port under
882-592: The South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean individual routing by the Allies and small numbers of U-boats active there again saw the employment of the lone wolf approach by the U-boat Arm. Although the wolfpacks proved a serious threat to Allied shipping, the Allies developed counter-measures. The expansion of the escort force, and the development of well-trained and well-organized escort groups, led to more and more successes as
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#1733085379757924-469: The campaign went on. Time and again escort groups were able to fight off numerically superior packs and destroy attackers, until the rate of exchange became ruinous. Effective air cover from long-range aircraft with radar, and escort carriers and blimps , allowed U-boats to be spotted as they shadowed a convoy (waiting for the cover of night to attack). Some sources refer to different wolfpacks by name or provide lists of named wolfpacks, though this can be
966-501: The care of Maritime Forces Atlantic , the Atlantic fleet of Royal Canadian Navy. Sackville ' s presence in Halifax is considered appropriate, as the port was an important North American convoy assembly port during the war. In September 2003, Sackville broke loose during Hurricane Juan and struck the schooner Larinda , a yacht inspired by the 1767 Boston schooner HMS Sultana , moored beside her. The schooner's owners sued
1008-546: The command of KL Rucker, in U-103 , were operating in the English Channel ; U-103 made contact with a troop convoy but was rammed and sunk by the troopship Olympic before she could attack. U-70 found convoy HS 38 but managed only one torpedo attack, which missed. UB 72 was caught on the surface by British submarine D4 , torpedoed and sunk. During the period of operation, 19 homeward and 11 outward convoys passed through
1050-503: The command of the senior captain of the three. "Swede" Momsen devised the tactics and led the first American wolfpack – composed of Cero , Shad and Grayback – from Midway on 1 October 1943. In this way the USN was able to make command at sea work; by forming stable groups of three submarines, these groups were able to develop group tactics for attack on Japanese convoys. Part of this development, and to promote an esprit de corps ,
1092-424: The decision was made to convert her to a loop layer, laying anti-submarine indicator loops across harbour entrances, her damaged boiler removed to provide storage for the cable and the 4-inch gun replaced with a pair of cranes. She remained in this role until paid off in April 1946 and laid up in reserve. Most Flower-class corvettes were scrapped shortly after the war, however Sackville was laid up in reserve. She
1134-559: The end of convoying, the submarine ceased to be a commerce raider and moved to a range of more traditional military roles, such as scouting, intelligence-gathering, clandestine transport and in the event of a full-scale war, fleet operations. The USN deploys its attack submarines on individual patrols, with the exception of one or (rarely) two attack submarines in each carrier strike group . American ballistic missile submarines have always operated alone, while Soviet ballistic missile submarines operated in well-protected bastions . To date
1176-617: The end of the campaign, though after the spring of 1944 the UbW had moved away from pack attacks to its inshore campaign of individual patrols operating in British coastal waters. The last named U-boat group was Seewolf , a seven boat operation against the North American coast, countered by the USN with Operation Teardrop . The codename applied to the group or to the patrol line that they formed. Not all groups so named were involved in pack tactics;
1218-428: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=K181&oldid=1082350536 " Category : Letter–number combination disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages HMCS Sackville (K181) HMCS Sackville is a Flower-class corvette that served in
1260-554: The location of the enemy boats transmitting and attack them. The pack tactic was able to bring about a force concentration against a convoy but no tactics for co-ordinated attack were developed; each commander present was left to move against the convoy as he saw fit. The escort groups developed group tactics against U-boat attack, gaining an advantage. As packs got larger the risks from this lack of co-ordination increased, such as overlapping attacks, collision or friendly fire incidents (in May 1943 for example, two U-boats stalking
1302-620: The new tactics in 1936 proved successful. Dönitz called his strategy of submarine warfare Rudeltaktik , which literally translates as " pack tactic" but referred specifically to the hunting tactics of wolves and submarines were known by their nickname of graue Wölfe (grey wolves). With the outbreak of the Second World War the U-boat Arm found the success of the pre-war trials had created some complacency; when these tactics were first tried in October 1939 ( Hartmann's wolfpack ) they were
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1344-609: The patrol area without loss and two U-boats (a third of the force) had been destroyed. In October 1918 another attempt at a co-ordinated attack was made in the Mediterranean, when two U-boats attempted a co-ordinated attack on a convoy. One of them was sunk and its commander, ObLt Karl Dönitz , was taken prisoner. During the interwar years the German Navy was forbidden to have U-boats but began to re-arm in 1935. Under Karl Dönitz as FdU developed co-ordinated attack tactics based on Bauer's plan and his own experience and trials of
1386-493: The presence of the " barber pole " red and white pattern around her funnel which had been removed before 1944). It had originally been planned to restore the ship to her 1942 appearance but this proved too expensive. She currently serves the summer months as a museum ship moored beside the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while spending her winters securely in the naval dockyard at CFB Halifax under
1428-453: The scene of the attack. With the exception of the orders given by the BdU , U-boat commanders could attack as they saw fit. Often they were given a probable number of U-boats that would arrive and when they were in contact with the convoy, make call signs to see how many had arrived. If their number were sufficiently high compared to the expected threat of the escorts, they would attack. This led to
1470-474: The supposedly unbreakable Enigma code to transmit and receive orders and co-ordinate movements. U-boat movements were controlled by U-boat Command ( BdU ) from Kerneval. U-boats usually patrolled separately, often strung out in lines across likely convoy routes to engage merchant ships and small vulnerable destroyers, being ordered to congregate only after one located a convoy and alerted the BdU . A Rudel (pack) consisted of as many U-boats as could reach
1512-607: Was assigned to Escort Group C-1 where she remained until reassigned to a new group Escort Group 9 in July. The group was disbanded following the loss of three of its ships on 20–22 September and the ship assigned to group C-2, where the ship remained on Atlantic escort work until going for refit in Galveston, Texas in February 1944. Returning to Halifax in May 1944 the vessel worked up in Bermuda and
1554-482: Was designated a National Historic Site of Canada , due to her status as the last Flower-class corvette known to exist. On 4 November 1998, Canada Post issued a 45¢ stamp featuring HMCS Sackville as part of the Naval Vessels series. The stamps were designed by Dennis George Page, based on an illustration by Todd Hawkins and on photographs by Canadian Naval Memorial Trust. As of 2012 plans were being looked at for
1596-506: Was discharged in March 1942 as "unsuitable" after a poor working-up trip to Newfoundland in late February. The first lieutenant reported that Kirkland had been unable to discharge his duties and had been abusive to his officers. After rescuing the survivors from the sunken Greek ship Lily , Sackville was unable to re-locate her convoy, ONS 68 . The first lieutenant then took the step of relieving Kirkland and assuming command. The original crew
1638-476: Was naming the groups as they formed. These names were based on that of the group commander; the group comprising Growler (Cdr. "Ben" Oakley), Sealion and Pampanito were known as "Ben's Busters"; the group Shark , Seadragon , and Blackfish were "Blakely's Behemoths". Wolfpacks fell out of use during the Cold War as the role of the submarine changed. With trade returned to peacetime conditions and
1680-602: Was reactivated in 1952 and converted to a research vessel for the Department of Marine and Fisheries . The armament was removed, the hull repainted black in place of the original dazzle camouflage and the new pennant number 532 painted on the hull (changed to 113 in the late 1950s). A laboratory was built on the aft superstructure in 1964 and the bridge enclosed in 1968. She remained in service until December 1982, with her last cruise in July 1982. The original intention had been to acquire HMCS Louisburg , which had been sold to
1722-637: Was reposted to other RCN ships and the already trained crew of HMCS Baddeck under Lieutenant-Commander Alan H. Easton, RCNR was drafted onto the ship on 6 April 1942. Also in April Sackville received Canadian-built SW1C radar and worked up at Halifax and St. Margarets Bay . The ship was finally assigned to Escort Group C-3 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force along with two others ( Galt and Wetaskiwin ) on 15 May 1942 to replace corvettes going for refit. In August 1942 Sackville fought
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1764-446: Was then assigned to Escort Group C-2 which left for Derry escorting convoy HX-297 on 29 June 1944. At Derry the boilers were cleaned, which revealed a serious leak in one of them. Repairs were unsuccessful and the ship was no longer considered suitable for convoy escort work. Since the ship had only recently been modernized she was reassigned for training at HMCS King on 29 August 1944. However, almost immediately afterwards
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