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Allied Warships
Check out our new extensive section on all the Allied Warships during WWII in all theatres of the war.Over 11.300 ships
The Wolfpacks
What is a Wolfpack?
The wolfpacks, known to the Germans as Rudeltaktik, were created by Karl Dönitz as a means to defeat the allied convoys. He finally had enough U-boats and facilities to try his idea after the fall of France in 1940. The idea is simple enough; gather U-boats in patrol lines to scout for convoys. Once a convoy was spotted the first boat was designated "shadower" and would chase the convoy and report its heading and speed to BdU. This would allow other boats to form around it and attack, more or less all at once, usually on the surface at night.
This was meant to overwhelm the convoy escorts and it sure did if the U-boats were manned by determined commanders like Prien, Schepke, Kretschmer and Topp. The wolfpacks were introduced in June, 1940 and proved an immediate success. Around 135 such groups were formed during 1940-1943, each one lasting up to 2 weeks. The number of U-boats in each ranged from 3-4 to around 20 in the biggest groups.