Victory in convoy warfare meant delivering ships and cargo. Bletchley Park intelligence helped route convoys around wolf packs, while patrol aircraft and escort carriers could provide plausible reasons for sightings that concealed the intelligence source. Radio broadcasts also exposed German positions to signals traffic analysis. When contact was unavoidable, radar and escorts could force U-boats underwater, onto batteries, and away from a useful attack position. Submergence constrained their endurance and view of the convoy, especially when radar made raising a periscope risky. Merchant losses increased the industrial burden of replacing ships and cargo, so avoiding or breaking up an attack reduced the demands on Allied production.
Notable Point · 1:49:45-1:53:39
Convoy arrival, intelligence cover, and the production race
The operational measure of success was merchant ships arriving, while intelligence, patrol aircraft, and escorts worked together to avoid turning the Atlantic into a pure shipbuilding race.