Wolfpack (naval tactic)
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 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.
World War I[edit]
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 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 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.[1]
This proved easier to propose than to carry out and proved disastrous when tried. In May 1918 six U-boats under 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 the patrol area without loss and two U-boats (a third of the force) had been destroyed.[2]
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.
Inter war years[edit]
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 the new tactics in 1936 proved successful.[3][4][5] 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).[6]
Cold War[edit]
Wolfpacks fell out of use during the Cold War as the role of the submarine changed. With trade returned to peacetime conditions and 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.
Post-Cold War[edit]
To date the world's navies continue to deploy their submarines on individual patrols.