Britain was (and is) a trading nation that was not self-sufficient and whose survival depended on the import by sea of a continuous supply of foodstuffs, metals, chemicals, and fuel. In addition, the nation needed vast quantities of armaments and military supplies of all kinds to fight the war. With most stockpiles coming from the Unites States, what became known as the Battle of the Atlantic was a struggle that Britain simply could not afford to lose.
The sea lanes across the Atlantic leading to Britain were known as the Western Approaches. In February 1941, a command centre was set up in a bunker below the Derby Building in Liverpool to direct the battle. Admiral Sir Percy Noble was put in charge, and every possible tactic was used to keep the shipping lanes across the Atlantic open.
In the last six months of 1940, nearly two million tons of British shipping had gone to the bottom of the ocean. The situation got even worse the following year, until the capture of the Enigma codebooks enabled Bletchley Park to monitor signals traffic between the U-boats and their headquarters in L’Orient. For a brief period, the situation improved. It looked as though Britain was winning the battle.
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