3. The German U-boats inflicted severe casualties on the Royal Navy in the early weeks of the war
In September 1939, the Royal Navy deployed submarine-hunting groups centered around an aircraft carrier. Carriers escorted by destroyers and corvettes searched for German submarines, despite the fact that their aircraft lacked suitable weapons to attack them. Their role was to guide the surface ships to the submarine’s position. By the time the attacking vessels arrived, the U-boat was most often submerged and gone. The offensive tactic removed ships from escort duty with the merchant convoys. It also exposed the aircraft carriers to attack. On September 14, three torpedoes were fired by a U-boat at the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. They exploded prematurely, allowing Great Britain’s most modern carrier to escape.
Three days later, another British aircraft carrier, Courageous, was not so lucky. After following the ship for nearly two hours, U-29 fired three torpedoes, two of which struck the British ship on the port side. Flooding shorted out switchboards, and all electrical power was lost. The aircraft carrier rolled over on its side and sank in less than half an hour, with the loss of over five hundred men of its crew. U-29 was depth charged by escorts for nearly four hours before it eluded them and escaped. The Admiralty withdrew its remaining aircraft carriers from hunting submarines until they were better equipped with aircraft capable of attacking their enemy.
