First Happy Time

1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 The early phase of the Battle of the Atlantic during which German Navy U-boats enjoyed significant success against the British Royal Navy and its Allies was referred to by U-boat crews as "the Happy Time" ("Die Glückliche Zeit"),[1] and later the First Happy Time, after a second successful period was encountered.

It started in July 1940, almost immediately after the Fall of France, which brought the German U-boat fleet closer to the British shipping lanes in the Atlantic.

[2] The reason for this successful Axis period was the British lack of radar and huff-duff-equipped ships which meant that the U-boats were very hard to detect when they made nighttime surface attacks – ASDIC (sonar) could only detect submerged U-boats.

When it ended is a matter of interpretation, with some sources claiming October 1940[3] and others extending it to April 1941,[4] after the Germans lost three prominent U-boat commanders: Günther Prien, Joachim Schepke, and Otto Kretschmer.

[5] This German World War II article is a stub.