Britain was importing the following items in order for their survival, mutton and butter from New Zealand, wool from Australia, beef from Argentina, lumber and grain from Canada and the United States, iron ore from Africa, all of Britain's necessities had to come in by freighter (Pitt, 17). The most important import that Britain was receiving was their oil that was critical to the running of any war machines that Britain had, without oil that was being ship through thousands of miles of open sea, Britain would not be a threat in the war (Pitt, 17). In order for Britain to be a threat in the war they would have to receive a million tons of their needed essentials every week (Pitt, 17). Britain had a fleet of about 3, 000 merchant ships to transport there materials and almost every day 2, 500 of the ships were at sea (Pitt, 17). The Germans knew that the sea was vital to Britain's survival and the German subs missed no opportunity to attack (Pitt, 18). The German submarine campaign was so deadly that it almost succeeds in severing Britain's lifeline for good, unfortunately the allied forces began to use the convoy system (Pitt, 18). Prime Minister Winston Churchill later said, " The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat Peril."(Pitt, 19). The German Wolf Pack also made war with the United States who was supplying the British with necessities. The Wolf Pack slowly moved in and began sinking merchant ships on United States waters.
Hitler declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941 and Admiral Donitz intended to launch an attack against the United States as soon as possible. Donitz did not want to give the United States time to build up a strong defense against his U-boats (Jordan, 102). The first U-boats began arriving in American waters on the 12th of January and took there first victim, a British freighter Cyclops (Jordan, 103). Within 48 hours after the sinking of the Cyclops two armed trawlers became victims to the Wolf Pack (Jordan, 103).
