The Development of United States Navy Convoy Escort Doctrine and the Implementation of Coastal Convoys in 1942 ...

• Main Author: Sheppard, Ronald J.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Old Dominion University 1998
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25777/y0n9-7737; https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/history_etds/240/

The convoy system, no matter how limited, has proven to be the most effective way of defending merchant shipping against attacks by submarines. Yet after the United States entered the Second World War, the United States Navy (USN) did not implement a comprehensive system of convoys for moving shipping along the East Coast of the United States until August 1942. Due to this lack of convoys during the first eight months of 1942, the losses of allied merchant ships to German submarines were among the highest experienced during the Second World War. This thesis examines why the USN believed that it lacked the resources to implement a comprehensive system of coastal convoys along the East Coast of the United States until late in the summer of 1942.. This study shows that the USN believed that coastal convoys required the same tactical doctrine and resources as North Atlantic convoys. This thesis demonstrates that the USN believed that a convoy's escort force needed the ability to take offensive action against ...