"The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril" - Winston Churchill
INTRODUCTION
The 'Battle of the Atlantic' was the longest and most arduous campaign of World War II. The fight against Hitler's U-boat blockade of Britain was a struggle for the country's very survival. Had Germany managed to cut Britain's Atlantic supply line, the loss of raw materials, munitions and food needed to sustain the British people would have resulted in a German victory over Britain. This was something Winston Churchill knew all too well.
In the air it was Coastal Command that was to play it's part against not only the u-boats themselves, but also the Luftwaffe in the skies above. One of the most crucial regions in the campaign was the Bay of Biscay over which the u-boats had to cross from their bases in German occupied France in order to reach the allied shipping lanes where they reeked their destruction on the merchant convoys. This, then, was the field of operations for 19 Group, Coastal Command where the Sunderland and Catalina Flying Boats flew sorties lasting up up to fourteen hours in search of these undersea killers that put fear into the hearts of every merchant seaman who had to cross the Atlantic.
By the spring of 1943 the u-boat losses were mounting and the Luftwaffe began increasing aerial support with more aircraft appearing in the skies over the Bay. The German squadrons grew in size from four, to six, to eight aircraft and, as a result, it was often a Sunderland or Catalina patrolling alone over the Bay that became the hunted.
On June 2nd 1943 Sunderland UT-'N' of 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force was to become one of those aircraft....