Antisubmarine warfare operations in the Atlantic

Comparative analysis of land-based antisubmarine warfare operations in the Atlantic: U.S. Army during World War II and the U.S. Navy during the Cold War.

This study examines a comparison of land based antisubmarine warfare (ASW) operations using U.S. Army aircraft during World War 2 and the U.S. Navy's P-3 Orion during the Cold War. Through both wars, land based ASW aircraft provided the U.S. military an outreaching arm that limited the striking potential of enemy submarines. This thesis investigates the comparison in more depth by using four of the nine principles of war: (1) objective, (2) offensive, (3) maneuver, and (4) surprise. Deterrence was the national strategy used to keep submarines from becoming a potential aggressor during both wars. The Navy's P-3 Orion, land based throughout the Atlantic, was able to provide a credible deterrent against Soviet submarines since its introduction to the fleet in 1962. U.S. Army aircraft of World War 2 used in fighting the German U-boats, on the other hand, progressed into a credible deterrent in their temporary role of ASW. The author examines the short lived history of U.S. Army land based operations (approximately two years) and the extended history of the U.S. Navy land based operations and suggests that despite technological advances onboard both service's aircraft, land based ASW has changed very little after fifty years. This study also indicates that there lies a significant need in pursuing and continuing the capabilities of a land based ASW aircraft.

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Air Power versus U-boats
Confronting Hitler's Submarine Menace in the European Theater
A. Timothy Warnock​

More than fifty years after World War II, America's major air power to the war in Europe--in efforts such as Big Week, Regensburg, and Patton's dash across Europe---live on in the memories of airmen and students of air power. Never before had air space over the battlefield; strategic bombardment, destroying the enemy's industrial and logistical network; air-ground support, attacking targets on the battlefield; and military airlift, delivering war materiel to distant bases.
Perhaps one of the least known but significant roles of the Army Air Forces (AAF) was in antisubmarine warfare, particularly in the European-African-Middle Eastern theater. From the coasts of Greenland, Europe, and Africa to the mid-Atlantic, AAF aircraft hunted German U-boats that sank thousands of British and American transport ships early in the war. These missions supplemented the efforts of the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force Coastal Command, and the U.S. Navy, and helped those sea forces to wrest control of the sea lanes from German submarines.

Army Air Forces in World War II​