Author(s): Jonathan Dimbleby

World History

The longest campaign of the Second World War.

The most destructive naval campaign in all history.

An epic story that has never been fully told.

The Battle of the Atlantic was - though often overlooked - crucial to the defeat of the Germans in the Second World War. If the U-boats had prevailed, the maritime artery across the Atlantic would have been severed. Mass hunger would have consumed Britain, and the Allied armies would have been prevented from joining in the invasion of Europe. There would have been no D-Day.

When we think of the great struggles of 1939-1945, we usually turn to the Blitz, El Alamein, Stalingrad, Berlin . . . but those battles, and many more, could not have been fought, let alone won, without the Allied victory in the Atlantic. In the words of Winston Churchill: 'The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war . . . everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea, or in the air, depended ultimately on its outcome.'

Through fascinating contemporary diaries and letters, from the leaders and from the sailors on all sides, Jonathan Dimbleby creates a thrilling narrative that uniquely places the campaign in its global context. Challenging conventional wisdom on the use of intelligence and on Churchill's bombing campaign, The Battle of the Atlantictells the story of the decisions that led to victory, and the horror and humanity of life on those perilous seas.

It is a gripping tale that transforms our understanding of the Second World War.