![\"Type](\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Wuboatix.jpg\")
<\/a>Type IX U-boat (U-848) under attack in the South Atlantic [Public domain, wiki]<\/p><\/div>This week in the war, on 12 January 1942, the U-123 sank the British steamer Cyclops<\/em> near Cape Cod. The sinking marked the opening of Doenitz’s U-boat offensive in the western Atlantic—his so-called Operation ‘Drum Roll’ (Paukenschlag<\/em>).<\/p>\n Before the end of January, German U-boats had sunk 40 merchant ships in the western Atlantic, from Newfoundland through the Caribbean to the Guianas in South America.<\/p>\n Much of the success was due to the deployment of the long range Type IX U-boats (as opposed to the older VIIs, which had shorter range).<\/p>\n For the U-boats, it was the start of the second<\/em> ‘Happy Time’ of the Battle of the Atlantic<\/a>. The time became happier still in February, when the U-boats added an additional rotor to their Enigma cipher machines. Britain’s Bletchley Park code breakers could no longer read the German messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week in the war, on 12 January 1942, the U-123 sank the British steamer Cyclops near Cape Cod. The sinking marked the opening of Doenitz’s U-boat offensive in the western Atlantic—his so-called Operation ‘Drum Roll’ (Paukenschlag). Before the end … Continue reading