In September 1939 with the beginning of World War II German U-boat operations got under way against allied forces the allies responded to the U-boat threat with a number of counter measures <span>The combined affect of protection of ships by convoys harassment of U-boats by airplanes and other anti-submarine warfare measures reduced the ability of the U-boats to cut Britain off from her </span> <span>suppliers in North America In order to assess the effectiveness of the allied response it is first necessary to look at the U-boats In looking at the U-boats it is not only necessary to look at the </span> <span>various types of U-boats and their deployment but also to look at the Germans goals and the tactics that they employed in an attempt to reach those goals </span> <span>The Treaty of Versailles ending world war one prohibited Germany from having any U-boats When the treaty was changed under The Anglo-German Naval agreement one of the things that the </span> <span>Germans did to rebuild their navy was to rebuild the U-boat wing Their first U-boats were for general sea-going and coastal abilities the U-boats first built for this purpose were types I and II The type I had a surface speed of 1775 knots and 825 knots submerged on electric engines for armament it had 41 inch </span> <span>and 22 mm anti-aircraft guns and six torpedoes In comparison the type II had speeds of 13 knots surfaced and 7 knots submerged with three torpedoes and one 20 mm anti-aircraft gun The type II was </span> <span>smaller than the type I </span>
