Hi folks,

You have probably seen a few of my posts around from time to time (although they have been scarce). I thought it might be about time I present my project, since it might interest some of you.

I'm a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science, currently at the start of my third year. My research is about political and strategic consequences of tactical-level decisions. One of the cases I've studied is the Ubootwaffe during its first year at war (i.e. Sept 1st 1939 to August 31st 1940). Right now I'm comparing that to the first year of war for the American submarine arm (i.e. December 7th 1941 to December 6th 1942) for the purposes of writing an article, but my main interest is still in the Ubootwaffe.

As part of my research, I'm not only studying the general strategic impact of the uboats but also particularly interested in single events that had strategic consequences. Lemp's sinking of the Athenia is one such event, since it had an effect on public opinion in the UK and the US, creating considerable difficulties for Germany in diplomatic and PR terms. The decision to initiate a cover-up indicates how important the event was to the senior German decision-makers.

If any of you have other examples of other events in which decisions by uboat captains had far-reaching consequences, especially in the 1939-1940 time period, I would be most grateful to hear them. Events taking place after that are also of interest, since the case study might be extended in the future.

All the best,

Tony Ingesson
Ph.D. candidate
Dept. of Political Science
Lund University (Sweden)