Important influences on Britain's military production
by the Sea and Air War

Important influences on Britain's military production

Compared to the industrial potential and access to global resources of the UK, the military production of Britain failed surprisingly low in comparison to the other participating nations.

Picture: Driving a zigzag course, a convoy approaches the British coast.

Some of the likely causes of the failures in it's military production was the Battle of Atlantic with it's sea blockade, and the loss of a view key areas of strategic raw materials (Malaya, Burma, South Pacific) to the Japanese in 1942.

Obviously, however the US have taken-over the brunt of the Anglo-American arms production - and probably so far as this can taken from the imports of strategic raw materials to the UK, also to some part to the detriment of Britain. For example, the availability of important iron ore in the UK decreases from 1941 on by about 30% and is not increasing anymore after the Battle of the Atlantic was won by the Allies from mid-1943.

Battle of the Atlantic

Picture: Torpedo hit on an Allied merchant ship.

The war against the sea supply lines of Britain and the sea blockade:

	1938	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
German U-boats losses	-	9	22	35	85	287	241	70 (3 months)
German U-boats construction	?	58	50	219	222	292	283	98
Average operational German U-boats per month	-	29	28	50	316	423	457	470
Merchant ships sunk (in tons)	-	810,000	4,407,000	4,398,000	8,245,000	3,611,000	1,422,000	458,000
therof by U-boats	-	452,000	2,415,000	2,203,000	6,629,000	2,900,000	1,052,000	294,000
Construction of merchant ships in UK (in tons)	?	231,000	780,000	815,000	1,843,000	2,201,000	1,170,000	283,000
Construction of merchant ships in U.S. (in tons)	?	101,000	439,000	1,169,000	5,339,000	12,384,000	11,639,000	3,551,000
Total construction of Allied merchant ships (in tons)	?	332,000	1,219,000	1,984,000	7,182,000	14,585,000	13,349,000	3,834,000
Estimated total number of Allied merchant ships (in tons)	34,500,000	34,123,000	30,935,000	28,521,000	27,458,000	38,432,000	48,359,000	51,735,000

Annual UK imports of key strategic raw materials and foodstuffs

in 1,000 metric tons:

	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
Oil	11,628	11,270	13,130	16,280	14,790	20,340	15,620
Iron ore	5,200 (=approx. 54% by import)	4,500 (=approx. 51% by import)	2,300 (=approx. 51% by import)	1,900 (=approx. 30% by import)	1,900 (=approx. 30% by import)	2,200 (=approx. 33% by import)	4,100 (=approx. 48% by import)
Iron and steel	1,820	3,690	4,080	2,210	2,810	1,760	314
Scrap iron	605	937	549	-	-	-	200
Bauxite	302	112	87	48	242	172	163
Lead	334 (=approx. 93% by import)	336 (=approx. 93% by import)	139 (=approx. 84% by import)	235 (=approx. 90% by import)	226 (=approx. 89% by import)	225 (=approx. 89% by import)	165 (=approx. 86% by import)
Tin	54 (=approx. 95% by import)	84 (=approx. 97% by import)	65 (=approx. 96% by import)	44 (=approx. 94% by import)	52 (=approx. 95% by import)	33 (=approx. 69% by import)	45 (=approx. 94% by import)
Zinc	167 (=approx. 95% by import)	204 (=approx. 96% by import)	210 (=approx. 96% by import)	212 (=approx. 96% by import)	188 (=approx. 96% by import)	119 (=approx. 94% by import)	97 (=approx. 92% by import)
Raw rubber	69	200	168	66	69	34	36
Strategic raw materials (excluding oil)	3,351	5,563	5,298	2,815	3,587	2,343	1,020
Food: rice	143	191	179	53	131	72	25
Food: peas and beans	135	147	158	48	69	71	66
Wheat	5,300	5,800	5,400	3,500	3,300	2,800	3,600
Overall	25,757	27,471	26,465	24,596	23,777	27,826	24,431

Picture: Shown here, the British weekly war ration for one person appear thin - but so, too, men and ships had to be sacrifice in the Battle of the Atlantic to supply the UK with it. The dangerous passage of the convoys to Great Britain often took two weeks.

Extent of the strategic bombing war 1940-1945

in tons of bombs dropped:

Year	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945 (4 months)	Total
on cities in UK	38,844	21,858	3,260	2,298	9,151	761	76,172
for comparison: on cities in Germany	10,000	30,000	40,000	120,000 (from October to December about 15% of failure in arms production by bombing war)	650,000	500,000	1,350,000