| German U-boats sank the battleship Barham in the east and the carrier Ark Royal, which had helped keep Malta supplied with aircraft, in the west. |
| In 1940, the U-boats started to take a real toll against merchant shipping. |
| At sea German U-boats were sinking so many merchant ships that Britain was close to starvation. |
| As bad luck would have it, nine German U-boats stumbled across the manoeuvres and torpedoed the ships, sinking two ships and damaging a third. |
| As part of the surrender terms, the Royal Navy received 176 U-boats as spoils of war. |
| Just as in the First World War, U-boats nearly brought the UK to its knees. |
