Editing Second Happy Time (section)

{{Short description|Period of naval battles during the Second World War}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
[[File:Allied tanker torpedoed.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|{{SS|Dixie Arrow||}} torpedoed off [[Cape Hatteras]] by {{GS|U-71|1940|2}}, 26 March 1942]]
{{Campaignbox Atlantic Campaign}}
The '''Second Happy Time''' ({{Langx|de|Zweite glückliche Zeit}}; officially  '''Operation Paukenschlag''' ("'''Operation Drumbeat'''"), and also known among German [[submarine]] commanders as the "'''American Shooting Season'''"<ref>Miller, Nathan: ''War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II''. Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 295. {{ISBN|0-19-511038-2}}</ref>) was a phase in the [[Battle of the Atlantic]] during which [[Axis powers|Axis]] submarines attacked [[merchant shipping]] and [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] naval vessels along the east coast of North America. The [[First Happy Time]] was in 1940–41 in the North Atlantic and North Sea. [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini]] [[German declaration of war against the United States|declared war on the United States]] on 11 December 1941, and as a result their navies could begin the Second Happy Time.<ref>Duncan Redford; Philip D. Grove (2014). The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900. I.B. Tauris. p. 182</ref>

The Second Happy Time lasted from January 1942 to about August of that year and involved several German naval operations, including [[Operation Neuland]]. German submariners named it the "Happy Time" or the "Golden Time," as defense measures were weak and disorganized,<ref name=Gannon/>{{rp|p292}} and the [[U-boat]]s were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During this period, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. This led to the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners. Although fewer than the losses during the [[Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I#1917|1917 campaign]] of the [[First World War]],<ref>Churchill (1950): p. 111</ref> those of this period equaled roughly one quarter of all ships sunk by U-boats during the entire [[World War II|Second World War]].

Historian [[Michael Gannon (historian)|Michael Gannon]] called it "America's Second [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]]" and placed the blame for the nation's failure to respond quickly to the attacks on the inaction of Admiral [[Ernest King|Ernest J. King]], commander-in-chief of the [[United States Navy]] (USN). As King also refused British offers to provide the US navy with their own ships, the belated institution of a [[convoy]] system was in large part due to a severe shortage of suitable escort vessels, without which convoys were seen as actually more vulnerable than lone ships.<ref>Timothy J. Ryan and Jan M. Copes ''To Die Gallantly – The Battle of the Atlantic'', 1994 Westview Press, Chapter 7.</ref>