Gilbert Roberts (British Royal Navy officer)

---

Gilbert Roberts was an officer in the British Royal Navy. From 1942 to 1943, he operated a naval wargaming unit based in Liverpool called the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU). This unit made decisive contributions to defeating the threat of German submarines during World War 2.

Biography

From 1935 to 1937, Roberts studied at the Portsmouth Tactical School. There, he discovered naval wargaming, and became an enthusiastic practitioner. He developed his own rules, based mainly on the wargames of Fred T. Jane.

Roberts was assigned command of the destroyer HMS Fearless in autumn 1937, but a few months later he developed tuberculosis and was barred from serving at sea.

On 1 January 1942, Roberts met with Admiral Cecil Usborne in London. Usborne ordered Roberts to report to the Western Approaches headquarters in Liverpool, where he was to establish a unit to develop tactics by which shipping convoys in the Atlantic could defend themselves from German submarine attacks.

In 1944, Roberts was tasked with planning the anti-submarine operations that supported Operation Overlord. These proved highly effective.

The Germans hung a photograph of him in the Operations Room of their U-boat Headquarters in Flensburg, with the caption: "This is your enemy, Captain Roberts, Director of Anti U-boat Tactics".

References

Bibliography

• Mark Williams (1979). Captain Gilbert Roberts R. N. and the Anti-U-boat School. Cassell. ISBN 9780304303861. Search this book on

This article "Gilbert Roberts (British Royal Navy officer)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Gilbert Roberts (British Royal Navy officer). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---