The Western Approaches is a rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying on the western coast of Great Britain. The rectangle is higher than it is wide, the north and south boundaries defined by the north and south ends of the British Isles, the eastern boundary lying on the western coast, and the western boundary in the Atlantic roughly at Iceland. The area is particularly important to the UK, because many of the larger shipping ports lie in this area.
The term is most commonly used when discussing naval warfare, notably during the First World War and Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War in which the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) attempted to blockade the UK using submarines (U-boats) operating in this area. Since almost all shipping to and from the UK passed through this area, it was an excellent hunting ground and had to be heavily defended.
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or approaches:
“In everyone’s youthful dreams, philosophy is still vaguely but inseparably, and with singular truth, associated with the East, nor do after years discover its local habitation in the Western world. In comparison with the philosophers of the East, we may say that modern Europe has yet given birth to none.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)