Within hours of Britain's declaration of war against Germany on this date in 1939 the first shot in the longest and to my mind, the most vital, battle of the war was fired.

The liner SS Athenia was about 60 miles south of Rockall when she was torpedoed by the unterseeboot U-30 commanded by Fritz-Julius Lemp.

981 passengers and crew survived the attack but 98 passengers and 19 crew died. Not all of the fatalities occurred in the sinking – a number of people died in accidents during the rescue operation.

The Athenia was the first ship lost in the Battle of the Atlantic and its sinking was an early illustration of the potency of the Kreigsmarine.

During World War 1 Britain had almost been brought to its knees by the devastating attacks of the primitive unterseeboots of the period. It was only the belated introduction of a convoy system that stopped Britain from starving in 1917.

It was probably this experience that made Winston Churchill say that the u-boats were the only things in the war that really scared him.

The Battle of the Atlantic was effectively won by Britain and our allies by 1943 when the introduction of improved tactics, new technology, better convoy escorts and air cover had forced the Kreigsmarine to virtually withdraw its u-boats from the Atlantic.

The unterseeboot force suffered horrific casualties during WW2 with about 75% of the crews (28,000 men) being killed in action.

Fritz-Julius Lemp was killed in 1941 trying to scuttle the U-110 but surprisingly the U-30 survived until the final days of the war before being scuttled in May 1945 and then subsequently broken for scrap in 1948.

On the allied side, about 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships followed the Athenia to the bottom and about 30,000 sailors were killed.

This prolonged campaign was frequently fought in the harshest conditions and one can only wonder at the bravery and sacrifice displayed by the sailors of all of the nations involved.

I was quite interested to see todays reports about the Defence Industries Council (DIC) lobbying for further government investment in the UK defence industry.

I understand that the defence industry is responsible for a large number of jobs in the UK and it is important that we retain the ability to produce our own weapons systems.

However, I have a suspicion that the relationship between the Ministry of Defence and the defence industry is far too cosy.

This is, perhaps, the main reason why our troops are are regularly under equipped or simply ill equipped is because the MoD has a very “comfortable” procurement relationship with UK defence contractors.

Douglas Carswell MP has been banging on about this for some time and his blog comments on the subject are always worth a read.

Max Hastings has also highlighted the almost seamless way in which a senior MoD official picked up directorships with defence contractors 3 months after leaving the civil service.

Surely the most important task facing the MoD, its officials and its political leadership (Bob Ainsworth for heavens sake!) is to ensure our armed forces receive the right equipment in a timely and efficient way.

It doesn’t matter if the equipment is made in the UK, USA, France or Outer Mongolia as long as it is fit for purpose.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised that our troops could be supplied with the right kit, on time and at a lower price if the MoD changed its procurement procedures and shopped in the right places rather than going to its “old pals” in the UK defence industry.

As an aside I wonder how many UK defence jobs are in Labour held marginal constituencies?