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German UBoats

German UBoats During World War I the Germans implemented a blockade on Britain in which they destroyed allied ships as well as British ships. They did this in response to the blockade that Britain had put on them. The Germans used U-boats to impose their blockade. As the war progressed the U-boats did more and more destruction to British ships and ships that were aiding the British. As American ships were destroyed the United States began to become more involved in stopping the Germans from using their methods of weakening the British. The German attacks subsided for a while but resumed again doing even more damage than before. The attacks continued to involve American ships, which helped to bring the United States to be more sided with the Allies and more opposed to the Germans. As it continued THE GERMAN U-BOAT BLOCKADE ON BRITAIN DURING WORLD WAR I WAS A MISTAKE ON THE PART OF THE GERMANS. In 1915 Great Britain decided to take advantage of the strength of its navy and began a blockade of Germany. British ships stopped every ship to search for military and other vital supplies that could possibly reach the Germans. (Stewart, p. 18) The blockade began affecting United States ships. Americans became angry and complained that the British were being too aggressive. American ships were being stopped from entering ports in Sweden, Denmark and other neutral nations. (Stewart, p. 18) “The British government apologized but claimed that a well-supplied Germany might win the war and the British refused to take that chance and would continue their search and seizures.” (Stewart, p. 18) The Germans became frustrated on the surface with the blockade implemented by Britain so they turned to “undersea warfare.” (Terraine, p.167) The Germans speeded up production of submarines (U-boats) in hopes of controlling the bottom of the sea. The U-boats proved to be a valuable weapon for the Germans. They could slip undetected beneath or between the large British ships that formed the blockade. (Stewart, p. 20) On February 4, 1915 the Kaiser proclaimed the waters around the British Isles to be a “war zone”. Now neutral and British ships traveled at their own risk. “The Kaiser sent U-boats to implement his declaration”. (Pimlott, p. 40) The radius of the U-boats was 2,000 miles. (Hugh, p. 61) This blockade of the British Isles, what the Germans called Sperrgebiet (prohibited area), could be described as “a rectangle with cut corners.” “ It ran from 20 miles from the Dutch coast to the Terschelling light vessel, then north to Utsire off the Norwegian coast, and then northwest to 62 degrees north at its most northerly point, dropping to 3 miles south to the Danish-owned Faeroe Islands. It reached its most westerly point at 20 degrees west before angling back to the content 20 miles off Cape Finisterre and then extending 20 miles off the neutral Spanish coast to the French frontier. There was also a prohibited zone in the Arctic Ocean, notably the approaches to Archangel and the Kola Peninsula. The Germans declared the waters in the Sperrgebiet closed to traffic, and that all neutral ships entering them would do so at their own risk. The Germans offered to permit one American steamer per week to proceed to Falmouth, provided its hull was marked with prominent red and white vertical stripes and it flew red-and-white-checkered flags at each masthead.” (Halpern, p. 340) The U-boats seemed to be the only way for the Germans to impose a blockade since the British were controlling the surface of the water. At first the undersea attacks were restricted to the Mediterranean, where a few American ships operated. One U-boat sank 72,600 tons of merchant shipping in a single five-week cruise. (Pimlott, p. 40) The United States warned Germany that she would be held responsible for losses of American life and shipping. On May 1, 1915 an American tanker called the Gulflight was attacked and damaged, and her captain died. (Terraine, p. 167) Six days later the Lusitania sank. The Lusitania was to make a voyage from New York to Liverpool, England. The Lusitania at that time was the biggest steamer in existence, weighing almost 32 thousand tons. (Stewart, p. 20) “The day before its scheduled departure form New York the owners of the Lusitania placed an ad in the New York Times informing the public of the date and time of departure. Underneath the ad the German embassy published a stern warning to travelers to stay out of the war zones.” (Terraine, p. 20) None of the more than 12 hundred people who signed up for the voyage canceled their reservations. (Stewart, p. 22) “The Lusitania was almost home safely when at 2:15 p.m. on May 7, 1915 Lieutenant-Commander Scheiwger in U-20 held his massive target in his sights. A single torpedo was enough, although some survivors spoke of a second explosion. The liner took on a sharp hit, and in twenty minutes was at the bottom with 1,198 of her passengers (many children) and crew, including 128 Americans. (Hugh, p. 175) Deep within the ships hold, tons of cases of weapons and ammunition were hidden, going to the Allies in Europe. (Stewart, p. 22) Germany disregarded American protests, stating that “full published” warnings had been given in New York and the liner was carrying arms, and when the U-boat captain had seen how many people were on board he stopped himself from firing another torpedo. (Hugh, p. 175) As incidents like ones similar to the Lusitania occurred President Woodrow Wilson increased the diplomatic pressure on Germany. The United States was now shifting its sympathies towards the Allies as United States citizens were killed, one of the earliest being on March 28, 1915 when the British liner Falaba was torpedoed and an American life lost. (Pimlott, p. 40) President Wilson sent impatient messages to the Kaiser, one of them stating: “The United States intends to hold the Imperial Germany Government to strict accountability… and to secure for American citizens full enjoyment of their rights on the high seas.” (Stewart, p. 20) The German government was often sympathetic and apologized for attacking Americans. (Stewart, p. 20) In some cases the Kaiser offered to replace American ships. The Germans explained that a state of war existed. U-boat attacks became less frequent but soon began again. Wilson sent a telegram to the Kaiser stating that “unless the attacks stopped completely the United States would have no choice but to cut off all relations with Germany.” (Stewart, p. 23) For Germany the worst aspect of this whole sheered was the hardening of American opinion against her. (Terrain, p. 167) A feeling of complacency became evident in the Admiralty (British navy) because now few sinkings were occurring and even Churchill bragged that “the failure of the German submarine campaign” was evident to the whole world. Defense measures (nets, patrols, and sweeps carrying explosive charges) were taking their toll on the small U-boat forces. There were even early experiments with submerged acoustics and depth charges that were already showing favorable results by May 1915. A total of seven U-boats had been lost before the opening of the unrestricted campaign, March being one of the best months for U-boat killings. U-8 got caught in the Dover nets, and on March 18, 1915 the Dreadnought succeeded in ramming the U-12, commanded by Korvetten-Kapitan Weddigen, who had sunk the Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy. (Hugh, p. 175) “The Fourth Battle Squadron, exercising off the Pentland Firth spotted a hostile submarine, and by brilliant maneuvering the Dreadnought succeeded in ramming her. She revealed her identity when her bows rose high out of the water before her fatal plunge.” (Hugh, p. 175) No evidence exists that proves that the Germans were discouraged by these losses, or that the incidents would not have occurred if there was new construction, which was going on so fast that in German yards sixty-one new craft had been completed by the end of 1915. The reason that the Germans cancelled its first unrestricted campaign was not military but diplomatic. On August 19, 1915 U-24 spotted and torpedoed the liner Arabic off Ireland, there was a number of deaths, including three Americans. The United States opposed this so much that the German Navy was ordered to change its campaign. (Halpern, p. 337) From August 30, 1915 U-boats were not allowed to attack any passenger liners of any nationality without prior warning and the ensuring of the safety of the passengers. (Hugh, p. 176) The Germans were too fearful of offending the Americans and it was too risky to attack any liners so they withdrew all their U-boats from western waters. For a while Germany concentrated itself on laying mines in the North Sea and a campaign in the Mediterranean where few American ships were located. (Halpern, p. 337) In 1917 von Trotha, the German Chief of Naval Staff made this statement: “Scheer and I both held the view that the first half-hearted attempts at submarine warfare were a profound mistake as they gave notice to the British Admiralty to prepare for future eventualities. We both felt this limited submarine war was a waste of both life and material, as it could not be expected to achieve anything in the nature of a blockade of England. We were however restrained by the Government on the representations of the Army from starting unrestricted submarine war. Nevertheless we pressed for authority to start it.” (Hugh, p. 301-302) As a result of this statement by von Trotha on February 1, 1917 Germany re-opened unrestricted U-boat warfare on the North Sea. (Hugh, p. 302) On February 3, 1917 President Wilson felt that his diplomatic protests were no longer enough and the United States ended their relations with Germany. (Halpern, p. 340) Germany could now make 154 craft of a much more effective specification than those of 1914. Now there were never more than 70 U-boats at sea at any one time because of the need for refitting, repairing, and resting of the crews. This almost ended the war in the favor of the Germans. (Hugh, p. 302) During the first three months of 1917 Britain had lost a total of 470 merchant ships. In April one ship in every four that left British ports never came back. Food stocks were falling and neutral ships did not want to carry British goods. (Pimlott, p. 41) Total losses by British shipping by U-boats alone went from 35 ships in January 1917 to 86 in February, to 103 in March and to 155 in April. (Hugh, p. 302) Monthly British shipping losses went form 43,000 tons in August to 182,000 tons in December, and the Allied shipping losses rose to a height of 849,000 tons in April 1917. (Terraine, p. 269) At first the French and British plans for stopping the U-boat attacks were ineffective. They used such ideas as hoisting false colors, to using Q-ships disguised as merchantmen. The German campaign gradually began to extend back into the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Allies were beginning to feel the effects of the German attacks. (Pimlott, p. 40) The most effective method for stopping the U-boats was with the Q-ships. These were innocent looking merchantmen manned by volunteer naval crews with powerful but heavily hidden weapons. (Hugh, p. 303) Another method that proved effective was the convoy system. These were organizations of merchant ships traveling under naval escort. (Pimlott, p. 41) By now the United States navy was available to the allied forces. As a result of the convoy system losses of British tons fell from 526,447 in April to 345,293 in May; but in June they rose again to almost 400,000 tons and it wasn’t until September when any other large drop off was seen. (Terraine, p. 300) German submarine bases that were close to Britain had been raided and on April 22, 1918 British forces destroyed the harbor at Zeebrugge and the High Seas Fleet (German fleet) was held in its home ports. Now the Allies once again had complete freedom of the seas. In May 1918, 14 submarines out of 125 were destroyed and from then on the threat gradually subsided. By the end of the war in November the U-boats had been driven from the North Atlantic and were prevented from coming back by the laying of a large mine barrage across a 180 mile passageway between Norway and the Orkneys. (Pimlott, p. 41) One effect of Freedom of the Seas was to impose on Germany a similar blockade that Germany tried against Britain. In Germany the food became scarce and the civilian morale dropped. The German Government was forced to limit everything from potatoes to clothing. (Pimlott, p. 41) A great influenza epidemic swept through Europe in 1918 and the German people were hit hard, which added to the pressure to make peace. (Pimlott, p. 41) According to the information provided it is evident that THE GERMAN U-BOAT BLOCKADE DURING WORLD WAR I WAS A MISTAKE ON THE PART OF THE GERMANS for the following reasons: the statement by von Trotha, the German Chief of Naval Staff, and the severing of the relations between the United States and Germany which aided in the United States entry into the war. Although at certain times during the war this campaign seemed to help the Germans, in the final analysis it proved to be a huge mistake that eventually lead to their defeat. Bibliography:

Word Count: 2242