The War at Sea

T H E WA R AT S E A

PART II – BELOW THE WAVES

Cut the supply chain

War of the U-boats

rom the outset of the war,Britain planned to cut Germany off from overseas trade.

For Germany,Britain’s central position in the world’s shipping,banking and trading

markets was both a threat and an opportunity. Britain supplied and sustained its

allies as well as itself, but to do that it relied on its own merchant fleet and on neutral

shipping. Germany hoped to scare off neutral trade and sink British ships. The

economic war intensified after Jutland. The only weapon now left to Germany with

which to strike at Britain was the U-boat.

In 1914 Britain imported two thirds of its food supplies along with cotton for

uniforms, timber for trenches and iron ore for guns. The Germans believed that

if they could sink enough supply ships Britain would be incapable of remaining

in the war. What began as quite a gentlemanly affair turned into vicious bouts of

unrestricted submarine warfare on the side of the Germans. This eventually

backfired as the civilian losses that resulted were a major factor in bringing the USA

into the final stages of the war.

The submarine had originally been

prototyped in the American Civil War.

The Germans started developing their

U-boats relatively

1914 Germany’s

U-boat fleet was technologically advanced

but small in numbers.The U-boats cruised

on the surface – they could stay at sea for

five weeks – and would attack undefended

ships with their gun. They dived to attack

bigger and better defended ships – with

torpedoes. Each U-boat carried at least

six. In 1914 the submarine seemed to

pose a bigger threat to warships than to

merchant ships.

Early submarines were not taken terribly

seriously.One BritishAdmiral called

them“playthings”. In the years before

the Great War, Britain had devoted little

effort to the threat that was to emerge

from German U-boats and submarine

counter-measures were somewhat less

than sophisticated.

part 11 - below the waves

THREE SURRENDERED U-BOATSWITHTHEIR CREWS ON BOARD

CAMOUFLAGED CRUISER U-BOATS