Submarine Warfare – U-boat Era

Submarine Warfare – U-boat Era
When the war began, there were only twenty five submarines in the German navy. By February 1915, however a crash construction program has resulted in a flotilla of U-boats, each carried with nineteen torpedoes, large enough to proclaim the waters surrounding the British Isles a war zone.

The subs would sink all enemy merchant ships within those waters and because British vessels were likely to run up neutral flags, the safety of neutral ship could not be guaranteed.

Within days, several British vessels went to the bottom. President Wilson warned the Kaiser that he would hold Germany to “strict accountability” for American lives and property lost to U-boats.

Some Americans considered submarine warfare peculiarly inhuman because U-boats usually struck without warning giving merchant seaman little time to abandon ship.

Moreover, unlike surface ships submarine did not rescue crewmen in the water. Both accusation were true.

On the surface, the fragile submarines were helpless. A light gun mounted on, the bow of freighter was enough to sink one. The first generations of submarine were very slow diving.

If a U-boats surfaced to warn an unarmed merchant vessel of its presence, it could be rammed.

Since submarines were tiny, their small crews cramped, there was no room to take aboard survivors.

On May 7, 1915, antisubmarine feelings in the United States burst into fury when English luxury liner Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland. 1198 of 1959 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including 139 Americans.

So many lives were lost because the Lusitania went down in a mere eighteen minutes.

Then early in 1916, when the Allies announced that they were arming all merchant ships German responded with a declaration of “unrestricted submarine warfare.” The U-boats would sink all enemy vessels without warning.

President Wilson threatened a to break diplomatic relations with Germany – considered a prelude to a declaration of war – of unrestricted submarine warfare were continued.

The German General Staff did not the United States in the war, Plans for a major offensive were afoot. In any case, the navy did not have enough U-boats to carry out a full scale assault on British shipping. In the Sussex Pledge of May 4, 1916, the German promised Wilson to observe the rules of visit and search before attacking enemy ships.
Submarine Warfare – U-boat Era