Submarine Warfare

Source Article: Technology of World War I Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. World War I was the first conflict in which submarines were a serious weapon of war. In the years shortly before the war, the relatively sophisticated propulsion system of diesel power while surfaced and battery power while submerged was introduced. The United Kingdom relied heavily on imports to feed its population and supply its war industry, and the German navy hoped to bloc ade and starve !ritain using U"boats to attac merchant ships in unrestricted submarine warfare. This struggle between German submarines and !ritish counter measures became nown as the #irst !attle of the $tlantic. $s German submarines became more numerous and effective, the !ritish sought ways to protect their merchant ships. %&"ships,% attac vessels disguised as civilian ships, were one early strategy. 'onsolidating merchant ships into convoys protected by one or more armed navy vessels was adopted later in the war. There was initially a great deal of debate about this approach, out of fear that it would (ust provide German U"boats with a wealth of convenient targets. Than s to the development of active and passive sonar devices, coupled with increasingly deadly anti"submarine weapons, the convoy system reduced !ritish losses to U"boats to a small fraction of their former level. )ieutenant *tto Weddigen remar ed of the first submarine attac of the Great War+ ,ow much they feared our submarines and how wide was the agitation caused by good little U"- is shown by the .nglish reports that a whole flotilla of German submarines had attac ed the cruisers and that this flotilla had approached under cover of the flag of ,olland. These reports were absolutely untrue. U"- was the only submarine on dec , and she flew the flag she still flies "" the German naval ensign. Source Article: Submarine Warfare. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Submarine warfare in World War I was partly a fight between German U"!oats and $tlantic supply convoys bound for Great !ritain. !ritish and $llied submarines conducted widespread operations in the !altic, /orth Sea, $tlantic, 0editerranean and !lac Seas. *nly a few actions occurred outside of the wider .uropean"$tlantic theatre. German submarine attac s on allied merchant ships gave a direct cause for $mericans to enter the war in $pril 1-12. $ll participants were supposed to abide by the ,ague 'onventions of 13-- and 1-42 but this was found to be impracticable for submarines. Initially German submarines did attempt to comply with the 5ri6e 7ules but then went to unrestricted submarine warfare. $merican diplomatic pressure forced the Germans to stop this for a while, but in 8anuary 1-12 Germany declared a War 9one around the !ritish Isles and san up to a :uarter of shipping entering it, until escorted convoys were introduced. The sin ing of the Pathfinder was the first combat victory of a modern submarine, and the e;ploits of U" -, which san three !ritish cruisers in under an hour, establishing the submarine as an important new component of naval warfare.

German submarines were used to lay mines and to attac iron ore shipping in the !altic. The !ritish submarine flotilla in the !altic operated in support of the 7ussians until the 7ussian"German 5act. <uring the war, the !ritish invested efforts in developing a submarine that could operate in con(unction with a battleship fleet " the %#leet Submarine%. To achieve the necessary =4 nots >surfaced? the K class submarines were steam powered. In practice the K class were a constant problem and could not operate effectively with a fleet. Source Article: U boat !ampaign. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The U"boat 'ampaign from 1-1@ to 1-13 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U"boats against the trade routes of the .ntente 5owers. It too place largely in the seas around the !ritish Isles and in the 0editerranean. The German .mpire relied on imports for food and domestic food production >especially fertili6er? and the United Kingdom relied heavily on imports to feed its population, and both re:uired raw materials to supply their war industryA the powers aimed, therefore, to bloc ade one another. The !ritish had the 7oyal /avy which was superior in numbers and could operate on most of the worldBs oceans because of the !ritish .mpire, whereas the Imperial German /avy surface fleet was mainly restricted to the German !ight, and used commerce raiders and unrestricted submarine warfare to operate elsewhere. In the course of events, German U"boats sun almost C,444 ships with nearly 1D million gross register ton, losing 123 boats and about C,444 men in combat. $llied 'ountermeasures $llied countermeasures during this period had mi;ed success. <efensive measures, such as arming merchant ships, and advising them to either run, or turn towards the U"boat in order to ram, or force it to submerge, were the most effective. #rom arming ships for self"defence, the ne;t step was arming ships for the purpose of engaging the U"boats in gun battlesA = U"boats were sun in 1-1C whilst attac ing trawlers so fitted. The following step was to arm and man ships with hidden guns to do so, the so"called & ship. $ variant on the idea was to e:uip small vessels with a submarine escort. In 1-1C = U"boats were sun by &"ships, and = more by submarines accompanying trawlers. *ffensive measures were less effectiveA efforts were made to use nets to find submerged U"boats, and e;plosive sweeps to destroy them, but these were largely failures. $ttempts were also made to close routes li e the Straits of <over with boom nets and minefields, the so"called <over !arrageA to lay minefields around U"boat bases, and station submarines on patrol to catch them leaving or entering port. These measures re:uired a huge e;penditure of effort and material, but met with little success. 8ust = U"boats were sun by these measures in 1-1C. $t the beginning of this period the !ritish 0erchant 0arine had a shipping fleet totaling of =1 million G7T. In si; months of unrestricted submarine warfare U"boats san E million tons of $llied shipping, scarcely denting the !ritish merchant fleetA Whilst new building, and additions from ships sei6ed, had more than made up this loss. *n the other hand, serious offence had been given to neutrals such as /orway and the /etherlands, and brought the United States to the brin of war. This failure, and the various

restrictions imposed on the U"boat $rm in the $tlantic area largely brought the campaign there to a halt, although it continued with little hindrance in the 0editerranean and elsewhere, where there was less li elihood of offending neutrals.