World War One: The Kaiser's Wolves - Germany's U-Boat Menace

U-Boat is the English version of the German word U-Boot or Unterseeboot, and refers to naval submarines operated by Germany in both World Wars.

World War One: The Kaiser's Wolves - Germany's U-Boat Menace

World War One: The Kaiser's Wolves - Germany's U-Boat Menace

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World War One: The Kaiser's Wolves - Germany's U-Boat Menace

World War One: The Kaiser's Wolves - Germany's U-Boat Menace

Theoretically Germanys' U-Boats could not have been effectively used against capital ships i.e. Battleships of an enemy nation but against the cheaper of an enemy state. The original targets of Germany's submarines were the merchant convoys bringing Food, material goods and war Supplies to Great Britain.

The contrast in the middle of U-Boat and Submarine in the English language is well known, whereas in Germany it is unknown as U-Boat refers to any type of submarine.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, all major navies included submarines in their fleets. Despite this, the roles of these primitive craft were questioned by prominent political and soldiery figures. Therefore the full inherent of the submarine was not encouraged to grow and the submarine services were resigned to coastal duties. The German irregularity to the submarine relegation was the Deutschland Class of Merchant U-Boats. These submarines were each 315 feet long and had two large cargo compartMents. In addition, these submarines could carry 700 tons of cargo, tour at 12-13 knots on the covering and 7 knots submerged. The Deutschland inevitably became the U-155 when fitted with torpedoes and deck guns, and with seven similar submarines, served in a combat capacity in the latter part of World War One. To compare, the approved submarine of World War One measured just over 200 feet in length and displaced less than 1,000 tons on the surface.

Pre 1914 submarines were armed with torpedoes, during the course of World War One submarines were also fitted with deck guns. The increasing of deck guns allowed U-Boats to coming merchant shipping on the covering and signal the merchant ship to stop in order to be searched. Once the search was completed the crew were allowed to abandon the ship, where upon the U-Boat would sink the merchant ship with its deck gun. This had two beneficial roles. Firstly the crew of the merchant ship were unharmed and allowed to leave and secondly requisite torpedoes were not used to sink the vessel. Most of Imperial Germanys' submarines had upwards of two deck guns with a three or four-inch calibre, however later submarine types and create warranted the submarine carried larger calibres of guns.

In particular one unique variant of the submarine was the capability to lay mines during covert operations off enemy harbours and shipping lanes. One such submarine laid one of the mines which sunk the hospital ship Britannic in 1916. The German navy constructed some specialised submarines with vertical mine tubes straight through their hulls.

In 1914, Germany had 29 U-Boats in service. Over the course of the first ten weeks of war, five British cruisers had been lost to U-Boat attacks. In particular, in September 1914, U-9 sank the out-dated Hms Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue in a particular hour!

For the first months of the conflict, U-Boat anti-commerce attacks observed the 'prize rules' of the period by which the treatMent of enemy civilian ships and their occuPants were staunchly upheld.

October 1914 saw U-17 sink the first merchant ship, the Ss Glitra, off the coast of Norway. The use of covering raiders of commerce shipping was ineffective, thus in February 1915 the Kaiser assented that the waters surrounding Great Britain were to be treated as a warzone. This was in response to Great Britain blockading Germany. New instructions for U-Boat captains dictated that they could sink merchant vessels, even neutral ships, without warning. The Us GovernMent stated that they held Germany to account for any loss of American lives. Despite this the Germany took no notice. The age of unrestricted submarine warfare had begun!

The most infamous sinking by a German U-Boat happened in 1915. On the 7th May 1915, U-20 torpedoed and sank Rms Lusitania. The sinking claimed 1,198 lives of which 128 were American. The sinking sent shockwaves colse to the world and allied governments. Now, after 90 years, the manifest of the Lusitania shows that the vessel was carrying soldiery cargo. Furthermore, after investigations, it was confirmed that the Lusitania was carrying ammunition for the allies. however this was not known at the time of the sinking.

Following the indecisive action in the middle of Great Britain's navy and the Imperial German navy off Jutland in 1916, it was requisite for Germany to return to a course of anti-commerce warfare by U-Boats. Reinhard Scheer who was Vice-Admiral pressed for all out U-Boat warfare. In ensue Scheer was convinced that an greatest high rate of shipping losses for the allies would force Britain to sue for peace.

The renewed U-Boat campaign was dramatic and deadly, in total 1.4 million tons of shipping was sunk in the middle of October 1916 and January 1917. Despite this, the political situation worsened and from the 31st January 1917, Germany embarked on unrestricted submarine warfare.

Unrestricted warfare was initially very successful. Despite this, with the introduction of good allied shipping defences, increased escorts and increase of German losses the German High Command strategy failed to destroy sufficient allied shipping.

From the armistice in November 1918, Germany's armed soldiery surrendered. Of the 360 U-Boats that had been built, 178 were lost and a Grand total of 12,850,814 gross tons of shipping had been sunk.

World War One: The Kaiser's Wolves - Germany's U-Boat Menace

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