The Battle for the Atlantic
Overview
World War I at Sea
In World War I, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean were significant battlegrounds. In particular, the Atlantic Ocean transformed into a sea of naval clashes. The British always had the superior navy, with massive battleships called Dreadnaughts. The Germans, contrastingly, developed their Unterseebooten (U-boats). These early submarines ultimately were more psychologically threatening than they proved to actually be in combat. For the course of the war, the Atlantic would be the scene of clashes and unfortunate mishaps between the U-boats that stalked the ocean and the battleships that sought to destroy them.
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate the importance of the Atlantic Ocean as a theater of war in World War I
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Blockade of Germany: British blockade of the German coast with their navy from 1914 – 1918
convoys: groups of military vessels traveling together for protection
Dreadnaught: British battleships
RMS Lusitania: British passenger ship that was torpedoed in World War I by German U-boat that caused American sentiment to favor the British in the war
U-Boats: shorthand for Unterseebooten—German submarines in World War I
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare: 1917 – 1918 German policy of attacking any ship that was sailing near British or German waters
The Blockade of Germany
In 1914, the British decided the easiest way to defeat the Germans was to starve their civilian population. Germany was an industrial country with little ability to provide sufficient foodstuffs to its people unless it imported goods. It was largely a landlocked country with only a small coast that jutted into the violent and bitterly cold waters of the North Atlantic.
Britain recognized early in the war that they could employ their navy to help defeat Germany. They imposed a blockade of Germany’s coast with the intent of starving the country into defeat. In August 1914, the British deployed their ships to cut off all merchant and military ships, while British ships patrolled the ocean between Scotland and Norway.
The British blockade of Germany was highly illegal and violated international law. However, it seemed to work. The German navy was no match for the British battleships, so the Germans began accelerated construction of their submarines. At the beginning of the blockade, Germany had only 29 U-Boats, most of which were used to lay mines.
In 1915, Germany began to feel the effects of the blockade and launched a U-boat campaign that targeted military and merchant vessels near their coast. The international community, especially Britain, was outraged. To them, the use of submarines to attack merchant and military vessels was deplorable. This new campaign produced mixed results. The Germans successfully destroyed hundreds of tons of cargo, as well as began patrolling British waters. However, the U-boat threat was feared more because of its use of stealth and secrecy, rather than for its overall effectiveness in knocking Britain out of the war.
Claims by the Allies, primarily the British, that submarine warfare was illegal and inhumane resonated around the world when a U-boat crew sunk the RMS Lusitania in May 1915 off the coast of Ireland. RMS Lusitania was a British passenger ship on which 123 Americans were aboard, and the Americans were citizens of a then neutral country. Outraged, Americans clamored for Germany to be punished, though they largely stopped short of advocating a declaration of war on Germany. Woodrow Wilson pressed Germany for a reduction in U-boat warfare, insisting on the American right to travel as neutral citizens aboard passenger ships.
The Germans initially balked. Truthfully, they explained they had placed ads in over 50 major American newspapers warning them not to ride about the Lusitania. And, as the Germans suspected, the British were secretly loading the hulls of passenger ships with military armaments to aid them in the war against Germany. This violated international law and transformed merchant ships into military targets in the eyes of Germany. But Wilson would not be persuaded of German claims. In 1915, the German government reversed their policy of attacking merchant and neutral ships.
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
In 1917, World War I entered its third year. Armies on the continent had experienced millions of casualties, while civilians endured intense deprivation. These conditions led to total war on land, and at sea, where international law was largely ignored. In early 1917, the German government again reversed its maritime policies. They implemented a new measure: Unrestricted Submarine Warfare. This meant that German submariners could attack merchant and military vessels without fear of repercussions. The growing strain on German civilians undoubtedly provoked the measure. Germany felt it needed to defeat Britain by the summer of 1917, or they could face defeat.
For the final two years of the war, Germany launched continual attacks on ships encroaching on their territory, and in the waters surrounding the British Isles. At the height of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare over 100 U-boats were deployed. To counter the U-boat threat to merchant vessels, the British (and later Americans) began using convoys. This strategy protected merchant vessels and dramatically increased U-boat casualties. When the war ended in 1918, the U-Boats had reduced the cargo bound for Britain, but they failed to defeat the British military.
Significance
The Battle for the Atlantic was not a decisive theater of war in World War I, but it pitted two of the primary belligerent nations against one another: Germany and Great Britain. Both suffered significant losses. The British lost ships and hundreds of tons of cargo, while the mortality rate among U-boat crews were astronomical. The war at sea also introduced modern technology that would be further developed when World War II began. Among the technologies developed were the submarine, torpedo, depth charge, and sonar. Britain and Germany both violated international law many times throughout the Battle for the Atlantic, but neither entirely gained the upper hand on the ocean.
Attributions
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Willmott, H.P. World War I. DK Publishing, London: 2009. 176-185.