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Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships such as freighters and tankers without warning. The use of unrestricted submarine warfare has had significant impacts on international relations in regard to both the First World War and the Second World War .
In six months of unrestricted submarine warfare U-boats sank 3 ⁄ 4 million tons of Allied shipping, scarcely denting the British merchant fleet; whilst new building, and additions from ships seized, had more than made up this loss. On the other hand, serious offence had been given to neutrals such as Norway and the Netherlands, and brought ...
1916 was a year of political struggles between opponents and proponents of unrestricted submarine warfare. Reinhard Scheer became the commander of the High Seas Fleet, and as an effort to "blackmail" command into adopting unrestricted submarine warfare, refused to use his submarines in any sort of limited commerce raiding campaign. [23]
U-995, a typical VIIC/41 U-boat on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial. U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars.The term is an anglicized version of the German word U-Boot ⓘ, a shortening of Unterseeboot (under-sea boat), though the German term refers to any submarine.
Things only worsened with the February 1917 German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare (which meant a loss of neutral tonnage, both through ships sunk and Allied requisition of vessels) and the subsequent American entry into World War I (which added immense US pressure to British efforts). [8]
Naval warfare in World War I was mainly characterised by blockade. The Allied powers, with their larger fleets and surrounding position, largely succeeded in their blockade of Germany and the other Central Powers, whilst the efforts of the Central Powers to break that blockade, or to establish an effective counter blockade with submarines and commerce raiders, were eventually unsuccessful.
In 1917, Germany became convinced that it could defeat the Allied Forces by instituting unrestricted submarine warfare before the United States could enter the war. The Sussex pledge was, therefore, rescinded in January 1917, which started the decisive stage of the so-called First Battle of the Atlantic.
A contemporary German depiction of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania during the first unrestricted submarine warfare campaign. Germany, as part of the Central Powers, had been at war with Britain and the other Allies since 1914. Merchant shipping was vital to the Allied war effort, carrying material across the Atlantic to Britain and France.