The height of German engineering in World War I was the introduction of the German U-boats in Atlantic warfare. The submarine was first invented by Wilhelm Bauer in 1850, the three man Brandtaucher sunk to the bottom of Kiel Harbor on its first test run. The first fully functioning submarine was built in 1903, Forelle, then was sold to Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. The design, size and weaponizing of the submarine was upgraded and altered all the way through to the U-boat. These included, diesel engines, torpedoes and torpedo tubes. By World War I rolled around, Germany had almost 50 submarines of 13 classes either in commission or under construction. The U-boat was ready to begin its terror of the Atlantic Ocean.
The U-boat quickly became a force to be reckoned with, sinking Ally ships quickly and efficiently. The first merchant ship was sunk on October 20th, 1914, the SS Glitra off of Norway. This was seen as retaliation against British blockades and landmines by the British. The U.S. struggled to remain neutral with distress and frustration coming from the allied powers, the Allies then would fly the American flag in order to sneak past German U-boats which further angered the United States. The false flags made U-boat strategies more ruthless and indiscriminate towards boats. Even though the Lusitania was a tragedy for the U.S. it was not until the SS Sussex was sunk that got a mass reaction by the public. The U.S. threatened to severe ties with Germany which made the Germans re-think their prize rules. The German U-boats sunk 1.4 million tons of ship between October 1916 and January 1917 and on January 31, 1917 Germany announced that they would start unrestricted warfare which due to several U.S. merchant ships being sunk, the U.S. entered the way. As the war came to a close out of 360 submarines built, 178 were lost and on November 11, 1918 the remaining submarines were surrendered to the Allies and were scrapped and researched in order to replicate the technology.
The end of World War I did not bring the end of the U-boat as many people believe. The Treaty of Paris restricted the tonnage of the German navy. They got around this by having facilities for building them and training crews be labeled as “research” and by the time World War II started, the Germans had 65 U-boats, 21 in the water, ready for war. In the beginning the U-boats were super effective at destroying Ally ship, however as the war progressed, the Ally developed sonar to detect the submerged U-boats and targeted U-boat yards with strategic bombings. The U-boat not only shaped war, it shaped the technology of the rest of the century, radar and sonar lead to the invention of cordless telephones and radio waves and the improvement of overall submarine technology improved greatly because of German engineering.
From our readings in "Dead Wake", we understand the ruthlessness and indiscriminate attacks by German U-Boats on both warring and neutral ships in the Atlantic Ocean. This is reflected by the false neutral flags that were flown by warring ships, which caused attacks on almost every ship that passed by the U-Boats, even those with American flags. Whose fault caused the contentious distrust against neutral ships? Was it the German U-Boats that would attack without regard to neutrality, or the opposing ships that flew neutral flags to save themselves? However, there was no doubt that the Lusitania was considered a target by the Germans, given the importance of the vessel to the English.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really good question. I think that its the German's fault that the false flags were flown. There complete disregard for ships that were nonmilitary drove England and other "ally" countries to fly the false flags. The German's paranoia of these neutral ships harboring arms and weapons made them go to such drastic measures to ensure their safety. Yes, as stated in Dead Wake, the Germans believed and later confirmed that the Lusitania was carrying war materials.
DeleteHi Will. I am very impressed with your knowledge of a submarines. before reading Dead Wake, I had no idea how effective submarines were in warfare, but they were the most important part of the German Navy during World War I. The British Navy was the most powerful and well equipped navy the world had ever known, but, since the Germans had these submarines, the playing field was essentially leveled.
ReplyDelete-Nick O'Leary
Hey Will. This is a really good explanation of German submarine power, but I think you could have looked more at what the submarine meant for Europe. Yes, it changed the technology of the continent, but how? What did it mean for the future, or for the Second World War?
ReplyDeleteOverall, a well written and interesting piece.
I found your knowledge of both history and German submarine engineering impressive. As someone who is passionate baout history and studied history in class last year, I knew all about German weapons and tactics and WWI in general. One thing that I never thought about that struck me in Dead Wake was the cool, calculating, emotionless manner in which the U-Boat operators slaughtered thousands of defenseless unsuspecting civilians in the name of their country's war interests.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the history and information on the submarine - I didn't know most of that! I find it cool how the development of this technology really changed the outcome of the war. It's interesting to think about what might have been different if the Germans had not had access to U-boats or similar inventions. The world would be a completely different place without these technological adbances, whether that be for worse or better.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure what to expect when i started reading this, but then i went a little deeper. I was shore something was there, nothing is that straight forwards in idea of man. It took twenty minutes but i had finally submerged myself into the text only to find that my dreams had sunk. I should wake up now, i current-ly have a comment to write. I have tied myself down when finding depth, when i didn't sea the beauty of Unterseeboot. Thank you for reading this, I'm going to continue continue surfing the web now.
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