War at Sea

 

  • War at sea also proved to be effective for both the Allies and the enemy
  • The British believed that they could dominate the waters with their huge fleet of:
    1. Dreadnoughts – super battle ships
    2. destroyers
    3. light cruisers

 

  • The British government made a fateful decision not to concentrate on the building of  U-boats or  submarines believing that this was an underhanded way to fight
  • The Germans had an impressive Surface Fleet but constructed many long range submarines to attack British supply ships, oil tankers and warships
  • Canadian supply ships were also easy targets
  • The German subs hunted in Wolfpacks of five or more subs covering the entire North Sea, English Channel and England’s entire coast
  • Allied supply ships entering British ports were sitting ducks for torpedo attacks from U-boats
  • One shipping corridor called the Dover Strait between England and France was well guarded with water mines and extra warship patrols
  • Defending against U-boats attacks was difficult
  • Sonar – underwater radar was primitive therefore submerged submarines were hard to detect
  • Radio messages at sea were coded and hard to decode
  • The British developed depth charges – barrel shaped explosives which could be fired off the decks of warships toward a U-boat under water
  • The depth charge could be set to explode at a certain depth by a water pressure gauge
  • The sonar operator would try to determine the depth, direction and speed of a U-boat to help attack it more effectively
  • The British fleet set up s blockade of German port cities to keep supply ships from getting in or out
  • The German people suffered terribly from starvation while Germany ordered “Unrestricted Submarine Warfare” permitting German subs to attack any type of ship at sea, neutral or otherwise
  • An American luxury liner – Lusitania was sunk by a U-boat, 1200 passengers on board were killed while they were on vacation (took 18 minutes to sink)
  • German U-boats would sink millions of tons of British shipping and many innocent lives were lost for no good reason
  • In reality most supply ships made it through the German U-boat net because of the “convoy system” – escorting supply ships on large convoys with fast worships