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While vast battles were fought on both the Eastern and Western Front, it was at sea as Winston Churchil explained that the War could be won or lost in a single day. The German surface fleet, the pride of the Kaiser, which had played such an important role in turning the British against the Germans played only a minor role in the War. There were a number of small engagements including German shelling of fishing villages. The only major engagement was Jutland (1916). The German fleet performed well, but unable to overcome the numerical superiority of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. The small U-boat fleet, however, proved a major challenge to the British. Early in the War, U-boats sunk three British cruisers, astounding the public both in England and Germany. The Germans backed down unconditional submarine warfare when America protested the sinking of the Lusitania. The sinking of the Lusitania combined with the invasion of neurtal Belgium helped create
the image of Germans in the American mind as modern day Huns. Making another effort to win the War, Germany in 1917 reimplemented unrestricted submarine warfare (March 1917), bringing America into the War (April 1917). The U-boat fleet succeeded in sinking 5,000 ships. That was an amazing 25 percent of the Allied merchant fleet. The Allies attempted to determine how to sink U-boats and developed the depth charge. It was, however, the introduction of the convoy system that defeated the U-boat. The World War I U-boat was really a surfacre vessel that could sumbmerge. Against esorted convoys, it had little chance of success. In the end the German Navy only served to bring Britain and America into the War, ensuring Germany's defeat. An embittered German naval office, Karl Donnietz, confined in a British POW camp in 1918 was already planning Germany's strategy in the next war. Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, the Germans could had to surrender their fleet. The German High Seas Fleet sailed for Scappa Flow in 1919, but many of the officers scuteled their vessels rather than handing them over to the British.
Prince Wilhelm when brought to England to visit with his Grandmother Queen Victoria and cousins as a small boy was greatly impressed by the Royal Navy. He envied the English their navy and played a major role in promoting the construction of a German Highseas Fleet. [Massie] The German Navy was the pride of the Kaiser. It played an important role in turning the British and Americans against the Germans, but played only a minor role in the War.
Naval vessels incorporated major improvements in gunnery, armor, and propulsion. The battleship was the most technologically sophisticated weapon of the day. The Japanese demonstrated at the Battle ofcTashima (1905) that it was the big guns that would determine naval battles. This led to HMS Dreadnought--the first all big gun battleship. While the British introduced this innovation, it actually proved to be an advantage for the Germans. Dreadnought essentially rendered all existing battleships obsolete. This meant that the Royal Navy's advantage in ships was not as great after Dreadnought and that a German building program could begin to narrow the gap with the British. Other important ship types included bttle cruisers, cruisers, destoyers, and motor launches. Merchant vessels were modified andcdeployed as Q Ships.
Life aboard these vessels for World war I sailors was little changed from the Napoleonic era. British sailors still received their rum ration and boys as young as 12 years old still comprised the crews. [Massie]
The British Royal Navy was still the dominant naval force of the day. The Royal Navy outnumbered the Germans in all important classes of surface vessls. The Royall Navy's numerical superority in capital ships made its control of the Sea virtually unassaiable. Britain's long navl tradition was also an important advantage. TheGerman High Seas fleet was the only force capable of mouning a serious challenge to the British. The German built the second most important highseas fleet with ships every bit as good if not marginally better than the British ships. The German Navy included mostly modern ships because their construction prgram was reltively recent. The German crews despite the lack of a naval tradition were well trained and highly motivated. The geography of Germany with coasts located on the Baltic and North Sea met that invariably the British and Germnans would confront each ther in the North Sea. The Russian Navy was bottkled up in the Baltic. The French Navy was largely deployed in the Mediterranean. The Austrians had only a small navy which saw little action outside the adriaric. The Japanese Navy aided the Royal Navy in eliminating the German Pacific squadron and in seizng Grman colonies in the Far East and Pacific. The obly important navy that was not engaged in the War from an early stage was the United States Navy.
While the naval war is usually given little attention in histories of World war I, the Royal Navy's blockade of Germany played a critical role in the War. The U.S. Navy joining with the Royal Navy played an important role in defeating the German U-boats in the Notth Atlantic. The Germany Navy while technically effective disaterously impaired the German war effort. Germany's building of a High Seas Fleet was one of the reasons that public opinion on Bitain turned against Germany and that Britain entered the War. The U-boat campaign was a major reason that public opinion in America turned against Germany and that America entered the War. Despite the huge investment, the German Navy achieved nothing in return to counter balance the cost for Germany.
America's entry into World War I was the deciding factor in the War. Here it was the American infantry that brike the dead lock on the Western Front. The Royal Navy and French blockade of Germany played a major role in undermining the German and Autrian economies and civilian morale. This was largely accomplished before America entered the War. America had the third largest navy in the world, second only to the British and German navies. The 300 warships of the American Navy only added to the effectiveness of the Allied blockade, but were primarily deployed in the North Atlantic to guard the sea lanes between America and the Britain and France. Especially important was guarding the troopships that delivered the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) to France. A few Navy vessels were deployed in the Mediterranean, but the bulk of the Navy was deploted in the North Atlantics. Only a few Navy vessels were sunk during the War. The cruiser San Diego sunk by mines set by a German U-boat off New York. Two Navy destroyers protecting convoys were sunk by U-boats. It was German U-boats and the German decesion to resume unrestricted sunmarine warfare that brought America into the War. The German U-boat campaign proved unsuccessful because of the convoy system imnplemented by the Royal Navy and the invention of ASDAC (SONAR). The United States had a small sunmarine force of 30 ships. The U.S. Navy established its Submarine School at the main Submarine Base in New London, Connecticut (January 19, 1917). The American submarines would play little role in World War I, but the force would play a major role in World War II.
Histories of World War I generally focus on the epic battles on the Western Front. The war at sea was, however, critical. A defeat of the Grand Fleet was the one way the British could have lost the War in a single day. Ameica's ability to aid the Allies required command of the sea. There were a number of small engagements including German shelling of fishing villages. One notable engagement was the Battle of the Falklands (December 1914). German Admiral Graf von Spee leaned that the British base on the Falklnd Islands in the South Atlantic was defended by only a single Royal Navy ship. He attcked but in the interim a large Royal Navy force arrived. The British sank four German ships, killing Spee and 2,000 German sailors. [Keegan] The major engagement at sea was Jutland (1916). The German fleet performed well, but unable to overcome the numerical superiority of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. There were smaller engagements in the South Atlantic (Falklands), Indian Ocean, and South Pacific. The most cotroversial Naval action was the attempt to open the Dardenelles so the supplies could reach the Russians (1915). Had it succeeded the Russians might have been kept in the War and the Russian Revolution prevented. The offensive was promoted by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and he had to resign from government when it failed. One history contends that had not te British Commander Admiral de Robeck lost his nerve, the campaign may well have succeeded. [Massie] Churchill wrote, "... searching my hear, I cannot regret the effort. It was good to go as far as we did. Not to preservere--that was the crime."
The German Navy was very new, but very effective. In fact the newness meant there were many relatively young, officers with innovaive ideas. There ships were alow newer and more modern than many Royal Navy ships. Besides the numerical superiority of the Royal Navy, one advantage throughout the War was a supeior intelligence effort. The British during the War benefitted from Royal Navys interception and cryptologic service known as 40-OB which was more effective that the German effort. The Royal Navy inteligence effort was located in room 40 of the Old Admiralty Building and thus called 40-OB . The Royal Navy's 40OB was not only more effective, but also very lucky. The Russians retrieved the code book from the German light cruiser Magdeburg which had grounded in their waters. 40-OB also got the merchant code from a German steamer interned in Australia. And a British fishing trawler retried a German code book for admirals that had been throen overboard by the crew of a sinking German destoyer. The German Naval High Command preceived that the British were learning of naval movements. They concluded that it was not because of signal insecurity, but that Dutch and British fishing vessels were reporting their movements to the British. Here Dogger Bank because of its location assumed considerable importance in German eyes. [Kegan, pp. 263-264]
The naval war is generally considered a side show in World War I. In fact it was a critical part of the war, especially the naval blockade of Germany. The principal impact of the naval war was Britain's ability to use the Royal Navy to blockade Germany. The British blockade crippled the German economy. Food shortages in Germany became severe as early as 1916. The German Government never introduced an effective rationing system ensure that the privations were equitably shared. And the conscription program did not take into account the need to maintain agricultural production. France produced adequate food domestically. The British maintained domestic food production and imports until mid-1917, when the U-boat campaign began to affect food imports. Germany could not, however, feed itself and the British blockade severely affected the availability of food. Garman and even more so Austrian families were affected by severe food shortages in 1916. Coffee a German staple was impossible to obtain. Consumption of fish and eggs declined sharply. Even potatos became difficult to obtain in the winter of 1916-17. Civilians had to turn to less nutritious turnips. Basic necesities like coal for heating and soap were rationed. Most civilians by late 1916 were increasingly affected by the War. Life for all but the rich " ... became a time of eating meals never entirely filling, living in unheated homes, wearing clothing that proved dificult to replace and walking with leaky shoes. It meant starting and ending the day with substitutes for nearly everything." [Moyer, p. 164.] The poor were the most severly impacted. The bread winners in many families were at the front leaving their families destitute. State allounces were provided, but were inadequate and brought less and less food as the War progressed. [Wall and Winter , p. 117.] By the end of the War food shortges were at crisis levels. Mlnutritiin affected many and real starvation loomed. Without a surface fleet strong enough to challenge the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, the Germans at sea were left with only one response--unrestricted submarine warfare. This had the impact of alienting neutrals--most importantly the United States.
The small U-boat fleet, however, proved a major challenge to the British. Early in the War, U-boats sank three British cruisers, astounding the public both in England and Germany. The Germans backed down from unconditional submarine warfare when America protested the sinking of the Lusitania (1915). There were 1,201 civilians, including 94 children killed. Among them were Americans and American public opinion was incensed. Although the British denied it, historians have since established that the Lusitania was carrying weapons and amunition. [Massie] The invasion of neurtal Belgium and the sinking of the Lusitania combined to create
the image of Germans in the American mind as modern day Huns. Making another effort to win the War, Germany in 1917 reimplemented unrestricted submarine warfare (March 1917). The Germans feared the entry of America into the War, but in the end concluded that they could force the British and French to seek terms before the American Expeditionary Force could be created and brought to France. It proved to be a huge miscalculation. As a result, America declared war on Germany (April 1917). The U-boat fleet succeeded in sinking 5,000 ships. That was an amazing 25 percentb of the Allied merchant fleet. The Allies attempted to determine how to sink U-boats and developed the depth charge. It was, however, the introduction of the convoy system that defeated the U-boat. The World War I U-boat was really a surfacre vessel that could sumbmerge. Against esorted convoys, World war I era U-boats had little chance of success. In the end the German Navy only served to bring Britain and America into the War, ensuring Germany's defeat. An embittered German naval office, Karl Donnietz, confined in a British POW camp in 1918 was already planning Germany's strategy in the next war.
Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, the Germans could had to surrender their fleet. The German High Seas Fleet sailed for Scappa Flow in 1919, but many of the officers scuteled their vessels rather than handing them over to the British. The treaty also prohibited Germany from having either a U-boats service or an air force.
The Allies under the Versailles Treaty ordered the German High Seas Fleet to the main Royal Navy base at Scappa Flow where the vessels would be turned over. The Naval officers involved were humiliated in the final weeks of the War when the crews essentially mutinied, refusing to make a futile suiside sally against the Royal Navy which by 1918 had been strengthened by American units. The Geman High Seas Fleet did sail to Scappa Flow, but instead of turning the vessels over to the British, the officers ordered the sea cocks opened and scuttled the vessels. The British managed to prevent this on many vessels, but the Germans successfully scuttled most od the capital ships in the Fleet.
Japan entered World war Ion the Allied side. They obtained German concessions in China as well as German South Seas posseessions which were turned into major naval bases that beaame major World war II battlefields.
Keegan, John. Intelligence War:Knowlefge of the Eneny from Napoleon to al-Qaeda (Knopf, 2004), 387p.
Massie, Robert K. Castles of Sea: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea (Random House, 2003), 865p.
Moyer, L. Victory Must Be Ours (London, 1995).
Wall, R. and J. Winter. The Upheaval of War (London, 1988).
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