1914: An entire German battle squadron is destroyed by the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
1941: The US and Britain declare war on Japan after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour and Hong Kong.
1941: The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazis begins at Chelmno, Poland, in specially-adapted 'gas vans'.
Marginal submarines
In 1914, the submarine was seen as a weapon of marginal importance. On the contrary, influenced by the legacy of Nelson and the theories of the American thinker AT Mahan, it was widely believed that a conflict between Britain and Germany would begin with a new Trafalgar: a decisive clash between British and German battleships.
Yet, it was to be the fragile Unterseeboot (U-Boat) rather than the mighty dreadnought that was to mount the most dangerous challenge to British maritime security during World War One. Just as was to occur later, in World War Two, U-Boat attacks on merchant shipping in the Atlantic brought Britain to the point of defeat. The Allies eventually prevailed, but at a heavy cost in lives.
... the major threat was posed not by capital ships but by much cheaper weapons.
When war came in 1914, both sides fought shy of an Armageddon of the battlefleets, not least because of the grave consequences of losing such a clash. It was not until May 1916 that a major fleet action occurred.
The Battle of Jutland was tactically indecisive, but nevertheless an important strategic victory for the Royal Navy, because the Germans returned to port and never again made a serious attempt to challenge the British Grand Fleet. There was a deep irony here. The build up of the German battlefleet had been a primary cause of the rise of tension between Berlin and London before the war. In reality, the major threat was posed not by capital ships but by much cheaper weapons.
Undersea peril
On 30th December 1915 the P&O passenger liner SS Persia was sunk by U-boat 38 © Some warnings of this challenge emerged as early as September 1914, when a U-Boat sank three old British cruisers. Another threat materialised in the following month, with the sinking of a state-of-the-art battleship, HMS Audacious, by a mine.
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 reinforced the undersea peril, when mines and submarines sank and damaged a number of French and British warships, including HMS Triumph, torpedoed by U-21 off Anzac Bay on 25 May. While the threat to the warships was serious enough for Britain, the widespread use of submarines against the British merchant fleet was for Germany a potentially even more effective war-winning strategy.
The seas around the British Isles were declared a war zone ... Allied merchant craft could be attacked without prior warning.
World War One was a total war, and in such conflicts, restraints are cast aside. Both Britain and Germany strove to starve each other into submission through the use of naval blockades. The British had a huge advantage in that their surface fleet could intercept ships bound for Germany, and soon Germany's seaborne trade dwindled away. With its fleet bottled up, Germany had to use U-boats.
Before the war, the submarine was regarded as a morally dubious weapon, subject to international agreements. Submarines were supposed to surface and give crews time to abandon ship before sinking their vessels. This sacrificed surprise, one of the submarine's major advantages, and left the submarine vulnerable to attack while on the surface.
In February 1915 Germany decided to abandon these constraints, and moved towards unrestricted submarine warfare. The seas around the British Isles were declared a war zone, in which Allied merchant craft could be attacked without prior warning.
1941: The US and Britain declare war on Japan after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour and Hong Kong.
1941: The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazis begins at Chelmno, Poland, in specially-adapted 'gas vans'.
Marginal submarines
In 1914, the submarine was seen as a weapon of marginal importance. On the contrary, influenced by the legacy of Nelson and the theories of the American thinker AT Mahan, it was widely believed that a conflict between Britain and Germany would begin with a new Trafalgar: a decisive clash between British and German battleships.
Yet, it was to be the fragile Unterseeboot (U-Boat) rather than the mighty dreadnought that was to mount the most dangerous challenge to British maritime security during World War One. Just as was to occur later, in World War Two, U-Boat attacks on merchant shipping in the Atlantic brought Britain to the point of defeat. The Allies eventually prevailed, but at a heavy cost in lives.
... the major threat was posed not by capital ships but by much cheaper weapons.
When war came in 1914, both sides fought shy of an Armageddon of the battlefleets, not least because of the grave consequences of losing such a clash. It was not until May 1916 that a major fleet action occurred.
The Battle of Jutland was tactically indecisive, but nevertheless an important strategic victory for the Royal Navy, because the Germans returned to port and never again made a serious attempt to challenge the British Grand Fleet. There was a deep irony here. The build up of the German battlefleet had been a primary cause of the rise of tension between Berlin and London before the war. In reality, the major threat was posed not by capital ships but by much cheaper weapons.
Undersea peril
On 30th December 1915 the P&O passenger liner SS Persia was sunk by U-boat 38 © Some warnings of this challenge emerged as early as September 1914, when a U-Boat sank three old British cruisers. Another threat materialised in the following month, with the sinking of a state-of-the-art battleship, HMS Audacious, by a mine.
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 reinforced the undersea peril, when mines and submarines sank and damaged a number of French and British warships, including HMS Triumph, torpedoed by U-21 off Anzac Bay on 25 May. While the threat to the warships was serious enough for Britain, the widespread use of submarines against the British merchant fleet was for Germany a potentially even more effective war-winning strategy.
The seas around the British Isles were declared a war zone ... Allied merchant craft could be attacked without prior warning.
World War One was a total war, and in such conflicts, restraints are cast aside. Both Britain and Germany strove to starve each other into submission through the use of naval blockades. The British had a huge advantage in that their surface fleet could intercept ships bound for Germany, and soon Germany's seaborne trade dwindled away. With its fleet bottled up, Germany had to use U-boats.
Before the war, the submarine was regarded as a morally dubious weapon, subject to international agreements. Submarines were supposed to surface and give crews time to abandon ship before sinking their vessels. This sacrificed surprise, one of the submarine's major advantages, and left the submarine vulnerable to attack while on the surface.
In February 1915 Germany decided to abandon these constraints, and moved towards unrestricted submarine warfare. The seas around the British Isles were declared a war zone, in which Allied merchant craft could be attacked without prior warning.