The U-Boat (literally meaning ‘undersea boat’ from the German ‘Unterseeboat’) was the main weapon in the war at sea. This was the main weapon at sea. The new and powerful Dreadnought battleships, along with other ships, were surmised by people to fight. They proved too expensive to risk against the primitive yet affective submarines. These submarines could be launched from German ports and sail underwater without drawing attention that they were even there. This proved a valuable asset to the Germans to start off with and it caught the British by surprise. German U-Boats initially began with destroying British warships near their ports and out at sea. This was scrapped because of the need to search for warships on the surface, as the law stated that neutral ships could not be destroyed. Germany announced the policy of ‘unrestricted submarine warfare’ in February 1915, which involved destroying ships belonging to or helping the Allies. Neutral trading ships, therefore, were destroyed as well as warships. In the ensuing months, Germany’s tactics were seen as a breech of international law. Neutral ships with trade coming in from the USA and Canada were destroyed, thus sparking off tension between USA and Germany.
Germany was going well at this point. Albeit with less than about thirty submarines, they managed to destroy British warships and American neutral trading ships with ease. British tactics at this point were pretty poor, although there were methods put into practice, such as decoy ships. The climax of this first submarine campaign culminated in the sinking of the passenger ship called the Lusitania. It was torpedoed south of Ireland, having started its journey in New York, claiming nearly 1200 innocent lives. The key thing was that there was 128 American citizens onboard the vessel, along with it being an American ship itself. This resulted in the Americans further resenting the Germans, almost to breaking point. Modern studies have proven that there were weapons onboard the ship, however. There were rows within Germany over this matter also. Shortly after these events, the German submarine campaign was called off.
The Battle of Jutland was the only major sea battle between the two sides’ sea fleets throughout the war at sea, occurring on May 31st 1916. Each side utilised the naval surface technology – Dreadnoughts. The aim for the Germans was to remove the blockade of its seaports and harbours by British ships. Ultimately the main objective failed, although the Germans did destroy more British ships than British destroyed German. The German fleet remained in port for the rest of war after this battle ended.
The U-Boat campaign resumed in 1917, with an overall larger fleet of submarines to carry out the job for the Germans. Many had been newly built and were unleashed to sight as many ships as possible and destroy them. Neutral ships and warships were targeted, the former with the most emphasis. The main aim now was to starve the Allied population of vital supplies and materials to halt their war effort. This still involved destroying ships related to the USA and they entered the war soon after the launch of the second campaign. Germany did not care now whether or not the USA entered the war, as they saw it as a reasonable gamble to defeat the British navy and trade ships before the USA had time to properly enter the war. Germany was feeling the strain of the naval blockade at this point and the deadlock on the Western front was placing severe strain on German forces for supplies. It was crucial for them that they removed the blockade if they were going to turn the tide of the war in their favour.
The USA had become increasingly involved in global affairs now and even though they did not particularly like the British Blockade of German ports, it did not cause American deaths. Unrestricted submarine warfare did, however, and the Germans were persisting in it. The Zimmerman telegram, urging Mexico to ally with Germany, was the last straw. USA joining the war, due to German stubbornness in the war at sea, proved decisive to the final outcome of the war. Although they did not announce they would join the war until 1st April 1917, as well as taking their time to mobilise troops, the final year of the war saw vast amounts of USA (and Canadian) military weaponry and soldiers being transported to France. This considerably helped the Allied war effort and finished the war faster than previous expectations had suggested. In the short term, it also provided the Allies with more warships to escort convoys and to fight for the Allied cause. The war at sea was directly responsible for USA intervening in the war and this was one major reason why the war at sea partly decisive to the outcome of the war.
The second campaign was going very well for the Germans now. With their bigger fleet of U-Boats, they were destroying British warships and supply ships at a rapid rate. By mid-1917, the Germans had starved Britain to only a few months food supply. However, Germany never really looked like removing the blockade from here on in. New tactics, such as decoy ships or Q-Ships, underwater mines, depth charges, aircraft and the convoy system were superior to the effort made by the German submarines. The building of ships also increased. Q-Ships had been introduced as early as 1915 and were effective at disguising themselves. Underwater mines and depth charges, placed in the seas around Britain, were an added threat to the U-Boats, forcing them to be vigilant. Aircraft and the convoy system were something new, on the other hand. Aircraft had developed so much by now that they could escort ships and spot U-Boats from far away. The convoy system was the best of the tactics, though, and was brought into effect in April 1917. With the introduction of the USA into the war, it meant that the convoy system was excellent at stopping trading ships from being hit. The U-Boats could at most destroy one ship and then have to retreat to avoid a counterattack. The huge amounts of ships compared to the Germans in this second campaign, largely due to the USA, overwhelmed them and they could not sustain the offensive. There were not enough resources for Germany on land, let alone the sea, now and they had gravely misinterpreted the USA military. It was finally called off.
The war at sea proved to be closely linked to the war on land. Neither side invaded each other by sea or had tremendous sea battles. The blockade, over the four years of the war, crippled Germany further and further until breaking point. German people and their soldiers died of starvation without vital supplies increasingly more as the war grinded on. The war at sea was directly responsible for this, although nearly not as much as the war on land was. Germany, although had some sporadic minor victories at sea, never really placed a blockade on Britain as harsh as Britain placed upon them. Though the blockade didn’t have immediate effect on the Germans, it did have an effect in the long run, nonetheless. This is seen in the Ludendorrf offensive and the later years of the war, when Germany was forced to give up the warfare of attrition for all out attack. However, their supply lines were low and German soldiers raided British supply huts for food and water. USA intervention (although due to the Germans because of the need to remove the blockade) proved decisive in the final year of the war. Any sea battle in the war was, on the whole, irrelevant to the outcome. Arguably, though, the war at sea contributed only partly to the land war. This part, however, was much bigger than the war in the air’s contribution. The Western Front was the main culprit for using up the most amounts of supplies and material. In conclusion, the war at sea played quite a significant role in deciding the outcome of the war, again not as decisive as the Western Front though.