how important was the sea at germany

The battle of Jutland was fought between the British and German fleets in the North Sea in 1916; Jutland was the biggest naval battle of WW1.The battle came to an end, and both sides claimed victory. Germany destroyed and crippled more ships and men, but Britain retained control of the North Sea. Scheer was eager for action with the British because Germany had long been jealous of Britain’s powerful navy and sheer wanted to lure the navy from Scapa Flow to challenge them. But scheer’s plan was ruined when the British captured a drowned German sailor with a book containing all the German radio codes so the British were able to discover scheer’s plan to lure out their navy. Using their captured book the British were also able to track what the Germans were doing. Ships were destroyed and sailors drowned. Sheer was the first to turn his fleet around and retreat. This meant the war at sea was very important in the defeat of Germany because by finding out their plans and radio codes we were always one step ahead which causes sheer to turn his fleet around and retreat.

The anti-submerge measures were another important cause of why the war at sea was important for Germany’s defeat. At first, The German U-boats only sank the ships of Britain and her allies. The Ships of neutral countries in British waters were not targets until 1915 when the German government decided on a policy of unrestricted warfare. So that meant that any ship in British waters, neutral or ally could be attacked this lead to a steady rise in the amount of ships sunk. So Britain developed a number of anti-submerge measures to combat these increased attacks of the German U boats: The depth charge which was an explosive device ser to go off at a pre set depth under water; it was an effective measure because they successfully destroyed any U boats in their near by area but they were only available in small numbers and the U boat had to be located first. Another anti-submerge measure was The Q-ship; this was a war ship that was disguised as a merchant ship. Usually U boats surfaced merchant ships because it was seen as harmless; this was a fairly successful because it was easier to attack by the British. The most successful anti-submerge measure was the convoy system. This is where a group of merchant ships would be packed together and protected by destroyers this discouraged U boats from attacking.

This meant the war at sea was very important in the defeat of Germany because we had new tactics and ships which discouraged U boats from attacking and this meant we lost less men and ships and this caused the Germans to lose thousands of men and ships.