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The War at Sea. The British established a blockade against German ports. The Germans declared the waters around the British Isles to be a war zone. . Naval Strength, Aug. 1914. British Ships. German High Seas Fleet. Admiral Tirpitz.
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The British established a blockade against German ports. • The Germans declared the waters around the British Isles to be a war zone.
German naval secretary from 1898, von Tirpitz persuaded both Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Reichstag to support his Navy Laws, which built up the small German High Seas fleet into a fleet capable of challenging Britain's hitherto undisputed naval supremacy.
Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty in October 1911 where he helped modernize the navy
Prior to World War I, prevailing naval opinion considered the submarine an ineffective weapon for blockading an enemy country. Submarines, filled with exposed piping and crammed with machinery, had no space to take prisoners aboard. Additionally, the submarine could never carry enough sailors to provide crews to man captured ships. Therefore, the submarine was considered a useless weapon against civilian shipping.
With the German submarine war heavily in progress and the German home fleet effectively bottled up by Admiral Beatty's success at Heligoland Bight, German Admiral Franz von Hipper decided to launch a raid upon three British North Sea costal towns by the German Battlecruiser Squadron, comprising five battle cruisers supported by light cruisers and destroyers. • The raid took place on 16 December 1914 at 9am, and resulted in the death of 18 civilians at Scarborough, causing further damage at Whitby and Hartlepool.
Buoyed by the success of the raid, Admiral Hipper resolved to repeat the endeavour the following month. He was however intercepted by the British on 24 January 1915 at Dogger Bank, midway between Germany and Britain. • Having intercepted German radio traffic - decoded by use of a German code book originally captured by the Russians - the British had learnt of Hipper's proposed sortie on 23 January. Consequently Admiral Beatty set sail with five battle cruisers to meet Hipper's three, aided by a further six light cruisers. Joined by additional cruisers and destroyers at Harwich, Beatty proceeded south before encountering Hipper's outlying vessels at 7.20am on the morning of 24 January.
Realising he was overpowered, Hipper attempted an escape, believing the British battle cruisers to be relatively slow. Beatty's cruisers, however, were notably faster than their German counterparts, and succeeded in reaching their extreme firing range by 9am. Battle was enjoined half an hour later
Nevertheless, a major British success appeared likely until Beatty, overcome by fears of mines and a believed submarine sighting (there were none), decided to abandon the attack, allowing Hipper's squadron to escape. 15 British sailors had been killed in the encounter. • Although the battle was not itself greatly consequential of itself, it boosted British morale and concerned the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, enough to issue an order stating that all further risks to surface vessels were to be avoided.
In February 1915 the German government announced -- unrestricted submarine warfare. The Germans realized they didn't have to capture a merchant ship, just sink it - crew and all. They declared a war zone around the British Isles within which they would sink any allied merchant vessel on sight.
Fifty ships were hit between February and September including the liner Lusitania. • One hundred thirty-eight Americans were among the 1,198 lives lost in the Lusitania sinking. • American public opinion was outraged, many clamoring for war. President Wilson protested to the Germans. Afraid that America might join the war, and mindful that they didn't have enough subs to do the job right, the Germans suspended their campaign -- but only temporarily.
Although the German U-boat had every right to torpedo the ship - she was registered as a vessel of the British Fleet Reserve, she travelled in a declared war zone and in her cargo holds she was carrying rifles and explosives and thus was a rightful target - the sinking caused sharp American protest, resulting in a German order to leave passenger liners unharmed.
Battle of Jutland • Both fleets sailed in a similar formation, with a scouting squadron of battle cruisers sailing ahead of the main battle fleets. The battle falls into five main phases. The first came when Admiral Beatty, commanding the British battle cruisers encountered their weaker German equivalent under Admiral Hipper, (31 May) and chased them south towards the main German fleet
The second phase saw Beatty flee north, pursued by the German Dreadnoughts. So far, both sides thought the battle was going to plan, although a design flaw led to the destruction of two British battle cruisers. • Now, in the third phase the Germans got a nasty surprise. Thinking themselves involved in a chase that would end with the destruction of the British battle cruisers, they found themselves under bombardment from Jellicoe's battle fleet, which they had thought to be too far north to intervene
The heavy British guns quickly forced Scheer to order a retreat, but then Scheer made what could have turned into a grievous error, turning back, possibly hoping to pass behind Jellicoe, and escape into the Baltic. • However, Jellicoe had slowed down, and the German fleet found themselves crossing in front of the British fleet, and in ten minutes of gunfire suffered 27 heavy hits while only inflicted two. Once again, Scheer ordered a retreat.
Finally, in the last phase of the battle, in a night of intense fighting, the retreat of the German battleships was covered by their lighter ships, while Jellicoe lost time after turning to avoid a potential torpedo attack.
Jutland was the last, and largest, of the great battleship battles. Neither submarines or aircraft played any part in the battle, despite the plans of both sides. Never again did battle fleets meet again in such numbers. While the Royal Navy suffered more loses, the battle effectively ended any threat from the High Seas Fleet, which now knew it could not contest control of the North Sea with the Royal Navy.
Several surviving German ships were so badly damaged that they took months to repair. Jellicoe, on the other hand, reported twenty four battleships ready for action the day following the battle. • German newspapers naturally claimed a glorious victory based on the numbers of ships sunk. It was significant, however, that the German High Seas Fleet did not put to sea again for the rest of World War I.
The German government resented the rather cozy relationship between the United States and Britain. They objected to the fact that the Americans made only feeble protests against the British blockade of Germany and actively traded arms in English ports
By 1917 the situation was getting difficult for Germany. While the U-boat enforced embargo was proving to be an effective weapon, it also seemed that it would bring America into the war against Germany. • The only hope now, it appeared, was to increase U-boat activity in an attempt for victory over Great Britain before America could get into the European picture. On 1-Feb-1917 Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare for the third time. • This action causes the United States to break off relations on 3-Feb-1917. The submarine, the weapon that had proven itself most useful in the war on commerce, had now sealed the fate of Germany by swinging the Great Neutral to the allied cause. America declares war on Germany on 6-Apr-1917.
