First World War - Economic Warfare

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Introduction

  • Economic Warfare - Big Issues - Links into issues of Economics and therefore victory and defeat 
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U-Boat 'Counter-Blockade' - 1917-1918

  • Propoganda in Germany - Returning to unrestricted U-Boat warfare is the magic bullet - To winning the war - Knock the British out and win the war - Sank the Louissitania - Reuse the magic bullet and the war will be able to end 
  • German navy - Carry out careful - Offering Hinderburg and Ludendorff a route for ending the war by the Summer 1917 - Americans will join the war in response to the unrestricted U-Boat warfare - This is not a problem to the Germans, as by the time the Americans can send out any real power, the British will be on their knees - Begging for peace
  • 9th January: Descision is made - Within a couple of weeks the waters around Britian and certain parts of the Meditteranian - Became a prohibited zone again - Like in 1915
    • Americans - Cut diplomatic relations with the Germans - End of Feb - Number of Americans are killed when the ** Laconia is sunk 
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German Resources - 1917

  • 1st Feb 1917
    • 105 U-Boats - Most of these are based in the North sea 
      • North Sea: 46
      • Flanders: 23
      • Mediterranean: 23
      • Baltic: 10
      • Constantinople: 3
    • Planning to divert resources in order to make more U-Boats
  • Peak number of U-Boats - 129 - June 1917
  • Issues - Quality - Only about 1/3 - Mainly in the North Sea - Are good at going out into the Ocean - Small U-Boats and Medium U-Boats - Only Medium ones are good at getting out to the Ocean 
  • Time distance problem - Most direct route has been blocked - Dover Barage - Deeply laid minefields, nets with mines in them - If you try and get round them, the British have ships that will attack you - Stops German U-Boats making direct route through English Channel - Have to go round the top of the British Isles 
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German Resources - 1917 - Part Two

  • Problem - At any one time, the Germans have got roughly a 1/3 of their U-Boats in repair, a 1/3 of their U-Baots either going to the area of operations or returning from there, so you only have 1/3 of your U-Boats on call to attack merchant ships - Numbers are problematic 
    • Post War memoirs from the Allies - Came within a wisker of being defeated - LIES - Germans don't have the right amount of resources to win the war  
  • Intitally it goes well
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The U-Boat Campaign

  • Although the U-Boats are limited - Merchant ships sailing alone - Unprotected - Sinking number is mounting up 
  • German success peaks in April - Due to the Weather - Easier to find your targets 
  • 1917 - Loses - Much more significant than other years
  • Random attacks - Indiscriminate - Creates panic and fear across merchant fleets
  • Black fortnight - 400,000 tonnes losts
  • U-Boat commanders - Put self in shipping lane - Merchant ship - Shoot it - Move persision in evening - Shoot them - Repeat 
  • Effect - Merchant ships go to Port - Especially neutral ones - Sit tight - Significant initial effect - Campaign fails - Britian takes counter measures
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Allied and Neutral Ships Sunk by German U-Boats

  • 1917:
    • February: 234
    • March: 281
    • April: 373
    • May: 287
    • June: 290
    • July: 227
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British Supplies

  • British - Manage the British ecomony and food supply - Mild system of rationing - Deal with the demand - Problems with the Supply - Luxery items become scarce but the essential items are still analiabe in high demand - Public needs is still avaliable - Managed by communicating with the Public through official and non official propoganda - Tell people its your patriotic duty to modify your consumption 
    • Don't waste food 
    • Make do with what you have - Luxery items like fancy clothes aren't avaliable
    • Change in tone 
  • Key change - Agricultural setting
    • During the 19th Century - Become Cheaper to eat immported food than to eat wheat grown in Britian - British domiance of the world economy - Wheat brought to Britian and sold in Britian - Fields that previously grew wheat, turned into cattle farming 
    • Government reversing this trend - Tells British farmers to start planting wheat - Injects additional resources into the food sector 
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Taking down the U-Boats - British

  • Royal Navy - Natural instinct is to go find and kill U-Boats 
    • Problems with doing this:
      • Finding the U-Boats is hard - British are intercepting German messages - Get general sense of where the U-Boat is - BUT how do we then pinpoint the U-Boat in the Ocean - Hyderphones - Listening device in the water - Short range - Once you get close to the U-Boat the Hyderphones may be useful - Not helpful in pinpointing U-Boats - Have to use lookouts - With telescopes and banoculars - Not easy to do - Game changer - Start using Aircraft to go looking for U-Boats - Seaplanes - Carry large area - Looking down - Better chance of seeing outline of the boat - Aircraft can travel and see further - Can't kill them - U-Boat submerge if they see them - Travel slower underwater - Delay time it takes them to leave the area - Uses up more fuel
    • How do you then go and kill the U-Boat?
      • Shoot at it with your gun - Ram at it with your ship - Bombs from aircraft - All of these require the U-Boat to be on the surface or near surface - Depth charges - Large barrels of explosives that explode at certian depth - Primative - If the U-Boat is underwater, how do you find it? - Hit and miss at this stage 
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German U-Boat Losses

  • Key thing: Where the U-Boats are being destroyed - Not in the Atlantic - Hard to find there - Kill the U-Boat on transit is the best bet
  • German U-Boat Losses - Causes of Destruction:
    • Mine:
      • 1917: 14
      • 1918: 18
    • Depth Charge: 
      • 1917: 12
      • 1918: 24
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Merchant Ships

  • If the Germans are sinking Merchant ships - Make more - Britian makes more 
  • Britian is main Shipping market - Government able to intervine - Underright insurance - If merchant ships are sunk, people will be conpensated 
  • Particularly once the American's enter the war - All the Germans ships in US ports - Requisition Britian - Using Ship building capacity - Dazzel Camoflague - Zigzag pattern 
    • Prinz Eitel Friedrich - Been in America since 1915 - Sized by the Americans - 1917/18 - Used as a troop ship to transport American soilders to Europe
  • Helpful - Not the game changer - Organisation change in moving the ships is the game changer - CONVOYS - Move ships together - Under protection of warships - Gather merchant ships together in a port - Sail together
    • Empty the ocean 
    • Less chance of running into a U-boat
  • Took a while for the British to adopt the Convoy techiquie - Once you start to use convoys - U-Boats become ineffective
  • Americans send across large numbers of destoyers when they join the war - Protect merchant ships
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Allied Blockade of Central Powers, 1914-1918

  • Violent and dramatic - U-Boat warfare from the Germans 
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