First World War - Economic Warfare
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- Created by: beckie.pdf
- Created on: 01-04-21 13:07
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
- 105 U-Boats - Most of these are based in the North sea
- 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
- Problems with doing this:
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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
- Mine:
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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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