The Kaiser's U-Boat Assault On America (Germany's Great War Gamble) PDF
Preview The Kaiser's U-Boat Assault On America (Germany's Great War Gamble)
One of the most obvious causes was the necessary need for some form of retaliation to the British and Commonwealth Naval Blockade of Germany which had been enforced ever since August 1914 when war was declared. The Imperial German Navy's Admirals decided at the commencement of 1915 to respond to this increasingly effective blockade by creating their own form of underwater counter-blockade. This came about due to the loss of several of their major surface units which had been designed specifically to sink merchant shipping during several small scale naval engagements (eg SMS Emden sunk by HMAS Sydney - 9 November 1914). Thus the decision and overall need to use U-Boats as the primary weapon was self evident. Upto this point U-Boats were primarily tasked with sinking major naval units, something they had been highly successful in doing (22 September 1914, a single U-Boat had successfully stalked and sunk 3 RN Heavy Cruisers with heavy loss of life while remaining completely undected. HM Ships Cressy, Aboukir & Hogue all went down in under 15 Minutes - all were torpedoed). Now with their new orders and tasking the U-Boats were to be ordered to concentrate their efforts on British and Commonwealth Merchantmen - especially Troopships of all kinds - in and around the British Isles in particular with their own vastly superior in design U-Boats and far more effective torpedo. The U-boat Commanders concerned were all given their new orders verbally directly from their own subordinate commands while both the Kaiser and his Government were actively kept in the dark about the upcoming deployments until it was impossible to prevent it from happening - after the U-Boats were already at sea. The most secret and indeed controversial of orders to these hand picked U-Boat Commanders was the order to sink ALL Allied Passenger Liners without the usual search for 'contraband' or surface warning by either signal light or a shot across the bows. This was the birth of Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare, which the British Admiralty discovered after deciphering coded W/T Transmissions from and to the U-boats while they were at sea. Not long after this new campaign commenced the RMS Lusitania was sighted on 6 May 1915 and sunk by a U-Boat with a heavy loss of life. However recently discovered documents unearthed in the UK, Canada and Germany show unequivocally that this loss was not the coincidence many believed it to have been. The Royal Navy knew about the intentions of the U-boats and, after doing everything to protect the passenger liners earlier in the war including sailing in convoy or with high speed escorts to match the liners high sea speed, orders were given to remove all protective measures. In simple terms they left the Lusitania and her crew alone in in the first week of May, as a way to hopefully create frictions between America and the German Empire.
A diplomatic quarrel between the US President Wilson and Germany about U-boat warfare commenced almost immediately after the sinking, just as the Admiralty and Government had hoped it would.
In spring 1916 the Imperial German Navy acted once again without receiving any form of direction or orders to do so from the Kaiser or his representatives, and the Admirals issued Verbal orders once more that the U-Boat Commanders sink on sight and without warning any form of allied or neutral flagged vessels inside the waters of the British Channel. When the cross channel ferry SS Sussex was attacked and Sunk, President Wilson responded by threatening to break off ALL diplomatic relations with Germany. Under massive diplomatic pressure the German government had no option but to give in and ordered its Admirals to cease the operation - over their vociferous objections. From this point onwards the U-boats returned to a much more sedate form of what was still referred to as being unrestricted underwater warfare, albeit following the internationally agreed maritime rules of stop and search first, and thus tolerated as such by America.
In Germany a heated debate set in after what they called the Sussex Situation, with the Imperial German Navy making its displeasure at being held back at using what it saw as a legitimate form of naval tactic in an rapidly escalating form of warfare, that thanks to the use of Q-Ships or disguised Armed Merchantmen or Auxiliary Cruisers by the Allied Naval Powers only added strength to the German Admirals argument for a return to unrestricted U-Boat Warfare. Towards the end of 1916, The Imperial German Navy promised the quick defeat of England by the use of a comprehensive and world wide usage of unrestricted U-boat warfare, and now they also had the Imperial German Army on side as well. The intention of the members of the so called “war party” was to rule out any possibility of a negotiated peace between the Allies by using the Neutral Americans as an impartial mediator. This as much as Tactical needs were to result in the resumption of a fully Unrestrained form of Underwater Unrestricted U-Boat War. The long desired hope was for the German Empire to starve Brittan of her Commonwealth Supporters foodstuffs and manpower, enabling the Imperial German Army to break the deadlocked Ground War on the Western Front and for the German Empire to have an unequivocal and definitive victory over England and its supporters in Europe. The course for this definitive victory was undeniably risky, but the potential pay-off in its supporters eyes, as well as avenging the starvation of Germany by doing the same thing to them with a tenfold increase, made it all seem worthwhile. But the German Government still doubted the Naval officers confidence as well as its capability to deliver victory by the use of all-out U-boat warfare as the primary method of attack and cautioned the Kaiser against choosing such a path to go down. The Governments viewpoint was more diplomatic in kind and they argued prophetically that the only definitive result from such a campaign would be to see neutral America and all its industry and manpower siding with the Allies. If America entered the war they warned, it would lead to Imperial Germany being ultimately defeated and the destruction of the homeland. In the last months of 1916 the German Government in the hopes of avoiding the disaster that they saw that lay ahead sent out peace feelers via the German Embassy to President Wilson. As part of those unofficial talks the German Government representative warned America that in the event of the talks failing and peace being unobtainable that Germany would then be forced to return to its earlier form of Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare.
At this time Britain was not doing that much better economically or militarily in the war either – much like Germany herself – Britain despite her Commonwealth supporters trade and military assistance (Chiefly Australia, New Zealand and Canada) still had its back against an almost identical wall to what Germany now faced. The stalemate in Europe on the Western Front showed no signs of breaking and if anything was getting even harsher, at sea the Allied Merchant Fleet was suffering terrible hardships and deprevations from both the weather and enemy actions. The long hoped for major fleet action had taken place at Jutland (1916) and ended with yet another stalemate with neither side able to claim victory. The Battle that it was hoped would break the stalemate in Europe, Gallipoli (1915) had ended in a naval disaster that ultimately ended in allied defeat and withdrawal from that battle zone with heavy losses both at sea and ashore.
The German Government were also unaware that their diplomatic cables were being read by British Intelligence and passed onto the newly elected Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was fully aware of what was happening in America. The Prime Minster chose his own equally risky strategy and when the long expected American Peace efforts started he rebuffed them all, even refusing to meet with American representatives of the president after they arrived in England. Recently declassified documents show that the long term goal of these actions was to encourage the more 'radical' elements inside the German Government into enforcing a continuation of the unrestricted U-boat campaign in the hope that it would drag America into the war.
Finally this British strategy was allowed to play out and ultimately pay off with the result that Britain had been hoping for: The Imperial German Navy and The Imperial German Army jointly after the peace efforts were so undiplomatically rebuffed (in the Germans eyes) started to pressure the Kaiser for an immediate recommencement of Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare by a public declaration aimed chiefly at America. The Navy wanted the campaign to commence from 1 February 1917. The Kaiser eventually agreed and gave way to the Military after the failure of the Diplomatic methods, as long feared would happen by those inside the German Government, the American response was for President Wilson to carry out his earlier threat and cease all diplomatic relations with Germany and its Allies.
Despite all this President Wilson still refused to join the war on the Allied Side, so long as long as American ships were to be treated correctly by the Germans, he wouldn’t come in, not even after the publication of the now infamous warning to American Sailors and Passengers more commonly referred to as the Zimmermann-telegram.
The point of no return came to pass towards the middle of March 1917, when German U-boats started to sink without warning by Underwater Torpedo Attacks American Flagged vessels out at sea. These losses and the casualties resulting from those sinkings soon forced Americas hand, leading to the American Declaration of War being made against the German Empire and its associated Allies, on 6 April 1917.
Hans Joachim Koerver is an accomplished historian in the field of naval history and has researched exhaustively at the British National Archives.
He’s written several books on naval warfare in both English and German, this is his first work for Pen & Sword Books.
Originally Published in HB Sept 2020, this is the digital version of that book as released in 2021.
Illustrated.
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