Page 82 - NS-2 Textbook

WORLD WAR I 75

refused to follow, fearing that his force might be led into or U-boats, as they were called. Beginning in February the
minefields or "\Taiting submarines. U-boats sank an average of almost two ships per day. In
Several times later that night and into the early May the U-20 sank the British passenger liner Lusitan;a
morning hours the next day the two opposing fleets ma- off the south coast of Ireland. Among the dead were 128
neuvered close to each other. Several short but hard- U.S. citizens. (Besides passengers, the ship was later
fought encounters took place. Finally Scheer decided to determined to have been carrying war supplies to En-
preserve his remaining ships and to retreat in a south- gland.) Americans at home were outraged, but as Ger-
easterly direction back to base, despite any British forces many had calculated, the United States was not ready to
he might encounter along the way. At about 0230 Scheer go to war. President Wilson urged patience, and he de-
succeeded in breaking through the British rear, with the manded that Germany stop its unrestricted submarine
loss of only an old predreadnought and two light cruis- warfare. In August a British passenger steamer was sunk
ers. Jellicoe, again not wanting to risk the German mine- with the loss of three American lives. This brought U.s.
fields, decided not to pursue. The Battle of Jutland, as protests to the point of threatening war. In response to
this action came to be called, was over. Scheer made it this, the German kaiser proclaimed that no more passen-
back to Jade Bay later that afternoon with most of his ger liners would be attacked. This ended the first phase
force intact. The British had lost six cruisers and eight de- of U-boat warfare in the North Sea. For the rest of the
stroyers, while the Germans had lost one old predread- year 'the Germans shifted the focus of U-boat warfare to
nought, five cruisers, and five destroyers. the Mediterranean, where more than 100 Allied ships
The Germans were pleased by their good showing were sunk by year's end.
against the world's most powerful navy. After Jutland, Early in 1916 the German general staff thought that
however, they did not want to risk their High Seas Fleet the United States had become more understanding
again, so it mostly stayed in port for the rest of the war. about German submarine warfare! and so they resumed
Gradually many of the fleet's perSOlmel were h'ansferred attacks in the British Isles area. In March the unarmed
to the sublnarine force, -which caused a severe loss of French steamer Sussex was sunk in the English Channel
morale within the German navy. This in hun would ulti- by a U-boat that mistook her for a warship. Casualties
mately contribute to the collapse of its fighting forces included three wounded Americans. This led President
two years later. The Battle of Jutland was the final great Wilson to threaten to break diplomatic relations with
action to be fought between surface forces in the Age of Germany. The German goverrunent replied with the
Steam. "Sussex Pledge," promising that henceforth interna-
In America, the Battle of Jutland shocked the Wilson tionallaw would be followed. This required that notice
administration. It demonstrated that the British fleet was be given and provisions be made for the safety of pas-
not supreme, and that the United States might yet find it- sengers and crew before a noncombatant ship could be
self facing Germany on the high seas without British pro- torpedoed.
tection. In response to the battle, plus a new threat of Admiral Scheer decided that U-boat warfare against
German U-boat warfare, in August 1916 a large new merchant shipping could not possibly succeed under
naval building program was rushed t1uough Congress. these circumstances, so he recalled most of his U-boats
Ten battleships, six battle cruisers, ten scout cruisers, fifty and directed that those left only attack Allied warships.
destroyers, and sixty-seven submarines were to be built He decided to try to use cruisers to lure British forces to
within the next three years. locations where waiting U-boats could torpedo them.
Thus it was that about a dozen German U-boats were de-
ployed when the Grand Fleet sortied for the cruise that
UNDERSEA WARFARE
would lead to the Battle of Jutland.
When war broke out in August 1914, Britain imposed a By late 1916 the German general staff had beglm to
blockade against Germany, hoping that this would deny realize that Germany was losing the war simply because
vital foodstuffs and raw materials. But the blockade did it had not yet won it. Time was on the side of the Allies.
not seriously hurt Germany at first because of previously Germany could not continue this stalemate because the
stockpiled materials, development of substihltes, and British blockade was beginning to hurt. The U-boat
imports from neuh'als by way of the Baltic Sea. In re- offered the only hope of immediate victory. A study by
sponse, in February 1915 Germany declared the waters the chief of the German naval staff concluded that if
arOlmd Britain and Ireland a war zone and warned that major unrestricted submarine warfare were started by
both Allied and neutral ships in the war zone would now February 1917, Britain would be starved into submission
be subject to attack by submarines and smface ships. by June, before the summer harvest.
The German surface raiders were kept at bay by the The Germans calculated that even if American aid
British home fleets, but not so the German submarines} were started, it would be too late to do any good. They