The Rise of the Empire

In fact, in the First World War environment, it is entirely possible to use submarine artillery to destroy 3 to 5 merchant ships a day. The most brutal thing is that a certain submarine killed 14 merchant ships in one day! Obviously, this record cannot be achieved by relying on fish. After all, the German submarine had the largest number of torpedoes in World War I, only 18 torpedoes, so this achievement can only be achieved by naval guns.

To some extent, the criterion for measuring whether a submarine’s hunting efficiency is high is not whether the torpedo is accurate, but whether the naval gun is used well enough, so that some submarines in the late World War 1 were actually equipped with 3 150MM cannons, or 2 150MM cannons and 2 88MM cannons! This firepower is already stronger than many gunboats!

Generally speaking, neither the Allied Powers nor the Entente Powers were well prepared to fight a submarine war in World War I. The former did not realize the huge lethality of submarines at the beginning, while the latter was not fully prepared technically except for unexpected , it can be attributed to historical limitations.

Did Germany have submarine tactics before World War 1? Of course there are, but in 1910, German submarines were more suitable for defense rather than offense or breaking diplomatic relations. In the first plan involving submarines formulated by the Germans, a total of 12 submarines were arranged for defense In the Helgoland Bay area, six of them are patrolling the inner line, about 5 nautical miles apart, and the other six are patrolling in the North Sea. Because the submarines were relatively small at that time, it was difficult for them to go on patrol for more than one day at a time, so in order to maintain this scale, the Germans had to prepare 24 submarines! And in the original plan, 12 submarines were always on standby at the base.

If we want to talk about private research on submarine operations, the time will be earlier, and among them, the ideas of German Vice Admiral von Schleinitz are the most avant-garde and complete. As early as August 1908, the vice-admiral claimed in a journal called Submarines that submarines were a means of cutting off the import of necessities to Britain.

In May 1914, Captain Bloom of the German Kiel Submarine Test Department also submitted a report. In this report, he believed that the most important task of German submarines in the war was to break diplomatic relations with Britain at sea. And he also put forward such a conclusion, if you want to ensure that the 48 sea areas around the British Isles are always under the blockade of submarine forces, then Germany needs at least 222 submarines! And this number obviously exceeded the actual situation in Germany at that time.

Although the German submarines played a great reputation in the First World War, the number of German submarines was actually not that large. When the First World War broke out, the number of French submarines was the largest in the world, with 79 ships, and the United Kingdom was second in the world with 73 ships. There are only 28 German submarines that can be used, and the 4 oldest ones can only perform training tasks. Another 24 ships are available for battle. Russia and Italy have 22 ships each, the United States has 18 ships, Japan has 12 ships, and Austria-Hungary has 5 ships. . . .

While the number is scarce, the quality of German submarines is not good at the beginning. Most submarines cannot even go to the west coast of England to fight, because the surface displacement of this type of submarine is only more than 400 tons, and the range and weapons carried are far from enough to fulfill this need. Cruising combat missions. So at the beginning, the German submarines mainly aimed at the battleships of the British Royal Navy, and the most dazzling achievement at this stage was naturally the record of the U9 submarine destroying 3 old British armored cruisers cleanly.

It was too late for the Germans to realize that submarines were the decisive factor in the war at sea. After the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, the Germans finally began to discuss the restoration of the submarine since 1915 when the main fleet was hopeless. Its unrestricted submarine warfare, which was suspended in September 1999,

Of course, in the beginning, the blockade of submarine warfare was limited, and the targets were initially limited to armed ships with weapons.

But at this time, the number of German submarines in active service has reached 134! Even with restrictions on attacking ships, German submarines still achieved a record of sinking 154 ships with a total tonnage of 487,000 tons in December 1916! Then, in March 1917, the results of submarine operations reached a new height. In this month, German submarines sank 355 merchant ships with a total tonnage of 549,000 tons!

April 1917 was a month that must be remembered in the entire history of submarine warfare in the world. During this month, German submarines turned the waters around the British Isles into hell! On average, one out of every four ships leaving the British Isles died at sea! This month, 458 merchant ships were sunk, with a total tonnage of 841,000 tons! And this record has never been broken!

The only time that this record was hit in World War II was in November 1942. During this month, Britain and the United States lost the most ships. A merchant ship lost 822,867 tons, of which 729,000 tons were sunk by submarines. At this time, ships from neutral countries no longer dared to sail to Britain.

If the submarines in World War 2 only made the British feel a huge threat but were more difficult to kill, if there was no United States in World War 1, then German submarines really had a chance to force the British to withdraw from the war. After all, there was no Liberty Wheel in World War 1, and the American industry was far less powerful than in World War 2. The cost of destroying it was much lower than the cost of building it, and the most important thing was that the anti-submarine technology was really immature in World War 1.

Even in 1918, from January to November, with full escort, the Allies still lost 1,283 ships of all kinds. The gross tonnage reached 2,920,000 tons. However, 69 German submarines were sunk, 2 were detained by neutral countries after being damaged, and one sunk by itself. Although this loss seems to be very large in the first battle, it is nothing compared to the second battle!

Even if excluding the massive losses of submarines before Germany was about to collapse from the second half of 1944 to 1945, the losses of German submarines in the middle of World War II were still very astonishing. Before the attack was recorded, the Germans had sunk 16 submarines in the month, and this loss was nothing compared to the subsequent losses. In May 1943, Germany lost 41 submarines in one month. submarine!

The loss of submarines in World War 1 has never been too high. Except for a few months where the loss of submarines exceeds the 20 mark, the loss of submarines at other times is generally below 10. Even after the United States and Britain adopted comprehensive escort, the loss of the German submarine force did not increase significantly while maintaining a high level of vitality, which shows that contemporary anti-submarine warfare is difficult. But it will be different in World War 2!

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