The+Seas+On+Fire





The War At Sea had been truly revolutionary in the history of Naval Warfare. In this campaign, we see the first mass deployment of sea mines and U-Boats in warfare. And with this, tactics involving naval warfare also evolved. Along with batteships, blockades were conducted through an experimental use of submarines, while merchant shippings were attacked at a never-before-seen scale. The naval campaigns of world war one also saw the world's first use of aircraft carriers in combat.

In the course of World War, one of the key main factors leading to the defeat of Central Powers came from the War on the Sea. The war at sea was, in a nutshell, a combined Allied effort to blockade the Central Powers (particularly Germany), using their numerically superior fleets and strategic positions as advantages in an effort to stop supplies from reaching these countries, eliminating their trade and slowly starve them to their knees; while the Central Powers struggle to penetrate the blockading fleets, in turn making use of more advanced technology and tactic they possessed, and had even attempted to inflict the same horror on the Allied nations.

The War at sea was mainly waged between the British and German Empires. Both sides used different tactics to counter one another in order to achieve a final victory. In 1914 the most powerful navy in the world was the British navy as it had an overseas empire. The other two respected navies were the French and German, the British were far more superior at with stronger battleships and bigger numbers so the Germans used their new technologies.

German U-boats and their High seas Fleet patrolled the European North Sea and the Atlantic in search of all types of enemy ships to destroy and the British Fleets acted as convoys and guided their ships to safety of the decks, therefore tight battles occured with both sides having similar yet different objectives. This hectic war on the ocean signified the importance of the navy. The war was fought on several battlefields scattered all across the globe as the different armies were desperate to win as the war slowly progressed

This two sided campaign on this new type of fighting ring was a vital factor in the final Allied victory in 1918.

=__//**Reasons for War at sea**//__= German reasons: * The British needed supplies from overseas including food and raw materials so this worked well for the German Navy. * The Germans needed to stop Britain from sending fresh reinforcements onto the Western front, making the job of the army even harder as they had smaller forces * Britain ran on Imperialism for centuries and most of their empire and resources were overseas so the only communication they had was via the sea. British Reasons: * In order to retaliate the British needed a naval blockade against the Germans to cut off its overseas trade, and since many of Germany's neighbors were enemies it made reaching supplies and feeding the people harder. * By using a blockade and reducing Germany to their own goods it could starve the people, create problems with weapons manufacturing therefore creating low morale. * Germany also had an overseas Empire in Africa and Parts of Asia so this worked as an advantage to the British too.

Kaiser Wilhelm II in military uniform David Lloyd George

In the period of the war the German and British army went frantic to create new weapons to counter each other. This resulted in various new tools of war being created and deployed onto the Battlefield:

* The Battle Cruiser: A ship designed to have the power of a battleship and speed of a cruiser.First Introduced by Admiral John Fisher. Most of British battle cruiser prototypes were finished by 1912. The Germans followed this example and successfully created similar ships to use on the sea * Dreadnought: This ship was the most heavily armed ship to be ever created. It had a crew of 800 sailors and was over 500 m in length.The ship's design was so remarkable that many countries imitated this. By 1914 the British had nineteen Dreadnoughts, Germany had thirteen, the United States had eight, France had eight, Japan had four, Austria-Hungary had two and Italy had one. The weapons loaded onto that ship were newer and more superior. * Submarines: It was not until 1905 that militarized submarines were created. The more advanced and sinister version were the German U-boats. The Germans had 10 U-boats and 30 Submarines by 1914. It had a crew between 20- 40 and could travel up to 8.5 knots under water. * Cruisers: First introduced in 1880 these ships were faster than battleships and could go around 30 knots and carried 600 crewmen. There were two types of cruisers, armored cruisers and protected cruisers. Although 45 cruisers were created between 1880-1907 they were soon replaced by battle cruisers. * Battleship: Although introduced in the late 19th century battleships continued to improve. Their job was to carry large naval guns and engage in combat more directly. Their weapons can fire to over 100,000 meters but by 1906 the dreadnought was created and the became obsolete. * Torpedo Boats: Torpedo Boats were small fast and light, qualified as shock tactic weapons. They were significant in the war as a non-direct torpedo hot could prove fatal in the sinking of a ship. *Town Cruisers: Named after 20 different towns these battleships were designed for long-range trade protection and operations with battle fleets. Only 2 were sunk in the entire war and could travel up to 28 knots. The also had many guns for long range protection.

<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> British Dreadnought and Battle Cruiser

Key Events and Locations in the War At Sea 1914-1918:
Dark Blue Pointers<span style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">- Main British Naval Ports
 * media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=212380790642373087116.0004979bb3e23094aad21&ll=55.153766,-1.186523&spn=11.996237,28.125&z=5&output=embed" height="480" width="640" || <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">LEGEND:

Red Pointers <span style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">- Main German Naval Ports

Light Blue Line <span style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">- Allied Mines

Red Line <span style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">- German Mines

[|The Map In Detail Click Here] ||


 * media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=212380790642373087116.000497bb503cbe673cea8&ll=55.875311,-0.351562&spn=11.779814,28.125&z=5&output=embed" height="480" width="640" || <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">LEGEND:

Red Pins- German Raids

Dark Blue Pins- British Raids

Light Blue Pins- British-initiated naval battles

Light Green Pins- German Attacks- Submarine

Yellow Pins- Battle of Jutland

<span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Note: Only major events/ multiple sinkings are noted down. Individual sinkings, or Merchant ships raided, which numbers a lot, are not included. ||

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