Compared with the "wolf pack tactics" of German submarines in the Era of World War II, German submarines in World War I also gave opponents a headache, but at the beginning of World War I, the tactical use of submarines by various countries was still concentrated on large surface ships, and German submarines carried out large-scale "unlimited submarine warfare" in World War I, which was announced by the German Admiralty in February 1917, but German submarines did play a huge role in World War I.
German submarines before World War I: single challenge battleships, "blitzkrieg peer" submarines
After the beginning of the First World War, the German Navy could "break the wrist" with the strongest British navy at that time, and its high seas fleet also fought a large-scale naval battle with the British Naval Grand Fleet in Jutland, but then the German Navy surface fleet became an "otaku", staying at the base until the end of the First World War, and finally "braved", this ending is similar to the British and German naval warfare process in World War II, the same surface fleet was countered by the British, and submarine forces were needed to balance the war situation at sea.
At the beginning of World War I, the German Navy's submarines were mainly more than 40 submarines built before world war I, the first submarine of the German Navy, U-1, was actually built in 1906, and the development progress was later than that of Britain and France, among these submarines, U-21 became the first submarine to use self-propelled torpedoes to sink battleships, the time was September 5, 1914, the British Navy's "Pathfinder" cruiser was sunk, 17 days later, U-9 submarine sank three British armored cruisers in only 1 and a half hours.
U-21 submarine is also the "famous work" of German submarines in World War I, in May 1915, U-21 in the waters of Aussie Bay, first sank the British Navy battleship Triumph, 2 days later sank the British Navy solemn battleship, by February 1916, U-21 sank a French armored cruiser, an 837-ton submarine sank two battleships in a row, such a record is not even inferior to the German Navy's battleships of tens of thousands of tons, U-21 served until the end of World War I, A total of more than 40 ships of various types were sunk.
U-21 did not only challenge the battleships alone, but also "blitzed" the submarines, and on November 6, 1915, the U-21 won the battle with the British submarines again, when the U-21 unexpectedly approached the British E-20 submarine, and after floating, fired a torpedo at a distance of 500 meters, directly sinking the British submarine, becoming the victor of the relatively rare submarine confrontation at the beginning of the First World War.
In the course of World War I, the German Navy gradually began to pay attention to submarines, the number of submarines is also increasing, by the end of the First World War, Germany has built more than 300 submarines, of which the larger number of construction is UB-II, UC-II and UB-III, of which from 1915-1916, UB-II built 30, from 1915-1917, UC-II built 64, From 1916-1919, as many as 96 UB-III models were built.
"Highlight" unlimited submarine warfare, but the results are not satisfactory
In 1914, the German command would not have imagined that the Atlantic Campaign would be unprecedentedly successful in 1917, in the early stages of World War I, between 1914 and 1915, on the one hand, the number of German ocean-going submarines was insufficient, and at any time, at most 5 submarines could only be kept in the combat sea area, at the same time, the speed of these submarines was slower, the caliber of the deck guns was relatively small, could not be effectively pursued, and it was not suitable for the task of destroying merchant ships on the route, and more importantly, the submarines were ambushed in the water. The sudden attack of a merchant vessel with torpedoes is prohibited by international conventions.
In 1915, in retaliation for the British blockade of German ports, Germany announced the implementation of "unrestricted submarine warfare", but it was abolished at the end of that year, and after Germany redefined the connotation of "unrestricted submarine warfare" in 1916, from February 1, 1917 to the low of that year, the German navy carried out a real "unrestricted submarine warfare" around the waters surrounding the British Isles.
In the two months from February to April 1917, Germany sank 1.86 million tons of Allied merchant ships at the cost of 9 ships, which directly led to the shortage of British strategic material reserves, and the supply of wheat was only 6 months of supply, and in 1917, German submarines sunk a total of about 6.236 million tons of Allied merchant ships at the cost of 6-10 submarines per month, which was quite amazing.
However, Germany's "unrestricted submarine warfare" was actually bankrupt after May 1917, because it failed to complete Germany's strategic goal of bringing Britain to its knees, in April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, and from mid-1917 onwards, Allied ships began to escort merchant ships, and the introduction of the escort system became the most successful anti-submarine means at that time.
Also in 1917, the United Kingdom came up with an "anti-submarine artifact": submarine detector, English name "ASDIC", this type of equipment can be more effective in detecting the location of submarines, and then surface ships can drop depth charges to sink submarines, from then on, it means that German submarines can no longer unscrupulously use underwater concealment advantages to carry out pleasant "hunting".
The submarine detector later had a more widely known name, which was "sonar", which was named SONAR (sonar) after the successful development of the device in the United States in 1931, and later accepted this name by the British.
Nonsense from Joon Hyuk-jun: it is believed that "unlimited submarine warfare" is undefeated and repeats the same mistakes in World War II
In World War I, Germany built more than 300 submarines, accounting for half of the world at that time, of which 178 were lost, a total of 5708 ships of various types were sunk, with a total tonnage of nearly 13 million tons, in terms of record, it was a fairly good exchange ratio, equivalent to the Allies using 32 ships in exchange for the sinking of a German submarine, so many people at that time thought that German submarines were only because they were limited, not defeated.
In terms of troop input, the personnel of each German submarine is only a few dozen, and the personnel of all the German submarine forces in the First World War are no more than the personnel of a German Army division, and compared with the German surface fleet, which is also huge, the German submarines have always been active in various seas in the First World War, maintaining a certain deterrent.
In the era of World War II, Germany once again launched a large-scale submarine war, and also achieved quite excellent results, but still defeated, and the submarine force also suffered heavy losses, in fact, the reason is that although the personnel of the submarine force is small, it also needs to consume more financial and material resources, which is bound to cause an impact on other military forces in the case of relatively tight conditions in wartime, especially in the case of continuous improvement of anti-submarine means, emphasizing the advantages of a single equipment, which is always some "partial" and easy to be targeted.
In fact, in 1918, German submarines sank a total of about 2.67 million tons of Allied merchant ships, equivalent to about 43% in 1917, and the results of the battle had been greatly compressed, just as the attack efficiency of German submarines fell sharply in the second half of World War II, and the losses began to increase, equivalent to repeating the same mistakes.