The War At Sea

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The War At Sea
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Aims
Aims

• Explain the role of the naval blockade in
  defeating Germany.
• Examine the outcome of the Battle of Jutland in
  1916.

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Introduction

• Before the First World War, Britain was the
  strongest naval power in the world.
• The naval arms race led to great tension between
  Britain and Germany as both sides raced to build
  Dreadnoughts and rule the seas.
• Q.Why was it so important for Britain to have a
  large and powerful navy?

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The Naval Blockade
The Naval Blockade

• When war broke out Winston Churchill, the First
  Sea Lord of the Admiralty ordered a naval
  blockade of Germany.
• Ships heading for German ports with supplies of
  food or raw materials e.g. oil, chemicals were
  turned back or sunk.
• Around 12,000 ships were intercepted by the
  British.
• This gradually starved Germany of vital supplies.

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Early Sea Battles
Early Sea Battles

• The British Fleet was stationed at Scapa Flow in
  the Orkney Islands, Cromarty in the Moray Firth
  and Rosyth in the Firth of Forth.
• Early in the war a German battleship was sunk in
  the Baltic Sea by the Russians.
• The body of a German officer was found clutching
  a naval code book.
• This allowed Britain to decode German signals and
  work out when enemy ships were leaving port.
• There were a few small scale battles in the first
  year of the war which the British won easily.

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The Battle of Jutland 1916
The Battle of Jutland 1916

• The British did not want to risk a major North
  Sea battle unless it was really necessary.
• The only time the German and British High Seas
  Fleet engaged in battle was at Jutland.
• The British Fleet was led by Admiral Jellicoe and
  had 151 warships including 28 Dreadnoughts.
• The Germans were led by Admiral Scheer and had 99
  ships including 22 Dreadnoughts.

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The Outcome
The Outcome

• The battle was closely fought. Although the
  British won they suffered heavy losses.
• As a result of this the German fleet stayed in
  their ports for the rest of the war they
  couldnt risk any further defeats at sea.

British losses 14 ships 6,000 men
German losses 13 ships 2,500 men
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Submarine Warfare

• Aims
• Identify how the Germans used submarines to try
  and defeat Britain.
• Examine the methods used by Britain to defeat
  German submarines.

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U-Boats

• A damned un-English weapon
• Why do you think some people felt this way about
  submarines (U-boats)?

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• The submarine or Unterseeboot (U-Boat) was very
  effectively used by the Germans. They were used
  in BLOCKADES designed to prevent supplies
  reaching Britain.
• They sunk ships carrying goods to Britain
  including vital food supplies.
• British farmers could not supply enough food for
  the whole country and certain crops such as sugar
  cannot grow in our cold climate.
• The Germans believed that if they could sink
  enough ships Britain could be forced to surrender
  from starvation or a lack of war materials.

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• By 1917 the Germans were so desperate to win the
  war that they launched a campaign of
  unrestricted U-Boat warfare. German U-Boats
  began sinking any ships taking supplies to
  Britain including those from neutral countries
  like the USA.
• By 1917 they had been so successful that Britain
  only had six weeks supply of certain foods left.
• Defeat for Britain was never closer during the
  whole war.

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Defeating U-Boats

• Defeating U-boats was always going to be
  difficult.
• Several ideas were used to overcome the submarine
  threat.

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Defeating U-Boats

• The convoy system was the most successful way of
  defeating the U-Boats.
• The Navy opposed the idea at a first they were
  worried precious warships would be sunk.
• From June 1917 to November 1918 16,539 ships
  sailed in convoys and only 154 were torpedoed.
• The crews of many torpedoed ships were rescued by
  other ships from the same convey.
• The U-Boat menace had been defeated.