preview

The War Was The U Boat Peril

Good Essays

Alex Lawson
Mr. Helke
History Sec 1
January 6, 2015

Modernity Essay

“The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril” - Winston Churchill. The first submarine used in naval warfare was during the Revolutionary War. The submarine was mostly unsuccessful in taking down British ships, but showed potential for stealth attacks from under the sea. The modern submarine did not rise until the start of WWI. Germany used the submarine during WWI to dominate the Atlantic Ocean and destroy enemy cargo, troops, and warships. The German submarine was called the Unterseeboote, or U-Boat for short, and throughout the war proved to be extremely dangerous. The U-Boats blockaded the United Kingdom and was a huge threat to merchant ships and other warships. The arrival of the submarine created new complexity to warfare shifting from surface warfare (on sea and on land) to multilayered warfare (submarine and aircraft). As submarines became more sophisticated, they forced existing navies to reconsider their strategies both in relation to merchant and battleships and forced innovation on both sides. During the American Revolutionary War, the Americans developed the first submersible in naval warfare. The American military wanted a way to attach a time bomb. The American inventor, David Bushnell, was a student at Yale University where he started building underwater mines. He decided that the best way to deliver mines undetected was by transferring them using a

Get Access