Torpedoes Research Paper

The Germans had sent out U-boats because they simply could no longer afford a purely defensive naval strategy. The Germans were the first to use torpedoes in battle to make their U-boats even more deadly. A torpedo is self-propelled underwater missile launched from a tube located on the deck or inside the hull of a warship. Torpedo tubes were first built into submarines in 1885 by the Swedish armaments manufacturer, Thortsen Nordenfelt. Torpedoes in 1914 carried a contact-triggered explosive warhead and had a range of 10,000 meters and could travel at 41 knots.1 However, their ideal range was about a kilometer because they tended to be inaccurate over longer distances.

Hunley. It was built with the intention of “attacking Union ships that were blockading Confederate seaports”. It was equipped with a long pole containing an explosive charge; this “spar torpedo” was used to place an explosive on an enemy vessel and detonate it. There was no air supply in the Hunley with the exception of the main compartment. The Hunley was the first submarine to successfully sink another ship. It was responsible for sinking the USS Housatonic, but after signaling its success, the Hunley itself sank. Overall, the Hunley suffered three tragedies. The first crew drowned on August 29th, 1864 followed by and the second crew on October 15th later that year. Inventor Horace Hunley himself was one of the many casualties of the CSS

These innovations were used for a more advanced warfare. Espionage was very popular, and the hot air balloon expedited the process. “Balloon operators used another wartime innovation, the telegraph, to let commanders on the ground know of Confederates movements.” (PBS “Civil War Innovations”) This made it that much safer to gain information about the opposing side. Another special invention was the submarine. Naval warfare was a changed fight. Many of the techniques that were previously used had to be re-thought. Submarines could surprise attack naval ships. The submarine was developed by Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson. These crafts were not very effective, as the ship was the earliest model and had a difficult time firing its “torpedoes” or mines (gilderlehrman.org, The Civil War and early submarine warfare). Often times, it did more damage to itself than it did to the ironclad ships. Ironclad ships were an invention that came from Britain right around war time. There were very few weak points in the ship's hull, and enemy ships had hope that they hit one of the ships vulnerable points(Civil War Trust, Steel, and Steam). This caused strategists huge problems. They had to make precise shots in order to take down an enemy ship. They had to expedite the process to keep up with the ever-changing

"Confederate Submarines." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 61, no. 3 (1953): 293-303. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4245946.

Ideas were made realities as the country discovered more efficient tactics of warfare. On the water, the idea of being completely submerged and attacking from below came from Southerner H.L. Hunley. Hunley was “involved in the construction of several submarines, including one named after him” (Bruce). Hunley was not the first to think of the idea of a submarine but was the first to create a working model. His model consisted of “a crew of nine, eight of whom turned hand cranks along a single screw shaft that served to propel the craft” (Bruce). His invention was not flawless but was the first completely underwater machine that was ultimately deadly to the Union ships. It was the first submarine which allowed for future generations to reflect upon this first invention and improve upon it for a more effective machine. This first inkling of a thought would help achieve much greater machines decades in the future. The newly built machine was fallible and many sailors died while operating the ship. On February 17, 1864, “the Hunley sank shortly the Union screw sloop Housatonic. Although the Hunley sank shortly thereafter, it was the first submarine to claim an enemy vessel” (Bruce). The first kill from a submarine was monumental because it proved that the submarine could be a useful and feared machine lurking in the water. It had proved itself to be valuable in the time that it served and convinced the army to continue to improve upon it after the war. Following the war, the “navy continued experiments but it was not until the end of the 19th century that inventors developed a truly effective submarine” (Bruce). The military realized that the submarine had much potential that could be derived with more intensive research and analysis. Still effective today, the invention thought of centuries ago proved to be an effective killing machine. Improvements on land warfare

The battle of Cantigny was the first battle that America ever fought in World War I. On May 28th, 1918 America fought against German soldiers and won. The battle of St Quentin Canal was between American, Germany, Australian, and British forces. Germany ultimately won that battle as a victory.A new invention in the time of World War I was the U Ship. This was a German submarine that patrolled trade routes of many countries. On May 7th of 1915 a civilian ship was sunken by one of the German submarines. The Lusitania, the sunken ship, held about 1,200 passengers. Of that amount 128 were American, this was a major event leading up to America joining into the World War as many Americans wanted to avenge that devastating lose. The Zimmerman Note

war. The first was unrestricted submarine warfare. This included the sinking of the Lusitania in

In the article 'American Turtle's first combat voyage' states alot of facts about the first submarine used in a war. The three sources that were very helpful while reading about the submarine were, source #1- Submarine Warfare- American Revolution Style, source #2- from David Bushnell and His American Turtle, and source #3- Excerpt from a letter Ezra Lee to David Humphreys. These three sources work together to help represent American Turtle's first combat voyage.

Ships were known as battleships during WW1. They were covered in extensive armor and large-caliber guns attached to their hulls dealt substantial damage.

“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.

Ironclads revolutionized naval warfare all around the world, while in other places they were used to ferry goods from one place to another, this country sought out to build iron plated war machines. The 3 main vessels I chose to go over is the USS Monitor, the CSS Virginia, and the CSS Hunley. In my opinion, these naval vehicles stand out the most to me. The CSS Virginia being the first ironclad to ever engage in a battle sinking 2 ships and close to 3 in its first attack. The Monitor is a brand new class of warship almost like a raft. Then the Hunley was the first submarine and it held the first successful attack on any ship for a submerged vehicle.

This investigation will answer the question “To what extent did the use of unrestricted submarine warfare draw the United States closer to declaring war against Germany and the Central Powers?” Due to the specificity, this examination is limited in scope to the outbreak of war in Europe leading up to United States declaring war against the Central Powers, specifically 1914-1917. Over the course of the analysis primary sources including correspondence between United States and German governments in addition to newspaper articles provide understanding for rising tensions between the nations. Secondary sources such as works by published historians in journals and in books provide orthodox and

Attacking and bombing U- boats off the coasts of Germany through the air allowed the Allies to scare off other potential U-boats in fear of them being bombed as well: “The escort carriers proved to be a potent weapon against the U-boats because of their ability to put aircraft in the sky over waters distant from land bases” (The Sinking of the Laconia and the U-boat War). This description highlights the effectiveness of aircrafts as a defense mechanism against the submarines. They were very mobile and thus could be deployed from far away to attack distant places and enemies. Additionally, it was a method of destroying a U-boat that did not take many men or resources. With sonar and radar that could identify the location of the boats, the aircrafts were able to be flied over and bomb the ships and water around them. Because of the size of the U-boats, they could be easily seen from miles above and were a sitting duck due to their lack of speed. After many attacks on the U-boats, the German navy was apprehensive about sending many more U-boats into the ocean, fearing that they would be bombed by the airplanes, and this demonstrates the huge effect that airplanes had on the effectiveness of

Let’s go back to 1860s where the battle of Fredericksburg VA. was happening. Edward Roberts was a civilian war veteran when he had an idea to throw a gunpowder explosive into a narrow hole in the ground in a technique called “exploding torpedo” .

Mine warfare is the strategic, operational, and tactical use of sea mines and the countermeasures to defeat them. These weapons are so dangerous and efficient which is why foreign navies and even terrorist possess these weapons. The history of these weapons goes back to 1776; a year after our nation’s Navy was born. A man named David Bushnell created a mine that was composed of a watertight keg, filled with black powder and a flintlock detonator which was suspended from a float (Levie). The kegs were first used in the Delaware River to destroy British ships downriver during the Revolutionary War. Along with the creation of the floating mines, Bushnell also created a drift model of the mines that exploded on contact. As time went on, the Naval Branch increased in size and so did the evolution and use of mines. Around 1863, Confederate Congress established the Torpedo Service whose mission was to sow southern waterways with the kegs, which were very inexpensive at the time. It was not until World War I when mines were being laid across the seas in large amounts to prevent German U-boats from destroying our warships. Almost twenty-five years later, during the Second World War, modern magnetic, acoustic, and pressure-sensitive mines were first developed. The deployment of mines by submarine and aircraft suddenly came into play, which spark inventors to begin developing counter-measures. Along with these counter measures, the military begin to establish a base line by which all