Wilson's Lack Of Submarine Warfare During World War I

Yet, events in Europe were altering President Wilson's outlook on the war. Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare was the cause of the loss of American lives in the Atlantic. The sinking of the Lusitania, a British liner, off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915 by a German U-boat that killed 128 Americans was a harsh reality that

With the arming of British merchants ships as an effort to protect its passengers and crew came a potential loophole for the Germans, essentially allowing them unrestricted submarine warfare. Though international law did not directly involve submarines, it was previously agreed that attacks on merchant ships must follow prize rules. Germany agreed that they would avoid sinking neutral ships, however, in addition to the unlikeliness of a submarine surfacing to notify a ship of an attack, as such would endanger its own safety, the arming of a merchant ship made it unclear as to whether it was simply a neutral vessel for commerce, or if it was a warship. Germany could easily claim they mistook an armed merchant ship for a warship, and attacked it as a precaution. On February 10, 1915, the United States announced in a note that Germany would be held absolutely, unconditionally responsible for any losses of American lives or property. Yet, on March 15, 1915, the Falaba was sunk by a German submarine, who claimed it was shipping contraband, with the loss of over 100 lives, one of which was an American named Leon Thrasher. The United States, despite the fact that Thrasher entered the designated war zone, condemned the Germans for the immoral act and lack of warning, knowing that if they did not, such a disaster would recur, and that their stance on the Thrasher case would set the standard for America’s reactions to future catastrophes during the war. On May 7, 1915, the British ship Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland. Though simply a passenger ship, the Lusitania was transporting small arms ammunition, and because of this was, according to the Germans, unneutral. The sinking of the Lusitania was of such importance to the

On January 8th,1917 Germany had announced that they had sunk the ship named William P. Frye. The ship was on its way to Great Britain carrying

Germany had 33 U-Boats During 1914 (Independent). U-Boats stood for “Undersea Boats” AKA “Submarines” Germany was the first country to employ submarines into war (Encyclopedia Britannica). The U-boats achieved notable success against the British war ships. (Encyclopedia Britannica). Submarines were mainly used to quietly travel under water and launch missiles at other submarines and water crafts.

On May 7, 1915, the Germans sank a British ship named the Lusitania that was carrying American passengers. At the time Britain and Germany were in a state of war. The Germans were justified in sinking the Lusitania because the ship had a British flag, had weapon storage departments, and went into British territory.

To declare war against somebody there has to be a reason behind it. Woodrow Wilson felt the need to interfere with Germany’s plans during the Great War or World War I. He saw that Germany was a threat to society’s peace during the time. Various reasons brought the image of Germany being a threat in Wilson’s eyes.

Germany was and still is shooting ships and killing innocent civilians. Before this international law was that you cannot shoot a ship without warning rather they would negotiate and board the ship and confiscate whatever they felt needed to be taken and leave innocent passengers alone. Now, with the British blockade on Germany, Germany started using U-boats and as a result shooting without warning and killing many innocent civilians. If the would warn the ship, the minute they tell them to stop and they come above the water they lose the capacity to shoot and risk getting shot at. Because they would lose the ability to shoot they are shooting any ship they think could possibly be carrying military goods. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sunk the British liner the Lusitania without warning. Among those those who died

When the British ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat, the public attention of Americans began to focus on Germany. In February 1917, congress passed a multi-million dollar bill to prepare the United States for war. Germany continued to sink four more U.S. merchant boats the following month until Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany on April 2. From then to November 11th, 1918, America would battle in the first world war in history.

After ending their diplomatic relations with Germany, the German U-boat sank a linear Housatonic belonging to America. The Senate responded swiftly by unanimously passing a $250M bill for the appropriation of arms in order to ready the United Nations for war. Another 4 merchant ships belonging to the united states were sunk by Germany. This act prompted president Wilson to ask the Congress to declare war against Germany, a request which was granted four days later on April

then increased trade with the Allies, Britain and France, which gave them closer ties with the Allies forces. Secondly, the German navy launched a U-boat submarine, which torpedoed the British luxury liner Lusitania and killed 128 Americans in the process. Next, the U.S. intercepted a telegram in which Germany’s foreign secretary sent to the German minister in Mexico City. The telegram was urging Mexico to join the Central Powers in the war, and Germany promised to help Mexico recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in return. This threatened the territorial integrity of the U.S. The final reason for U.S. involvement in the war was when U-boats started attacking American ships without warning. This forced President Wilson to ask for a declaration of war before a special session of Congress.

The year of 1918 spelled the end of the First World War for the Germans, even though their defeat was not apparent until late in the year. In 1917, Germany had resumed unrestricted submarine warfare with the knowledge that it would provoke the United States into joining in the war, but they had assumed that Mexico would also join in the war as their ally. The invitation to Mexico, however, was intercepted by the United Kingdom and made public by the President of the United States. This combined with the destruction of several United States trade vessels prompted Woodrow Wilson to call for war against Germany, and Congress officially declared war on April 6, 1917. Up until the United States’ entrance into the war, it was by no means

During World War I, German submarines called “U boats” patrolled the oceans surrounding Europe using depth and concealment to sink targets of opportunity. One such opportunity came on Friday, 7 May 1915 as Captain William Turner piloted the RMS Lusitania towards Ireland. Prior to this fateful day, the RMS Lusitania had successfully completed “201 uneventful crossings between Liverpool and New York” and held several maritime industry records to include the fastest Atlantic crossing (WorldAtlas, 2016). On the morning of this disaster, Captain Turner had the shipped slowed to a speed submarines could match. He was commanding the vessel with knowledge of potential submarine activity in the area, but did not properly

The sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania is one out of 3 serious of events of America’s involvement in World War I. Before it happened, Germany is becoming more and more powerful especially technology wise. One of which surprised the British was Germans maximization of the U-Boot since Great Britain is the strongest naval power in all of Europe. In response to this, they would use water mines in the English channel to defend against the Germans. This triggered the Germans to be very aggressive and suspicious. The Germans are suspicious of the United States and Great Britain has weapons on that ship. They would give 3 days of warning to both U.S. and British to turn those weapons in or they will see as enemy threat and therefore blow up the ship. In the first day, U.S. and Britain refuse to say they have any weapons on the ship. And in the 2nd and final day of the warning, United States and Britain decided to stand pact and thinking this is just a regular passenger ship. However, Germany did not bluff and they

In the initial campaign of unrestricted warfare, Germany sent 10 U-boats to attack the Royal Navy. This trip was unsuccessful, and only one attack was carried out. Finally achieved success when the U-21 sank the British cruiser, the HMS Pathfinder. By the end of the initial campaign the U-boats sunk nine warships.

When British started to protect their war ships, German U-boat turned to attack Allied merchant ships and passenger ships. Allied improved tactics for dealing with U-boat by set up mines, depth charges and Q ships(During 44). By 1917, Allied built so many ships that German U-boat could not sink all. Later period of the sea war, Germany had no more resources to sustain the campaign and the war called off. It is noteworthy that over 100 American citizens were killed in the liner called Lusitania that defeated by German torpedoes(44). This casualty cause big tension between America and Germany. The U-boat campaign did caused shortage in Britain, but this also dragged US into the war to support Britain. Germans destroyed many American passenger ships, killed many American civilians, and hoped to ally with Mexico to against