Blockade!

[andrew]

Since the Historic battle of 1588 against the Spanish Armada, England has held the reigns of ownership of the shipping lanes. This seat of power has allowed the British to colonize in Africa, India, the Far East, the Americas and many other places. The saying, "The Sun never sets on the English Empire" is accurate. With this role of responsibility comes great reward, the British made gargantuan amounts of money by trading goods from far away lands. England was rarely threatened by any other European power.

Very few times has England worried about their own safety when land wars in mainland Europe were raging. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British were strained to protect their Sea Superiority by the navies of the French and the Russian. Lord Nelson, at the climax of the conflict, inflicted a devastating blow to the French and Russians at the battle of Trafalgar. This brought an end to one of the closest chances any other nation had to defeating England on the seas.

The next attempt was the German Naval programme started in 1898 by Alfred Von Tirpitz. This attempt only amounted the battle of Jutland however; the German Naval commanders had their biggest problem with overcoming the psychological fear of the English presence. However, the German were able to avoid facing the Grand Fleet by use of their submarines against merchant shipping.

When the Germans were starting to break the English back with submarines the USA placed an ultimatum that if the Germans did not halt their unrestricted submarine programme the US would declare war.

Now at this time there was no such device as a depth charge, sonar, and radar with in infancy. So had the Germans ignored this request by the US the Germans could have squeezed the life out of the British.


What did the Germans fear about the US if they could steal the shipping lanes with their unbeatable subs?

Why did the Germans wait until it was too late to reinitiate their unrestricted submarine warfare?

[Tardy]

I'm actually not sure which war yor talking about, but I guess my reply applies to both. I think in both wars the German policy towards america had one eye towards after they won the war. They had every intention of trading and cooperating with America once it was all over and didn't wan't to jeapardise that.

[andrew]

Well Tardy, I'm talking about WWI because by WWII the British had depth charges, sonar, and radar. The Germans were not afraid to piss off the US for trading reasons because they weren't trading. The British had blocked off all German traffic on the High Seas.

I really do not have a clue what the Germans feared about the Americans!

[Tardy]

i'm talking about after the war, Germany certainly did not expect a war *with america*(edit), but they knew how dearly the Americans loved commerce. I thought maybe you meant really early in wwii when anti sub warfare was still pretty basic (and Germany avoided interfering with US ships then too).

[andrew]

Well in the earlier post by mentioning Jutland, no sonar, or no depth charges it is clear that I am speaking about WWI. I think when you see how much more prepared the Germans were then any other country for WWI it is undeniable that they knew war was approaching. Also, how much the Americans love commerce has nothing to do with whether Germany have the capability of fighting with the subs to successfully derail international sea trading. By the beginning of WWII modern anti submarine weapons included depth charges, radar, and quickly being developed was sonar or ASDIC.

[Tardy]

Typo I swear! I will try to clarify what I was saying. Had the Germans launched an unconstrained war on international trade, a path to war with america would have come much sooner than it did. earlier 20th century America had few principles it was willing to fight overseas for, and the freedom of trade was dead centre among those priorities. Even in the unlikely event that Germany was able to target american trade without provoking a war, the post war environment would have been extremely difficult for germany, as its victory would have given it the control of an exhausted continent. Remember that the Germans in the Great War did not have the same mindset as Hitler and the Nazis. They were not prepared to go at any length to win a war if it would mortgage the benifits of the peace.

[andrew]

You are correct that the political figures were much more die hard in Germany during WWII. Overseas trade dead centre on American list... Well when England declared the waters around Germany, as hostile and any foreign ship would be sunk if it entered those waters was something that America did not cry out against. America had a large trading industry with Germany and never said peep about traveling in German waters. When the Germans issued the same kind of notice the Americans screamed that injustice was being done. Where were the Americans when the British did the same thing?

Maybe you are correct about Europe being exhausted hence why Europeans had huge navies to import everything they needed. Had the Germans utilized their subs to the extreme they could have halted all non Central Alliance shipping and within a year or two and end the war. With the sea in the hands of the Germans they could dictate anything they wanted to the rest of the world, until someone could combat their subs!