Naval warfare of World War I
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Naval combat in World War I was mainly characterized by the efforts of the Allied Powers, with their larger fleets and surrounding position, to blockade the Central Powers by sea, and the efforts of the Central Powers to break that blockade or to establish an effective blockade of the United Kingdom and France with submarines and raiders.
Contents |
[edit] Prelude
The naval arms race between Britain and Germany to build dreadnought battleships in the early twentieth century is the subject of a number of books. Germany's attempt to build a battleship fleet to match that of the United Kingdom, the dominant naval power on the nineteenth century and an island country that depended on seaborne trade for survival, is often listed as a major reason for the enmity between those two countries that led the UK to enter World War I. German leaders desired a navy in proportion to their military and economic strength that could free their overseas trade and colonial empire from dependence on Britain's good will, but such a fleet would inevitably threaten Britain's own trade and empire.
By the beginning of the war, the United Kingdom still had a significant naval lead over Germany, meeting a traditional British standard of having a navy larger than the second and third largest national navies combined. Germany nonetheless had an impressive fleet both of capital ships and submarines. Other nations had smaller fleets, generally with a lower proportion of battleships and a larger proportion of smaller ships like destroyers and submarines. France, Italy, Russia, [{Austria-Hungary]], Japan, and the United States all had modern fleets with at least some dreadnoughts and submarines.
[edit] Naval technology
Naval technology in World War I was dominated by the battleship. Aviation was primarily focused on reconnaissance, with the aircraft carrier yet to be invented and bomber aircraft capable of lifting only relatively light loads. Battleships were built along the Dreadnought model, with several large turrets of equally sized big guns. Radio was in early use, with naval ships commonly equipped with radio telegraph, merchant ships less so. Radar was still unknown, and sonar in its infancy by the end of the war.
Submarines were increasingly in use, although they were limited compared to modern examples, in their ability to stay submerged for long periods. Submarines were generally more effective in attacking poorly defended merchant ships than in fighting surface warships, though several small to medium British warships were lost to torpedoes launched from U boats.
Naval mines were also increasingly well developed. Defensive mines along coasts made it much more difficult for capital ships to get close enough to conduct coastal bombardment or support attacks. The first battleship sinking in the war — that of HMS Audacious — was the result of her striking a naval mine on 27 October 1914. Suitably placed mines also served to restrict the freedom of movement of submarines.
[edit] Theaters
[edit] North Sea
|
|||
The North Sea was the main theatre of the war for surface action. The British Grand Fleet took position against the German High Seas Fleet. Britain's larger fleet could maintain a blockade of Germany, cutting it off from overseas trade and resources. Germany's fleet remained mostly in harbour behind their screen of mines, occasionally attempting to lure the British fleet into battle in the hopes of weakening them enough to break the blockade or allow the High Seas Fleet to attack British shipping and trade. Britain strove to maintain the blockade and, if possible, to damage the German fleet enough that British ships could be used elsewhere.
Major battles included the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the Battle of the Dogger Bank, the Battle of Jutland, and the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. In general, Britain, though not always tactically successful, was able to maintain the blockade and keep the High Seas Fleet in port, although the High Seas Fleet remained a threat that kept the vast majority of Britain's capital ships in the North Sea.
The set-piece battles and manoeuvring have drawn historians' attention but it was the blockade of German commerce through the North Sea, which ultimately starved the German people and industries into seeking the Armistice of 1918.
[edit] English Channel
Though little noticed, the naval campaign in the English Channel was of vital importance in permitting the maintenance of the British Army in France. Like the North Sea campaign, it consisted largely of maintaining minefields. In this case, the need was to exclude surface raiders but particularly submarines. The Admiralty was conscious of the submarine danger from the outset.
[edit] Atlantic
Main article: First Battle of the Atlantic
While Germany was greatly inconvenienced by Britain's blockade, Britain, as an island nation, was heavily dependent on foreign trade and imported resources. Germany found that their submarines, or U-boats, while of limited effectiveness against surface warships on their guard, were greatly effective against merchant ships, and could easily patrol the Atlantic even when Allied ships dominated the surface.
By 1915, Germany was attempting to use submarines to maintain a naval blockade of Britain by sinking cargo ships, including many passenger vessels. Submarines, however, depending on stealth and incapable of withstanding a direct attack by a surface ship (possibly a Q-ship disguised as a merchant ship), found it difficult to give warning before attacking or to rescue survivors, which meant that civilian death tolls were high. This was a major factor in galvanizing neutral opinion against the Central Powers, as countries like the United States suffered casualties and loss to their trade, and was one of the causes of the eventual entry of the US into the war.
Over time, the use of defended convoys of merchant ships allowed the Allies to maintain shipping across the Atlantic, in spite of heavy loss. This was also assisted by the entry of the US into the war and the increasing use of primitive sonar and aerial patrolling to detect and track submarines.
[edit] Mediterranean
Some limited sea combat took place between the navies of Austria-Hungary and Germany and the Allied navies of France, Britain, Italy and Japan. The navy of the Ottoman Empire only sortied out of the Dardanelles once late in the war, preferring to focus its operations in the Black Sea.
The main fleet action was the Allied attempt to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war by an attack on Constantinople in 1915. This attempt turned into the Battle of Gallipoli which was an Allied defeat.
For the rest of the war, naval action consisted almost entirely in submarine combat by the Austrians and Germans and blockade duty by the Allies.
[edit] Black Sea
The Black Sea was the domain of the Russians and the Ottoman Empire. The large Russian fleet was based in Sevastopol and it was led by two dilligent commanders: Admiral Eberhart (1914-1916) and (1916-1917) Admiral Kolchak. The Ottoman fleet on the other hand was in a period of transition with many obsolete ships. It had been expecting to receive two powerful dreadnoughts fitting out in Britain, but the UK seized the completed Reshadiye and Sultan Osman I with the outbreak of war with Germany and incorporated them into the Royal Navy.
The war in the Black Sea started when the Ottoman Fleet bombarded several Russian cities in October 1914. The most advanced ships in the Ottoman fleet consisted of two ships of the German Mediterranean Fleet: the powerful battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the speedy light cruiser SMS Breslau, both under the command of the skilled German Admiral Wilhelm Souchon. The Goeben was a modern design, and with its well-drilled, crack crew, could easily outfight or outrun any single Russian ship in their fleet. However it was often outgunned by the superior numbers of its slower opponent and would be forced to flee when the Russian battleship fleet was able to unite in pursuit. A continual series of cat and mouse operations ensued for the first two years with both sides' admirals trying to capitalize on their particular tactical strengths in a surprise ambush. Numerous battles between the fleets were fought in the initial years and the Goeben and Russian units were damaged on several occasions.
The Russian Black Sea fleet was mainly used to support General Yudenich in his Caucasus Campaign. However, the appearance of the Goeben could dramatically change the situation, so all activities, even shore bombardment, had to be conducted by almost the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet, since a smaller force could fall victim to the Goeben's speed and guns.
However by 1916, this situation had swung in the Russians favour - the Goeben had been in constant service for the past two years. Due to a lack of facilities, the ship was not able to enter refit and began to suffer chronic engine breakdowns. Meanwhile, the Russian Navy had received the modern dreadnought Imperatritsa Mariya which although slower, would be able to stand up to and outfight the Goeben. Although the two ships skirmished briefly, neither managed to capitalize on their tactical advantage and the battles ended with the Goeben fleeing and the Imperatritsa Mariya gamely trying to pursue. However, the Russian ship's arrival severely curtailed Goeben's activities and so by this time, the Russian fleet had nearly complete control of the sea, exacerbated by the addition of another dreadnought, the Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya. German and Turkish light forces would though continue to raid and harass Russian shipping until the war's end.
After Admiral Kolchak took command in August 1916, he planned to invigorate the Russian Black Seas Fleet with a series of aggressive actions. The Russian fleet mined the exit from the Bosporus, preventing nearly all Ottoman ships from entering the Black Sea. Later that year, the naval approaches to Varna, Bulgaria were also mined. The greatest loss suffered by the Russian Black Sea fleet was the destruction of the dreadnought Empress Maria, which blew up in port on October 7, 1916, just one year after being commissioned. The subsequent investigation determined that the explosion was probably accidental, though sabotage could not be completely ruled out. The event shook Russian public opinion. The Russians continued work on two additional dreadnoughts under construction, and the balance of power remained in Russian hands until the collapse of Russian resistance in November 1917.
- The History of the Russian Navy - Chapter 11. The Great War - In the Black Sea
[edit] Baltic Sea
In the Baltic Sea, Germany and Russia were the main combatants, with a number of British submarines sailing through the Kattegat to assist the Russians. With the German fleet larger and more modern (many High Seas Fleet ships could easily be deployed to the Baltic when the North Sea was quiet), the Russians played a mainly defensive role, at most attacking convoys between Germany and Sweden.
A major coup for the Allied forces occurred on August 26, 1914 when as part of a reconnaissance squadron, the light cruiser SMS Magdeburg ran aground in heavy fog in the Gulf of Finland. The other German ships tried to refloat her, but decided to scuttle her instead when they became aware of an approaching Russian intercept force. Russian Navy divers scoured the wreck and successfully recovered the German naval codebook which was later passed on to their British Allies and provided immeasurably to Allied success in the North Sea.
With heavy defensive and offensive mining on both sides, fleets played a limited role in the Eastern Front. The Germans mounted major naval attacks on the Gulf of Riga, unsuccessfully in August 1915 and successfully in October 1917, when they occupied the islands in the Gulf and damaged Russian ships departing from the city of Riga, recently captured by Germany.
By March 1918, the Russian Revolution and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk made the Baltic a German lake, and German fleets transferred troops to support newly independent Finland and to occupy much of Russia, halting only when defeated in the West.
[edit] Distant Oceans
|
|||
A number of German ships stationed overseas at the start of the war engaged in raiding operations in poorly defended seas, such as the SMS Emden, which raided into the Indian Ocean, sinking or capturing thirty Allied merchant ships and warships, bombarding Madras and Penang, and destroying a radio relay on the Cocos Islands before being sunk there. Better known was the flotilla of Graf Maximilian von Spee, who sailed across the Pacific, winning the Battle of Coronel before being defeated and killed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
Allied naval forces captured many of the isolated German colonies, with Samoa, Micronesia, Qingdao, German New Guinea, Togo, and Cameroon falling in the first year of the war. Only German East Africa held out in a long guerrilla land campaign.
[edit] See also
Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
