Technology during World War I
At Sea
The
years leading up to the war saw the use of improved metallurgical and
mechanical techniques to produce larger ships with larger guns and, in
reaction, more armour. The launching of HMS Dreadnought (1906)
revolutionized battleship construction, leaving many ships obsolete
before they were completed. German ambitions brought an Anglo-German
naval arms race in which the Imperial German Navy was built up from a
small force to the world's most modern and second most powerful.
However, even this high-technology navy entered the war with a mix of
newer ships and obsolete older ones.
The advantage was in
long-range gunnery, and naval battles took place at far greater
distances than before. The 1916 Battle of Jutland demonstrated the
excellence of German ships and crews, but also showed that the High Seas
Fleet was not big enough to challenge openly the British blockade of
Germany. It was the only full-scale battle between fleets in the war.
Having
the largest surface fleet, the United Kingdom sought to press its
advantage. British ships blockaded German ports, hunted down German and
Austro-Hungarian ships wherever they might be on the high seas, and
supported actions against German colonies. The German surface fleet was
largely kept in the North Sea. This situation pushed Germany, in
particular, to direct its resources to a new form of naval power:
submarines.
Naval mines were deployed in hundreds of thousands,
or far greater numbers than in previous wars. Submarines proved
surprisingly effective for this purpose. Influence mines were a new
development but moored contact mines were the most numerous. They
resembled those of the late 19th century, improved so they less often
exploded while being laid. The Allies produced enough mines to build the
North Sea Mine Barrage to help bottle the Germans into the North Sea,
but it was too late to make much difference.
Submarines
German U-boat U-14
World
War I was the first conflict in which submarines were a serious weapon
of war. In the years shortly before the war, the relatively
sophisticated propulsion system of diesel power while surfaced and
battery power while submerged was introduced. Their armament had
similarly improved, but few were in service. Germany had already
increased production and quickly built up its U-boat fleet, both for
action against British warships and for a counter-blockade of the British
Isles. 360 were eventually built. The resulting U-boat Campaign (World
War I) destroyed more enemy warships than the High Seas Fleet had, and
hampered British war supplies as the more expensive surface fleet had
not.
The United Kingdom relied heavily on imports to feed its
population and supply its war industry, and the German Navy hoped to
blockade and starve Britain using U-boats to attack merchant ships.
Lieutenant Otto Weddigen remarked of the second submarine attack of the
Great War:
How much they feared our submarines and how wide was the agitation caused by good little U-9 is shown by the English reports that a whole flotilla of German submarines had attacked the cruisers and that this flotilla had approached under cover of the flag of Holland. These reports were absolutely untrue. U-9 was the only submarine on deck, and she flew the flag she still flies – the German naval ensign.
Submarines soon came under persecution by submarine
chasers and other small warships using hastily devised anti-submarine
weapons. They could not impose an effective blockade while acting under
the restrictions of the prize rules and international law of the sea.
They resorted to unrestricted submarine warfare, which cost Germany
public sympathy in neutral countries and was a factor contributing to
the American entry into World War I.
This struggle between German
submarines and British countermeasures became known as the "First
Battle of the Atlantic". As German submarines became more numerous and
effective, the British sought ways to protect their merchant ships.
"Q-ships," attack vessels disguised as civilian ships, were one early
strategy.
Consolidating merchant ships into convoys protected by
one or more armed navy vessels was adopted later in the war. There was
initially a great deal of debate about this approach, out of fear that
it would provide German U-boats with a wealth of convenient targets.
Thanks to the development of active and passive sonar devices,
coupled with increasingly deadly anti-submarine weapons, the convoy
system reduced British losses to U-boats to a small fraction of their
former level.
Holland 602 type submarines and other Allied types were fewer, being unnecessary for the blockade of Germany.