World War I gave the appearance of a new war machines developed over four years of intense military conflict. After the war, there was a delay of a hundred years, but it is worth remembering, and get acquainted with the most impressive of these submarines, writes wired.com.
During World War II, British merchant ships sailing there was practically nothing worse than a submarine. German fleet, using its existing submarine monsters, conflict drowned 5 thousand. ships with a total internal volume of the population - 13 million. tonnes.
On a year of the war, the Germans and the British began to believe that the big battles forces them to work together to large vessels, such as the battle cruiser HMS Dreadnought, and by that time the perception of modern flying boats on the water. Submarines, then the belief was confined to the coastal defense ships prepare to engage the enemy blockades preventing further serve as a guard.
Fast thinking has changed - the war started in the first explosion of technology. The first warships were very simple, according to historians of the Western Front Association. Most of them were powered by diesel engines (war Germany started off with part of the gasoline-powered submarines, but quickly switched to diesel fuel) could cover about 6500 kilometers, but it was slow and could not stay for a long time under water. German submarines, in terms of the reliability and the availability of weapons, apparently ahead of Allied to past: some early models even had antiaircraft weapons, but those times torpedoes reach the desired target only if it has not been further than a kilometer away.
The Germans, who had obviously smaller navy than the United Kingdom, the modern submarine war came he sent his submarines in the North Sea - with the aim of improving its position in the water. Ships quickly showed themselves worthy of things - including the monster catches mentions intelligence cruiser HMS Pathfinder and the battle cruiser HMS Formidable.
The British, who were afraid of German submarines to sacrifice their precious battleships, their most powerful weapons kept to himself. The British were able to organize an effective blockade of German ports - will take care of smaller vessels - and to ensure that the coast reaching vital supplies. Eaten desperate desire to get even, the Germans their own submarines directed against unarmed civilian merchant ships, feeding a UK moving supplies from America.
This strategy represents a major change in modern warfare turn. Always die in wars and civilians, says Doctor Ian S. Breeman, the submarine military expert and the United States Marine War College, Monterey, California, a professor of national security affairs. However, Germany has adopted a conscious decision to sink without warning the civilian ships. This trend is also reflected in the Second World War, where the incidental loss of civilian victims of the bombing of individual cities head shake even less.
Submarines in the war gave a very important thing - the secrecy: only came up to the surface by detecting the target. Once you find what you are looking, they came up, the crew, having received orders to abandon ship. The target was deleted or weapons on board the crew sent a team to carry out the dirty work of explosives. Torpedoes were very expensive, and used only in cases where wasn't another choice. Addressed by the British armed merchant ships, the Germans opened fire without warning.
In 1915, the North Sea has been declared a war zone, and submarines effect of unrestricted submarine war policy. Germany declared publicly that the country's underwater monsters in the waters around the United Kingdom mercilessly destroy enemy merchant ships. Germans believe that there neutral vessels do not. Destruction of hundreds of merchant ships, which for some time have been the world's largest passenger liner RMS Lusitania, the Germans floured July 1915 - killed 128 Americans (the total amount of deaths - 1195). RMS Lusitania drownings helped win public support for America's decision to join the Allied what Washington two years later did.
The Allies did not know how to react to the German submarine threat. "Submarines can be called the worst weapon in the First World War" - JS Breeman said. It was very difficult to determine their location, and even more difficult to attack. "The Navy did not have any traditional countermeasures against the submarine," - says the expert. 1917-1918 period allies to combat the threat posed by submarines (their was about 340) shoots nearly 10 thousand. ships, thousands of aircraft and more than 100 thousand. mine. During the First World War, the Germans lost 178 submarines, but sank more than 5 thousand. ordinary ships.
Finally, the Allies won the war on land, but the submarine campaign has clearly demonstrated the importance of the whole and can be destructive submarine warfare. As soon as the underwater monster moves from a known location - leaving its ports or leaving a narrow space of the route (eg, channel or strait), which also helps to keep track of them sonar - is not it easier to detect than a needle in a haystack. This rule is still valid today. "American aircraft carriers, and now are often surprised by small, diesel and electric-powered submarines. They are very quiet and difficult to detect, "- confirmed by JS Breeman.
