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Author: Edward Frederick Knight
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Merchant marine
Languages : en
Pages : 92
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Book Description
Author: Edward Frederick Knight
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Merchant marine
Languages : en
Pages : 92
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Book Description
Author: Stephen McGreal
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1844689557
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267
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Book Description
It is often said The first casualty of war is the truth and there is no better example of this than the furore caused by the claims and counterclaims of the British and German Governments at the height of the First World War. Wounded allied personnel were invariably repatriated by hospital ships, which ran the gauntlet of mined waters and gambled on the humanity of the U-Boat commanders. For, contrary to the terms of the Geneva Convention, on occasions Germany had sunk the unarmed hospital ships under the pretense they carried reinforcement troops and ammunition. The press seized on these examples of Hun Barbarity, especially the drowning of noncombatant female nurses. The crisis heightened following the German Governments 1 February 1917 introduction of unrestricted naval warfare. The white painted allied hospital ships emblazoned with huge red crosses now became in German eyes legitimate targets for the U-Boats. As the war on the almost 100 strong fleet of hospital ships intensified the British threatened reprisals against Germany, in particular an Anglo-French bombing raid upon a German town. Undeterred the Germans stepped up their campaign sinking two hospital ships in swift succession. Seven hospital ships struck mines and a further eight were torpedoed. Faced with such a massacre of the innocents Britain decided her hospital ships, painted and brightly lit in accordance with the Geneva Convention, could no longer rely on this immunity. The vessels were repainted in drab colors, defensively armed and sailed as ambulance transports among protected convoys. Germany had successfully banished hospital ships from the high seas.
Author: British Museum. Department of Printed Books
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Catalogs, Subject
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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Book Description
Author: Great Britain. War Office. Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 1446
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Book Description
Author: British Library of Political and Economic Science
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36
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Book Description
Author: British Museum. Dept. of Printed Books
Publisher: London : Printed by order of the Trusteeds
ISBN:
Category : Catalogs, Subject
Languages : en
Pages : 208
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Book Description
Author: British Library of Political and Economic Science
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 682
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Book Description
Author: University of St. Andrews. Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 580
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Book Description
Author: John William Burrows
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 370
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Book Description
Author: Nicholas Jellicoe
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1036109062
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 498
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Book Description
In February 1917, German U-boats launched a savage unrestricted campaign against both Allied and neutral shipping. At its peak in April, 860,000 tons of Allied merchant shipping was sunk. Britain’s supremacy at sea was being severely challenged and with it the chances of victory in the wider war. Taking up the challenge was Britain’s new First Sea Lord, Sir John Jellicoe, until the previous December C-in-C of the Grand Fleet – famously described by Churchill as the only man who could have lost the war in an afternoon. The battle he now faced was equally critical, although the timeline of defeat was a matter of days rather than hours – Britain’s food stocks were dangerously low with wheat reserves down to six weeks and sugar to only two, while wide-scale shortages were crippling the industrial economy. Jellicoe outlined the gravity of the situation with total candor to Rear Admiral William Sims, USN, sent over before America officially declared war by Franklin Roosevelt, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The two men already knew each other from service together in China during the Boxer Rebellion, so Jellicoe’s plea for urgent American assistance was taken seriously by Sims. After the USA joined the war in April 1917, together they lobbied Washington for aid, addressing their needs directly to two reluctant Anglophobes at the head of the USN, Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels and Chief of Naval Operations, William Benson. Clearly, a radical new approach to anti-submarine warfare was called for, and Convoy was the leading contender. There were many objections to protecting shipping in this way, some ideological but most practical – a workable system, for example, effectively required state control of both shipping and distribution networks, something inconceivable in normal circumstances. However, Convoy had powerful advocates, including the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, who later claimed he had personally forced its adoption on a reluctant Admiralty. This self-serving political myth cast Jellicoe as an opponent of Convoy: nothing could be further from the truth. As both Jellicoe and Sims understood, the key requirement was a rapid increase in the number of destroyers for escort duties. America provided them, the first arriving in Queenstown, Ireland on 4 May and by June 46 were operating in European waters. This was the first step in an Anglo-American campaign that gradually brought the U-boat threat under control and led to its ultimate defeat. This book takes a fresh look at the undersea war as a whole and all the complex factors bearing on the campaign, only one of which was convoy. Its analysis is original, and its conclusions thought-provoking – an important contribution to the naval history of the Great War.
