The Effectiveness of Submarine Warfare in World War I

The Effectiveness of Submarine Warfare in World War I
Plan of Investigation
The selected topic for this investigation was: To what extent did submarine warfare in World War I help the central powers? I chose this topic because World War I is sometimes a misunderstood war in that the specifics of such a war are not always well known. So I took it upon myself to understand the war better myself and investigate the details of the war. I did a little research on World War I and found that submarines had an effective role in the war. Thus, I arrived at my topic. To reach a successful conclusion to the investigation, I will be examining how submarines became a part of the war, the Central Powers’ use of submarines, US intervention in the war in relation to submarine warfare, how US intervention led to the overpowering of central powers, and lastly, how the Central Powers lost WWI. I will analyze such concepts by determining the extent of each, what the cause was, and the outcome of each.

Summary of Evidence
-submarines:
-economic warfare role/commerce trading -enforced naval blockade against enemy shipping (exhibited by Germany) -could have been useful fleet weapons against enemy naval warships -submarine was a new weapon at the outbreak of the war -little was known about the affectivity in leading German naval circles
1914-The beginning
-Germany sent 10 U-Boats in August to attack Royal Navy Warships in the North Sea in August
-Germany had the idea of reducing the quantity of the Grand Fleet
-By the end of the campaign, the U-Boats had sunk 9 warships while losing 5 of their own
-The U-boat could sink an armoured warship with one shot
-It was virtually blind and immobile while submerged
-The first attacks on merchant ships started October 1914, when there was no plan for a concerted U-Boat offensive against allied trade.
-The U-Boat had several cons as a commerce disrupter
-By February 1915, U-Boats had sunk 19 ships

Britain:

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