Abby Crain Facts about submarines in WWI The Germans built the first submarines in 1870 German submarines Uboats were responsible for destroying half of the food and supplies transported by the British Merchant Navy ID: 509645
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Slide1
Submarines in World War I
Abby CrainSlide2
Facts about submarines in WWI
The Germans built the first submarines in 1870
German submarines (
U-boats) were responsible for destroying half of the food and supplies transported by the British Merchant Navy.On February 17th, 1864, the Union ship ‘Housatonic’ became the first ship to be sunk by a submarine.British submarines sank 17 German U-boats during the conflict; the early submarine-versus-submarine successes led to British development of the R-class submarine intended specifically for this role.
The British had different sizes of submarines and labeled then in ‘classes’ from A-M from smallest to largest.Slide3
Facts about Submarines in WWI
The first successful practical submarines, called “Holland boats”, had been built in the United States
just
a few years before the War.In March 1916, a British Q-Ship successfully sank the U-68 using a depth charge, and two more subs were sunk (and two others damaged) by the end of 1916.An American “Holland Boat”
The British Royal Navy began imposing a naval blockade on all German ports when the War began. The only ships capable of slipping past the blockade were the U-boats, and the Germans sent 10 of them on patrol in the North Sea, hoping to at least harass and annoy the Royal Navy.Slide4
What are German U-Boats?
The U-boat was
a
submarine that was more powerful than those built by other nations at the time. The U-boat was 214 feet long, carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes, and could travel underwater for two hours at a time.U- Boat is an abbreviation of ‘unterseeboot’, which when translated into English means ‘undersea boat
’.Germany had 29 U-boats when the 1
st
World War began.
The U-boats were so powerful, that they sank 5 British ships within the first 10 weeks of the conflict.
Between October 1916 and January 1917 a grand total of 1.4 million tons of allied shipping was lost to the U-Boats
.
During WW1 Germany built 360 U-Boat submarines, 178 of which were lost. In total they were responsible for the loss of more than 11 million tons of allied shipping.Slide5
German Submarines in WWI
When war broke out in 1914, the British Navy was the largest and most powerful in the world, and the German High Seas Fleet
had a no
chance against it.At sea, the British were vulnerable and had to ship their supplies across the Atlantic from the U.S. and that’s when the Germans had the upper hand. In 1915, German U-boats were invulnerable to surface ships as long as they remained submerged, although they were forced to surface periodically to recharge their electric batteries, and tried to carry out this operation at night. By mid-1916, the
Royal Navy had developed its own to attack the submerged submarines. Slide6
British Submarines in WWI
The first British
submarine was
launched on November 2nd 1902. During the war, Britain also purchased submarines from abroad.Italian and French submarines were bought but they could not cope with the conditions of the North Sea and were sold back to their makers at a considerable loss to the British.The British Submarine Service was a volunteer branch of the Royal Navy.
Citation (if needed):
"British Submarines 1900 to 1918". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.
Slide7
Quiz
This quiz is to help test our knowledge on submarines in World War I. Good luck!
When was the first submarine invented?
a. 1914 b. 1902 c. 19172. Who invented the first submarine?
a. British
b. Germany
c. America
3. How long could a U-boat stay underwater?
a.
2 hours
b. 6 hours
c. 24 hours+Slide8
Quiz
4. What did the Germans call submarines?
a. Subs b. under-water boats c. U-Boats5. What month did the British launch their 1st submarine? a. October
b. November c. June
6. How many men could fit on a German U-boat?
a. 30
b. 35
c. 12Slide9
Quiz
7. What were the first successful submarines called?
a. Holland Boats b. submarines c. undersea boats8. What was the only thing that could pass through the British blockades? a. U-boats b. Holland Boats
c. both9. What happened to the Royal Navy in mid-1916?
a. They were defeated by the Germans
b. They got submarines
c. They found a way to find submarines Slide10
Answer key
C
B
ACBBAAB