German Submarine Warfare 1914-1918 in the Eyes - British Naval ...

picks up the argument that the Navy erred in its program to continue to build
dreadnoughts.
I examined Erich Groener’s 8 numbers on the Navy’s construction program as
well as Spindler’s tabulations of submarine cruises and sinkings. Bendler 9 offered
detailed information on UB- and UC-boats. In the British National Archives I
found the declassified work done in Room 40 10 contained a wealth of cruise details
and lists 11 of sunken merchant ships. I also found so much other vivid, compelling
details that I decided to publish them in a book. The statistical data model that
resulted is based on:
• 1,604 German warships ordered, in yards and in service from 1900-1918.
Relying heavily on Groener it is estimated that the numbers are definitive.
12
• 5,408 British, Allied, and neutral merchant ships sunk by U-boats between
1914 and the end of the war. I identified 10,874,287 BRT of shipping sunk
cited in both Spindler and British sources. This comprises 97.5 % of the
11,153,506 BRT shipping sunken by submarines as published by the
Admiralty in 1919.
• 3,101 German submarine war patrols in the period 1914 to 1918 with the
caveat that many cruises by small coastal UB-I and UC-I boats could not
be identified. For ocean-going submarines, some patrols were hard to label
as purely “military” or “merchant war”.
To trace history statistically via precise numbers, like a certified public
accountant, is impossible. Numbers do have a central place in combination with a
wealth of other, supporting information. Therefore, within the limitations of the
statistical genre, I hope that the quality of the data presented here is sufficient to
assist judgements and interpretations in other contexts. Taken together with details
from British sources, the objective of this book is to gain insight into the reality of
the Imperial German Navy at the dawn of submarine warfare.
The Germany Navy 1900-1914
Naval Arms Race
Germany started to expand its fleet as the 19 th century drew to a close. Within
a few short years the German fleet had grown exponentially. Admiral Tirpitz with
the Kaiser’s approval planned to create at least the second largest fleet in the world
over a period of twenty years. It was called the “Tirpitz-Plan” (Berghahn).
8 Groener, Deutsche Kriegsschiffe.
9 Bendler, UB und UC-Boote.
10 NA, HW 7/1, 2 and 3.
11 NA/ADM 137/3921, additionally ADM 137/4817, ADM 137/4814, ADM 1/8509/1.
12 For two dreadnoughts in the 1917 planning cycle there is contradictory information. For that
reason, they are treated here as ”never laid”. In dubio pro reo.
xii