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

esponsible for High Seas Fleet operations. Each department was independent of
the others. Overall coordinating responsibility was with the Kaiser.
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40 17
20
0
17
8
8
Table 6: German Submarines 1915-1918 29
Sub-School: obsolete boats Sub-School: new boats
Fleet: coastal Fleet: ocean-going
50
17
17
15
1915 1916 1917 1918
Diesel motors became the standard means of submarine propulsion early in
the 20 th century. British submarines had all been diesel boats since the D-class in
1909, and in Germany all boats from U-19 in 1913 onwards were diesel. In August,
1914 four hundred submarines were in service worldwide, mostly of the obsolete
paraffin/burning type. Britain had seventy-two submarines of which seventeen
were new diesel-powered ocean-going submarines. Germany had fourteen Körting
paraffin/kerosine boats and another fourteen new diesel-powered U-boats in
service. 30
Britain and the German submarines 1914-1918
British Naval Intelligence 1914-1918
Before the war British diplomatic naval attaches were the only sources of
intelligence gathering for the Admiralty’s Naval Intelligence Division (NID). In
1909, the first real Secret Services, MI5 and MI6, were created. 31 MI5 was
responsible for counter-espionage and in WWI dismantled several German
espionage rings, turned around some of the spies and deceived the German Naval
Intelligence with wrong messages. MI6 was responsible for espionage on the
continent. And there was a remarkably effective espionage font of knowledge that
29 Numbers based on: NA, HW 7/1, 2 and 3, and on: Groener, Deutsche Kriegsschiffe.
Coastal submarines: U-4 to U-18, UB-1 to UB-17, UC-1 to UC-15.
30 Blair, Silent Victory, pp. 33-36. Details in: Lambert, Fisher’s Revolution.
31 Andrew, MI5, and Jeffery, MI6.
xviii
115
9
17
20
112
22
27