Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I

Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I
Part of the U-boat campaign of World War I
A German postcard depicting the U-boat SM U-20 sinking RMS Lusitania
Date 8 August 1914 – 20 October 1918 (1914-08-08 – 1918-10-20) Location Atlantic Ocean 0°N 25°W / 0°N 25°W / 0; -25 Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Canada  France  United States  Brazil Other Allied navies	Germany
Casualties and losses
4,000 ships[citation needed] 8 million tons of shipping[citation needed]	178 U-boats[citation needed] 5,000 men[citation needed]

The Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I (sometimes called the "First Battle of the Atlantic", in reference to the World War II campaign of that name) was the prolonged naval conflict between German submarines and the Allied navies in Atlantic waters—the seas around the British Isles, the North Sea and the coast of France.

Initially the U-boat campaign was directed against the warships of the British Grand Fleet. Later U-boat fleet action was extended to include action against the trade routes of the Allied powers. This campaign was highly destructive, and resulted in the loss of nearly half of Britain's initial merchant marine fleet during the course of the war. To counter the German submarines, the Allies moved shipping into convoys guarded by destroyers, blockades such as the Dover Barrage and minefields such as the North Sea Mine Barrage were laid, and aircraft patrols monitored the U-boat bases. Increased ship construction meant the amount of Allied shipping available remained fairly stable.^[1]

The U-boat campaign was thus not able to cut off supplies before the US entered the war in 1917 and in later 1918, the U-boat bases were abandoned in the face of the Allied advance.

The tactical successes and failures of the Atlantic U-boat Campaign would later be used as a set of available tactics in World War II in a similar U-boat war against the British Empire.