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TCinLA's avatar

Actually, the situation with "unrestricted submarine warfare" was that the German decision in 1915 to execute unrestricted submarine warfare had resulted in the sinking of the Lustania, with several hundred Americans aboard being lost; this brought the first surge of war fever here and almost resulted in a US declaration of war. In the face of that, the Germans pulled back and stopped the policy. Then, in early 1917, in the face of battlefield reversals and the effectiveness of the Allied blockade of Germany, unrestricted submarine warfare was again adopted and it came close to bringing Britain to her knees that spring. The sinking of three American ships was used as the reason to declare war 106 years ago today. With the US Navy adding to the Royal Navy and the institution of a convoy system, the submarine threat was blocked by the end of the summer.

But Americans had not been lost between the sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915 and February 1917 when the campaign began again.

Interestingly, the German defense about the Lusitania was that it was carrying war cargo in addition to passengers, making it a legitimate target. The British of course denied that. However, researchers in the 1990s found information in the British records that the ship was carrying a big load of rifles and ammunition to the British Army, hiding the fact by using a passenger ship. Also, the Lusitania was found where she went down off southwestern Ireland, and the presence of the military shipment was confirmed.

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Steward Beckham's avatar

I decided to skip over the Lusitania since it wasn’t the beginning of the unrestricted policy but could have included since it was crucial in its evolution. Also, I was referring to the Americans killed in 1916 on the French ship, Sussex. But that also was not an American ship or merchant vessel. Also could have specified about status of merchant ships in international law at the time.

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TCinLA's avatar

It's a tedious topic. :-)

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Steward Beckham's avatar

Truly.

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