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The Royal Navy entered the First World War with the world's largest
submarine service, 62 boats, though only fifteen were ocean-going,
the rest being coastal boats unsuitable for long distance patrols.
Submarines were the first British naval units to go out to face
the enemy in 1914 and the last to return to port in 1918. During
the war, British submarines saw action in three main areas: the
North Sea, the Baltic and the Dardanelles. C, D and E class boats
carried out the majority of operations.
Throughout the war, submarines patrolled the Heligoland Bight
off the German North Sea coast as part of the Royal Navy's blockade
of the German High Seas Fleet. The lack of success in the joint
action with surface forces on 28 August 1914 (the Battle of the
Heligoland Bight) proved that the submarine was best used as a
lone weapon. Thereafter, the rest of the war was spent in long
periods of uneventful reconnaissance punctuated by attacks on
German ships on the few occasions when they ventured to sea. For
a short period in 1915, when it was believed that the best anti-submarine
weapon might be another submarine, four C class boats were deployed
on anti-U boat duties off Britain's east coast, in combination
with trawlers as bait. Two U boats were destroyed, but the loss
of C29 in a minefield on 29 August put an end to the operation.
From March 1916, increasing numbers of submarines were fitted
out as minelayers to operate in the hazardous waters near the
German coastline. One of the strangest encounters occurred on
4 May 1916 when E31 succeeded in using its gun to destroy
a low-flying Zeppelin.
By mid-September 1914, the Admiralty had decided to broaden the
naval war by sending E1, E9 and E11, commanded
by three of its most experienced submariners, to the Baltic Sea.
In October, E1 (Lieutenant Commander Laurence) and E9
(Lieutenant Commander Horton) both made a successful passage
of the narrow Sound between Denmark and Sweden, but E11
(Lieutenant Commander Nasmith) was blocked by German patrols.
By autumn 1915, five more E class and four C class boats had arrived
as reinforcements. By their impact, real and imagined, on the
Germans the strategic effect of these boats was very significant.
They harassed, and sometimes sank, German warships and dislocated
the vital iron ore trade between Sweden and Germany which forced
the commitment of even more German ships to anti-submarine duties.
Their presence thwarted German naval advances in support of the
land campaign against Russia. Even vessels lost to mines were
blamed by the Germans on the British submarines. So successful
were the British in 1915 and 1916 that German trade in the Baltic
was almost completely paralysed. The Germans renamed the Baltic
the Hortonsee. The campaign came to an end in early 1918
when Russia capitulated to Germany.
When the Allies began land operations against Turkey in April
1915, by attacking on the Gallipoli Peninsula, submarines were
deployed in the Sea of Marmara to intercept Turkish supply lines.
To reach their operating area they had first to negotiate the
narrow and dangerous passage of the Dardanelles, infested with
mines and anti-submarine nets. Three small, obsolete B class boats
had already begun to probe the Narrows. On 13 December 1914, B11
had sunk the old Turkish battleship Messudiyeh, for which
action her commander, Lieutenant Norman Holbrook RN, was awarded
the submarine service's first Victoria Cross (VC). During the
rest of the campaign, several E class boats reached the Sea of
Marmara, where, usually on single patrols, they carried out attacks
on all types of shipping and land-based targets and some even
raided Constantinople harbour. The great personal skill and bravery
shown in these actions resulted in the award of three further
VCs, to Commander E.C. Boyle (E14), Lieutenant Commander
M.E. Nasmith (E11) and Lieutenant Commander G.S. White
(E14). Strategically, submarine operations could not prevent
the failure of the Gallipoli campaign, but the great toll taken
of the Turkish Navy and merchant fleet contributed to Turkey's
defeat later in the war.
A new and largely untried weapon at the beginning of the First
World War, the submarine had proved its military value by the
end of the conflict. Operations in the Baltic and Dardanelles
had been the Service's supreme achievements. It had penetrated
to, and operated effectively in, waters inaccessible to surface
ships, bringing the war close to enemy countries. British submarines
had made a strategic contribution to the war effort out of all
proportion to the numbers deployed. 56 submarines and 1,174 officers
and men were lost.
See Images 4, 5 and 6 in the Image
Gallery.
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