Transcript US Navy 1914-1918 - SUNY Maritime College

Sea Power
and
Maritime Affairs
Lesson 11: The U.S. Navy
and the World at War, 1914-1918
Learning Objectives
• Know the events leading to the entry of the
United States into World War I.
• Comprehend U.S. strategy and diplomacy in
World War I.
• Comprehend the effect of the events of World
War I on Mahanian theory.
Major Allied Powers
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US (beginning in 1917)
Great Britain
Russia
France
Italy (for the most part)
Japan (Pacific)
Major Central Powers
• Germany
• Austria-Hungary
• Turkey
So what happened?
The Beginning of World War I
“Entangling Alliances”:
• Triple Entente (Allied Powers):
Great Britain, Russian Empire, France
Plus:
Italy (1915-16)
U.S. (1917)
Japan (Pacific)
• Triple Alliance (Central Powers):
German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman (Turk)
Empires
Plus:
Bulgaria
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated: June
1914.
• Bosnia part of Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• Serbia - Russia Defense Pact.
Naval Confrontation
British Royal Navy
•Home Fleet
•Grand Fleet
German Imperial Navy
High Seas Fleet
British Royal Navy:
• First Lord of the Admiralty
• Similar to U.S. Secretary of the Navy.
• Winston Churchill
• First Sea Lord
• Similar to today’s U.S. Chief of Naval
Operations.
• Admiral Sir John Fisher
• Grand Fleet
•
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe
Strategic Goals of Grand Fleet:
• Sea-lift of British Army to France.
• “Distant” blockade of Germany.
• Avoid German mines and torpedo
boats near the coast.
• Scapa Flow - Main Grand Fleet base in
the Orkney Islands.
• Goal: Destroy High Seas Fleet in a
large engagement.
Winston
Churchill
First Lord
of the
Admiralty
1914-1915
German Imperial Navy:
• High Seas Fleet
• Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
• Numerically inferior to the British Grand Fleet.
• North Sea defenses:
• Mines.
• U-boats (unterseeboots) - submarines.
• Not used for commerce raiding early in war.
• Goal:
• Defeat portions of the Grand Fleet in small
engagements.
• “Fleet in Being”
• Threatens Allied operations by its presence in port.
• Ineffective commerce raiding by German cruisers.
Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
Father of the German High Seas Fleet
Major Naval and Maritime Events:
• February 1915- Germany announces
unrestricted submarine warfare
• May 1915- Sinking of Lusitania
• 1915- ANZAC landing at Gallipoli
• March 1916 Sussex pledge
• Battle of Jutland
Three important Actions
• Dardanelles/Gallipoli
• Dogger Bank
• Jutland
Gallipoli Campaign – 1915:
• German-led Ottoman Turk Fleet
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Closes Dardanelles - Entrance to the Black Sea.
Allied line of communication with Russia is cut.
• Winston Churchill:
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Advocate of amphibious assault on Gallipoli
Peninsula.
Objective: Constantinople.
• Admiral Sir John Fisher
• First Sea Lord resigns in protest.
• Dardanelles
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Mines in sea lanes.
Guns emplaced on shore covering the straits manned
by the Ottoman Turk Army.
Gallipoli
Campaign
1915
Winston Churchill
proposes
opening supply
route to Russia
through the
Black Sea.
Gallipoli:
18 March 1915 Naval Action
Allied Landings
25 April 1915
Landings at Gallipoli
Gallipoli
Allied Retreat
from
Gallipoli
November-December
1915
Failure of Allied Assault:
• ANZAC Army Corps
• Mustafa Kemal commands Turk counter-attack.
• Lessons learned in defeat:
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Unity of command.
Control of local waters.
Element of surprise.
Rehearsal.
Beach reconnaissance.
Shore bombardment.
Specialized landing craft.
Ship-to-shore movement.
Aggressive exploitation of the beachhead.
Commitment of reserves.
• Winston Churchill resigns in failure.
Battle of Dogger Bank- 1915:
Battle of Jutland
Course of the War – 1916:
• Ground war in France = continued stalemate.
• German U-boats continue commerce raiding.
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Very effective, especially in Mediterranean Sea.
February 1916 - Resume Unrestricted Submarine Warfare.
Sussex sunk March 1916 - Wilson protests again.
Tirpitz relieved of duty.
• Kaiser Wilhelm imposes restrictions on U-boat attacks
again.
• British raids on German coast.
• New German High Seas Fleet commander:
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Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer
Commences raids on British coast.
Unterseeboots
U.S. Enters World War I:
• Germany announces Unrestricted
Submarine Warfare. (February 1915)
• Lusitania (May 1915)
• Sussex (March 1916)
• Germany resumes Unrestricted Submarine
Warfare. (January 1917)
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Calculated risk:
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U.S. unable to affect war for at least one year.
Need to cut off British food supplies.
• U.S. declares war. (April 1917)
• U.S. Navy - First rate power, BUT:
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Unprepared for anti-submarine warfare.
Planned for fleet engagement in Caribbean Sea.
Backing Up:
• US Naval strategy in World War I– period of
Neutrality (August 1914-1917)
• Woodrow Wilson: The United States will
remain:
• “neutral in thought and deed.”
• Favorable balance of payments for U.S. with
Europe.
•
Desire to trade with Allied and Central
Powers.
President
Woodrow
Wilson
U.S. in World War I:
• Naval matters enter American consciousness.
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Wilson converts to pro-Navy viewpoint.
Forty-eight capital ships planned for U.S. Navy by
1920.
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Naval Construction act of 1916
Impact of Jutland
• Assistant Secretary of the Navy
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Experiences will influence World War II policies
• Causes for U.S. entrance on side of Allies.
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Shift in European balance of power.
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare.
Cultural and economic ties to Allied nations.
Wilson sees chance for peace in outcome
…A word on Bureaucracy
• Naval leadership wants Naval General
Staff
• Rear Admiral Bradley Fiske, Captain William
S. Sims
• SECNAV Josephs Daniels
• “Fiske-Hobson” measure, Act of Congress
3 March 1915 creates CNO
• Captain William S. Benson
Course of the War – 1917:
• U.S. Navy Plans
• Atlantic (defeat the submarine)
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Troop Transport
Reduce Emphasis on battle ships
Submarine chasers
Merchant Ships
Mine laying
Integrated into convoy system.
20-25 merchants and 6-8 destroyers.
• Change from “hunt-and-kill” patrols to a convoy system.
• Rear Admiral William Sowden Sims, USN - convoy proponent.
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• Admiral Sir John Jellicoe
• Appointed First Sea Lord, Chief of Naval Staff.
• Convoys proved to be more effective in countering Uboats.
(Then) Commander William S. Sims
Aide to President Roosevelt
Reviewing return of the Great White Fleet - February 1909
Allied Convoys in the Atlantic
Effects of Allied Convoys in the Atlantic
End of the War:
• Bolshevik Revolution in Russia - October 1917
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Peace with Germany causes Eastern Front to disappear.
• French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch
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Supreme Allied Commander (including U.S. forces).
• German offensive repulsed at Second Battle of the
Marne.
• Major General John A. Lejeune, USMC assumes
command of the Second U.S. Army Division - 1918.
• First time a Marine officer commands an Army Division..
• German Army defeated - morale becomes very low.
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German sailors become mutinous.
• 11 November 1918 - war ends on “Armistice Day”.
• Now celebrated as Veterans’ Day in the U.S.
Battle of Belleau Wood
June 1918
“Teufelhunde” -- Devil Dogs
“Retreat, hell. We just got here.”
Captain Lloyd Williams, USMC
USS Belleau Wood (LHA 3)
New Weapons of Naval Warfare:
• Submarines
Germany lost 187 U-boats, however:
• Sank 5,234 merchant ships.
• Sank 10 battleships, 20 destroyers, and 9
submarines.
• Allied & Neutral Ships Lost: 1914-18
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
3
396
964
2,439
1,035
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• Aviation
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Anti-submarine warfare.
Early attempts at power projection:
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Strikes on German naval bases.
Did not practice anti-surface warfare.
Effect of World War I on Mahanian Theory:
• Support in two areas:
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Commercial antagonism and rivalry cause war.
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Faith in the battle fleet for command of the sea.
• Unrestricted Submarine Warfare's implications
ignored.
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Commerce raiding can affect the course of the war.
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Importance of convoy system to protect against
submarine attacks.
Learning Objectives:
• Know the events leading to the entry of
the United States into World War I.
• Comprehend U.S. strategy and
diplomacy in World War I.
• Comprehend the effect of the events of
World War I on Mahanian theory.
Questions & Discussion
Next time: Naval Strategy and National Policy, 1919-1941