HH104
AMERICAN NAVAL HISTORY
WORLD WAR I
PEOPLE OF
INTEREST
WOODROW WILSON
Moral
attitude, highly intellectual; Pres of Princeton before. Fourteen Points. Bluffed Britain with saying US could
outbuild in order to get them to sign up for the League of Nations. Britain accepted the league and
the US dropped the proposed 1919
Naval Act. Minor
stroke while in Europe. Wouldn’t compromise with Congress on the League of Nations and as a result the US refused to join it.
JOSEPHUS DANIELS
SecNav b/c he
helped Wilson win (was his Chief Publicist). Recommended all naval yards
be reopened and expanded. Also
proposed an arms limitation conference which Wilson liked but others
ignored. His most popular idea was
educating all personnel in English, math, and religion. Forbid alcohol use by officers too.
WILLIAM S. BENSON
Anti-British;
worried that Brits would be defeated and US challenged simultaneously by
Germans, Japs, and Austria. Agreed that solidarity needed to be shown and
approved of 4 bships joining Brits in Scapa Bay.
WILLIAM S. SIMS
Recommends US build many small ships –
destroyers to fight subs and cargo ships to replace British losses because Brit
capital fleet easily handled German capital fleet. US wanted its own capital fleet for after the
war or in case Britain lost.
REGINALD R. BELKNAP (CAPT)
Led
10 steamers adapated to mine-laying to lay mines in the North
Sea.
NAVAL
CRITICISM
US thought
unprepared for conflict. Daniels said
the Navy was in good shape, but he contradicted all his expert advice; Navy
slips to 6th overall; no batle signals, flawed ship designs
The General
Board
Under
Adm Dewey; recommended 63 ships and 20,000 more men for the current ships. Daniels cropped the report before he allowed
it to go public and told Congress to build only 18 vessels (they built 28,
though the 16 of the 17 submarines built were coastal and equivalent to the
ineffective gunboats). Points out
current fleet imbalanced (no support ships)
THE
BELIGERANTS
British
blockade hurt US commerce. Brits also siezed cargo but paid for it when
they did and killed none. German U-Boats
sunk and killed US merchants.. US, Brit, Fr, Ital vs Germ,
Austro-Hung, Ottoman Empire. Triggered by Archduke
Ferdinand’s assassination. Wilson wants strict newstrality. New
Mexico class auth’ed.
UNRESTRICTED
SUB WARFARE
Kaiser
Wilhelm said U-Boats would sink all vessels approaching Brits. Wilson responded that Germany would face “strict
accountability” for lost merchants.
U-Boats sink first US vessel Gulflight without warning on May Day and
then the passenger and mail ship Lusitania May
7, 1915.
Halted Sept
18 1915
when the British Arabic with American
passengers is sunk and Wilson hotly protests. Resumes in Feb 1916 as German Adm
Holtzendorff believed it could sink 600k tons of Brit shipping a month and
bring Brit to their knees by the end of 1916 as a result.
10 days
later, Sussex torpedoed and more
Americans died and Wilson threatened to break off
diplomatic relations if it ever happened again – unrestricted sub warfare was
again suspended.
IN THE U.S.
Wilson sends three notes to
Germans about Lusitania (seeking disavowal and
reparation and an oath for it not to happen again, then a near ultimatum by
stating illegality of the sinking, and finally (SecState resigned rather than
sign it) said any further aggression would be construed as deliberately
aggressive.
Daniels
accepts General Board’s recommendation and tells Congress the Navy needs 186
new ships by 1921. Debate ensued with
the coasts supporting it and the South and midwest against it.
After the Sussex, Republicans supported the
Democratic Wilson and the Democrats were divided on approving the bill for new
ships. It was passed with a compromise
by substituting 5 battle-cruisers for some bships (bcruisers fast lightly
armored heavily armed). (2
June 1916)
BATTLE OF JUTLAND
5 German
bcruisers (1 sunk, 2 nearly sunk, 2 severly damaged) vs 9 Brit bcruisers (3
sunk, 3 severly damaged)
1916 NAVAL
ACT
After Jutland, both Repub and Dem called
for naval increases. The original
General Board proposal was passed except that all ships were to be in service
within 3 years instead of 5. Passed: Senate 71 to 8; House 283-50-99.
U.S. AT WAR
Germany proposes peace to Britain in Fall of 1916. Brit replies it wants full reparations and
effectual gaurantees. German chancellor
knows his country’s desires are equally uncompromising and will end
negotiations just as they start. He
tells the Brits Germany wants allied indemnity and all of its post-war lands as
well as possession of France, Russia, Luxembourg and protectorates of Belgium and Poland). Crytographers decipher message from Germany to German ambassador in US
telling him to unrestricted sub warfare would resume until the war’s end and
that he was to convince Mexico to delcare war against the
US.
Wilson hears of this Zimmermann
Note and cuts diplomatic relations with Germany.
A SHOCKING
DISCOVERY
Brits lost
1M+ tons of shipping in less than 2mo since sub warfare resumed. Brit Adm / First Sea Lord Sir Jellicoe tells US RAdm Sims Brit will lose the war unless losses to
U-boats are stemmed ASAP.
ATLANTIC
CONVOYS
Jellicose was
against them but US convinced them to be tried.
They worked far better and by 1 August
1,000
under the convoys had only .5% losses.
Within 3mo, results showed and losses dropped from nearly a million tons
a month to about a 250k. Disadvantage:
Only as fast as slowest ship; big target.
Employs blimps.
NORTH SEA MINES/WESTERN FRONT
Capt
Pratt reco that Daniels order the building of 200 destroyers and also merchant
ships, both of which to take precendence over capital ship construction. The US Navy formed a “bridge to Europe” in which 927,000 (45% of US troops sent to Europe in WWI) doughboys were
landed on Europe without a single loss from
sea action.
USS Fannig – 1st US warship to capture German
U-boat (U-58); on board was Carney, future CNO
U-boats had
to come through Eng Channel (well-protected) or go around through the North Sea (between Scotland and Normandy). Brits wanted to mine that
230-miles, but thought it impossible.
The US offered to do it. Thought it would take 100k antenna mines (the
Brits had only outdated contact mines, which it was thought would take
400k). Antenna mines had a 70 ft copper wire
that if touched blew the mine (contact mine req. direct contact)
US laid
56,571 mines and Brits 13,546. Six subs
sunk, more damaged. 12
mines per square mile. Huge pyschological effect on German U-boats.
Army
supported initial airplane endeavors.
British hardly gave it any money.
Germans saw it very useful and put many resources into it. US and Brit use and
development of the Air Force increased exponentially towards the end of the
war. The aircraft were dangerous – 3
pilots a week died in training, due to gong out of control or losing its wings.
“YEOMANETTES” – women in the Navy
Mostly
secretaries; some were translators, draftsmen, fingerprint experts, ship
camouflage designers recruiters, etc
Did most of
the paperwork for naval institutions during the war
ARMISTICE/TREATY
OF VERSAILLES
League of Nations. What to be done with German warships was
being argued. Brits wanted to sink them,
US agreed. France and Italy wanted the ships for their
own use. German officers, in attempt to
maintain some pride and show contempt, scuttled 66 warships (10 bships, 5
bcruisers…).
Define
freedom of seas by US definition. US and Brit keep
their own definitions for freedom of the seas.