Notes On 1916

The War at Sea - Not a war for casualties, but a war for control over supply lines - British stopping Germal supply lines was a big factor, as important as any battle victory - A very cautious war - There were some battles at sea - in 1914 the Royal Navy scored a small but very tactical victory in Heligoland - Early in 1914 Germans bombed some British towns - German ship Goeben evaded the British Navy to enter Constantinople - this was very important for Turks, because they were pro-german, it was a boost for their choice to enter the war, otherwise they would have to send Goeben back - In 1915 after many small battles only the ships that were initialy in the German ports remained existant. - Germans tried to blockade too by using U-boats to sink merchant ships, this was very sucessful - In 1915 the American ship Lusitania was sunk by German U-Boats, killing over 1000 passengers. - One big sea battle in Jutland in 1916 - Germans sink 14 British ships but lose 11 themselves, an undecisive victory - In the beginning germans concentrated on sinking Allied Warships, when Allies learned to protect their warships, Germans attacked Allied merchant ships instead] - The USA declared the sinking of the liner Lusitania by the German U-Boats as one of the reasons for them to declare war on Germany in 1917 - By June, 1917 Britan had lost 500,000 tons of shipping to the U-boats. - At one point, it was estimated that London had only six weeks of food supply rmaining - After 1916, the Allies improved the ways in which they dealt with the U-Boats, for example they started building so many ships that the U-Boats could not possibly sink them all - Mines, convoys, depth charges, long-range aircraft and especially Q ships now prevented the high loss of merchant and armed ships. - The British blockade had a major impact on Germany's strength - 300,000 deaths related to malnutrition among civilians in Germany during 1914 through 1918 - 1/3 of all pigs in Germany had to be slaughtered in order to keep food supply alive due to the Blockade - The blockade had stopped the supply of nitrates to Germany, nitrates were essential to farmers for fertilisers, and to Germany for explosives - Germany had such big problems with food supply that in 1916 the adult meat ration for one week was the same as two burgers in a fast-food restaurant today.