WITH OR WITHOUT BATTLESHIPS. 87 



marines. In 1914 the German navy possessed in commission less than thirty submarines, 

 with ten more being completed. Germany built and put into commission during hostilities 

 about 300 submarines, and at the termination of hostilities had about 100 more under con- 

 struction. About 200 German submarines were sunk by the Allies. Taking into considera- 

 tion the time elapsed before the successful operation of effective means of stopping the tre- 

 mendous losses from submarine sinkings, it is evident that had Germany, in the beginning, 

 possessed four or five times as many submarines she would have had sufficient to have been 

 successful in her aims. 



Even Germany did not realize how effectively submarines could be used in destroying 

 merchant shipping, for before the outbreak of hostilities she did not plan and prepare for 

 the unrestricted submarine warfare subsequently undertaken. That campaign was an out- 

 growth of the helplessness of the German fleet in the face of the British fleet, and was 

 launched as a last resort rather than as a campaign that had been planned. Germany had 

 been notably slow in taking up the construction of submarines in the years previous to the 

 war, during the period when other nations were experimenting with and building them. The 

 first German submarine built was finished in 1907, a vessel with a submerged displacement 

 of about 240 tons. In 1911 Germany commenced to build boats with a surface displace- 

 ment of 550 tons, submerged displacement 750 tons, with 14 knots surface speed and 8 knots 

 submerged speed. The last vessels built before the war had a surface displacement of 700 

 tons, submerged displacement 950 tons, with designed surface speed of 16 knots and sub- 

 merged speed of 8 knots. 



After the commencement of the war Germany continued to incease the size, the de- 

 signed speeds and the radius of action as different series of the U type were constructed. 

 Surface displacement increased from 750 to 800 and then to 900 tons, with the correspond- 

 ing submerged displacements of 1,000, 1,150' and 1,300 tons. Designed surface speeds were 

 increased from 16 knots to 17.5 knots, with an increase in submerged speeds from 8 knots 

 to more than 10 knots. The radius of action, on the surface, was increased from 5,000 to 

 8,000 miles up to 10,000 miles. The number of torpedo tubes remained about the same, 

 being from four to six 20-inch tubes. In the last boats the number of torpedoes carried 

 was increased from twelve to sixteen. 



While the first small U type of submarine was armed with a 50 millimeter or 2-inch gun, 

 the caliber and number of guns carried were increased with the increase in the size of the 

 submarines. The next size of gun supplied was the 88-mm. gun of 30 calibers in length, 

 followed by guns of 105 mm. or 4 inches, of 40, also of 45 calibers in length. Then came 

 the 105-mm. or 6-inch guns, of 50 calibers in length, mounted on submarine cruisers which 

 were larger vessels than the ordinary U type of submarine. 



The German submarines comprised three types: The U type, different series of which 

 have been described above, and which includes the larger submarine cruisers yet to be de- 

 scribed; the UB type which was smaller than the U type, of smaller radius of action, de- 

 signed to be built in sections to facilitate transportation on land, and intended to be economi- 

 cally built in large numbers; and the UC type of mine-laying submarines. Although the 

 first series of the UB type, consisting of seventeen, had a surface displacement of only 127 

 tons, the second series of thirty had a surface displacement of 260 tons, and the third series 

 of seventeen boats had a surface displacement of 500 tons, which shows that the displace- 

 ment of the UB type of submarine was progressively increased until the last of this type built 

 had become as large as were the vessels of the prewar U type. 



The first fifteen of the UC type of mine-laying submarines were small boats, built in 



