Commissioned on 14 December 1906, U-1 was the first in a long line of German U-boats (the name is a shortening of Unterseeboot, or ‘under-sea boat’). She was more of a trials vessel than an operational warship, but she successfully completed arduous endurance tests, including a voyage of 1,088 kilometres (587 nautical miles) between the German ports of Wilhelmshaven to Kiel in bad weather. U-1 formed the basis for the development of a series of seven larger and increasingly sophisticated submarines with heavier armament.
Initially, there was no consensus on how long a U-boat crew could reasonably be expected to stay at sea in such cramped conditions. Following U-1’s achievement, the whole flotilla was deployed in the North Sea during the winter of 1912/13. They were sent to form a patrol line 483 kilometres (300 miles) from harbour, equivalent to the distance from the German island of Heligoland to English coastal waters, and were ordered to stay on station for as long as possible. To the surprise of many officers, who had predicted that crews could manage no more than three days at sea, the U-boats stayed out for 11 days. Improvements in the stowage of supplies and general habitability allowed this to be significantly extended, and, by the end of the First World War, the large ‘U-cruisers’ were routinely attacking Allied shipping off the east coast of the USA.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Despite their potential, U-boats were neglected by most senior German naval officers during the pre-war period – Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz had actively opposed the introduction of submarines as an unwarranted diversion of resources from the battleships that he believed to be the key element of naval power. A number of more open-minded officers disagreed, ensuring that U-boats were included in the High Seas Fleet exercises in 1913. However, as late as 1914, there were only 33 U-boats in service, with a further 28 under construction – a stark contrast to the Royal Navy’s 74 submarines in commission, with 31 more being built (see also MHM 108, September 2019).
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