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October 1939. U-47 returns to port after sinking HMS Royal Oak. The battlecruiser Scharnhorst is seen in the background..
A U-boat is any of the German submarines of World War I and World War II, as well as the Austro-Hungarian submarines of World War I. The term derives from the German Navy's system of naming its submarines with U- followed by a number, where the U stood for Unterseeboot (literally, "undersea boat"), the German word for submarine. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both world wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from the United States and Canada to Europe.
In May of 1915, German U-boat U-20 sank the liner RMS Lusitania. Of the 1,195 lives lost, 123 were American civilians, including a noted theatrical producer and a member of the Vanderbilt family. This event turned American public opinion against Germany, and was a significant factor in getting the United States involved in the war on the Allied side.
With the United States already on the side of the Allies, Germany announced on January 31, 1917 that its U-boats would engage in unrestricted submarine warfareUnrestricted submarine warfare is a kind of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships without warning, contrary to international maritime law governing the conduct of war at sea, which says that merchant ships must be given warning to allow th. See First Battle of the AtlanticThe First battle of the Atlantic ( 1914 1918) was a naval campaign of World War I, largely fought in the seas around the British Isles and in the Atlantic Ocean. The United Kingdom relied heavily on imports to feed its population and supply its war indust.
During World War II, U-boat warfare was the major component of the Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted the duration of the war. Sir Winston ChurchillChurchill" redirects here. For other meanings, see Churchill (disambiguation). The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG, OM, CH, FRS ( November 30, 1874 January 24, 1965) was a British politician, best known as Prime Minister of the U, the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly's Prime Minister for most of the war, was quoted as saying "The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril." During the early stages of the war and soon after the United States' entry into the war, the U-boats were extremely effective in destroying allied shipping, coming up to the Atlantic coast of the United States and even the Gulf of Mexico. Advances in convoy tactics, sonarAcronyms Sonar so und n avigation a nd r anging) is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate or to detect other watercraft. There are two kinds of sonar, active and passive. Active sonar Active sonar creates a pulse of sound, often (called Asdic in England), depth chargeThe depth charge is the oldest anti- submarine weapon. A concept of a "dropping mine" was first discussed in 1911, and the idea was developed into practicality when the Royal Navy's Commander in Chief, Sir George Callaghan, requested its production in 191s, the cracking of the German Enigma code, the introduction of the Leigh Light and the range of escort aircraft turned the tide against the U-boats. In the end, the U-boat fleet suffered extremely heavy casualties, losing 743 U-boats and about 30,000 submariners.
During World War II, the Kriegsmarine produced many different types of U-boats as technology evolved.