USA HISTORY

Germany used their U-boats to sink the ships of the Allied Powers. This British passenger liner was destroyed in 1917.

(A) ** Lusitania

(B) USS Maine

Concept note-1: -On May 7, 1915, the German submarine (U-boat) U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, a swift-moving British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the 1, 959 men, women, and children on board, 1, 195 perished, including 123 Americans.

Concept note-2: -On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1, 959 passengers and crew, 1, 198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans.

Concept note-3: -Torpedoes. The U-boats’ main weapon was the torpedo, though mines and deck guns (while surfaced) were also used. By the end of the war, almost 3, 000 Allied ships (175 warships; 2, 825 merchant ships) had been sunk by U-boat torpedoes.

Concept note-4: -Germany built new and larger U-boats to punch holes in the British blockade, which was threatening to starve Germany out of the war. In 1914, Germany had just 20 U-boats. By 1917, it had 140 and the U-boats had destroyed about 30 percent of the world’s merchant ships.