Page 264 - 1992 - XVIII Congresso Internazionale di Storia Militare

230 KENI'òbTH) llAGAN

Whar Presidcnc Wilson and other capiral-ship advocares did not fully com·
prehend in 19 16 was rhe facr rhar rhe gravesr perjJ ro American neutraJiry now
carne from a torally unexpecred source: the German commerce-raiding submarine.
Frusrrared by the Royal Navy's vin-ual blockade of rhc Conrincnr nnd rhe borrling
up of rhc High Seas Flccr io rhe Norrh Sca, the German naval high command in
February 1915 convinced thc Kaiscr to dedarc a war zone around Great Britain.
lo rhesc watcrs, submarincs would sink cncmy merchant ships wirhour warning,
"cven if ir may not be possiblc always tosa ve their crews and passengers". Neutra l
shtps, rhar is, thosc of thc Unitcd Statcs, w ere "exposcd to dangcr" because Britatn
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used neurral nags to mask che identiry of British merchantmen 1 l. The Germans
would put an end co rhis deception by anacking suspicious vcssels nying non.
belligerent nags.
The rechnology of the day madc Gcrman rutblessness inevirable. The small
submarines of World War l had rh in hu!ls and very lighr urmament. When surfa·
ccc.!, ns they ha d tO be if warning a rarget, rbey wcre highly vulncrable. An unarmed
mer(hant vessd could rum and sink one: an armed merchant vessel - and the
British prncrlcc of mounting guns on mcrchant vesscls was as old ns naval warfarc
- could biase o ne our of thc watcr. T o survive, rh e U-boac hnd to flre ics rorpcdocs
bcfore bei ng spoucd.
Titc KritgJmnrmt fìrsc barcd ics fangs on l May 191~. Without warning, 11
Gcrman suhmarine rorpedoed and sank at) American oil cankcr, rhc GtJ/jlight, o((
che southwcstern coast of England. Threc Amcricans died. Neutra l ships were no
longer safc in thc a Gcrman·declarcd war zone. A week Jarcr, a Gcrman submarinc
U-20 fired a single torpcdo imo che British Cunard passcngcr lincr L11Jitania. She
sank in eighrccn minutes, rnking ro rhe bottom a contraband cargo of 4.2 million
rounds of riOe ammunition. Of rh c 1959 people aboard, 1198 died, induding 128
America ns. The nation was srunned. Former Presidem Theodore RoosevcJc decried
ir as an ace of "piracy on a vascer scale of murder rhao old·time pirares ever
pracriced" m.
The sinking of rhe LtJsitania o n 7 May 1915 marked the beginning of che U.S.
Navy's serious but somewhat ambivalent prcparation for war in che Adamic. lnsi·
sting that Germany musc follow che rulcs of cruiser warfarc, which incJuded giving
fair warning bcfore desuoying a mcrchumman. Prcsidenr Wilson ordercd thc \V/nr
nnd Navy Depnrunents co prcpare bills for incrcased appropriation~ lO be prcscn·
ted ro Congrcss whcn ir reconvened in November. Assistanc Sccrerary of che Nnvy
Franklin Rooscvelt was elated. He had already bcen campaigning for a srrongcr
navy. O ne of his public speeches forcshadowed his own hemisphcric defense an d
convoy policies of 1939·194 l . "Our nacional defense must cxrcnd ali over the "-'C·
stcrn hcmisphcre, must go out a chousand milcs imo rhe sca", he thundered. "W e
musr creare n Navy noc only lO prorecc our shores and ou"r posscssions, but our
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mcrchanc ships in ti me of war, no maner wherc thcy may go" 1.