Did Defensively Armed merchant Ships and Q Ships create Unrestricted Submarine Warfare?
I was just reading on the internet that the author thinks the arming of merchant ships, making them outgun submarines, and then finally creating Q Ships to trap and destroy submarines made it too dangerous for U Boats to follow the prize rules.
However the article gave no context as to whether unrestricted submarine warfare was already considered before or in parallel with this phenomenon.
Does anyone have any views on this they'd like to share or have any reading they'd like to suggest on the matter?
Probably not. The gun crews on the merchant ships were relatively untrained and couldn't hit much. The Q-ships gradually lost there effectiveness. In both cases they were effective only against surfaced submarines. Sounds as if someone with little knowledge of maritime operations or gunnery is trying to make a point where none exists.
To be honest, ever since ships have been used for commerce, they have likely been subject to attack be enemy vessels in times of war, and have in turn tried to defend themselves with defensive arms etc.
And it is probably also worth noting that in WWI prior to unrestricted warfare, if a submarine were to surface and signal a ship to surrender, and have the crew and passengers evacuate the ship, so that it could be sunk, there is still no guarentee that the crew and pasengers will be safe, as transit across the open ocean in lifeboats was still a potentially very risky operaton. As such, it is understandable that there may be a desire to try and protect merchant shipping from the threat that submarines posed.
In addition, during the 1st World War the Triple Alliance was also using camoflaged armed merchant ships to attack Entente merchant vessels, so it would seem odd to claim that using an armed merchnat vessel by one side to attack merchant vessels of the other side is acceptable, but that somehow using self defense armament on a merchant ship, or an armed merchant Q-Ship, to attack/defend against enemy submarines somewhow a "issue".
The argument did play an important role in the inner-German discussion in 1916/17. The admirals, who wanted USW, said with Q-ships and armed merchantmen submarine operations under the cruiser rules were no longer sustainable, one needed to proceed to USW.
The submarine commanders, junior offices, said now that we know that Q-ships exist and merchantmen are usually armed we can operate accordingly. There is no need to proceed to USW. - But their voice was only raisd through the official channels - and hence went unheard outside the submarine arm.
Quite unsurprisingly, the brass pressed home their view and USW was started. However, had the enemies of USW - the Kaiser and the chancellor - known the opinion of the sub commanders, the local experts, they might have resisted with more success.
Unrestricted Submarine warfare only happened because the German navies surface raiders (both warships and armed merchantmen) had almost ceased to exist either by being sunk or being interned in neutral countries. The odd ones like the Wolf were the exception to the rule and had a limited effect. The only vessels left were the U boats as the capital vessels could not be risked . Submarines were too small to follow the 1859 (?) Conference of the sea that stated.
Letters of marque were outlawed
Merchantmen were required to stop if an enemy ship signalled them to do so
Merchantmen were to be unarmed.
The naval ship was required to remove all the crew and passangers before sinking a merchant vessel
While the likes of Max Horton did remove the passengers when British submarines were sent to the Baltic it was very difficult off the coast of Ireland.
So the German navy had the problem follow International laws of the sea or just ignore them. Interestingly there was a Captain Fryatt who three times ignored U boat signals to stop.Later his ship was ambushed by 5 light destroyers and Captain Fryatt was shot for refusing to follow signals from German ships as per the international rules of the seas. This caused outrage in America as the American representive who looked after the British interests was refused entry to the court martial.
As for Q ships theses vessel's usefulness was very limited as U boats got wise to them very quickly .
