Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
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An Unrestricted Submarine Warfare is a Submarine Warfare that ...
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- See: Neutral Country, Naval Warfare, Submarine, Freighter (Ship), Tanker (Ship), Prize Rules, London Naval Treaty, Commerce Raiding, Laws of War.
References
2016
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/unrestricted_submarine_warfare Retrieved:2016-10-25.
- Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink vessels such as freighters and tankers without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules (also known as "cruiser rules"). Prize rules call for submarines to surface and search merchantmen [1] and place crews in "a place of safety" (for which lifeboats did not qualify, except under particular circumstances) [2] before sinking them, unless the ship showed "persistent refusal to stop ... or active resistance to visit or search". [3] Following Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, during the First World War, countries tried to limit or even abolish submarines. Instead, the London Naval Treaty required submarines to abide by prize rules. Theseregulations did not prohibit arming merchantmen; [4] or having them report contact with submarines (or raiders) made them de facto naval auxiliaries and removed the protection of the prize rules. [5] [6] [7] This rendered the restrictions on submarines effectively useless. [8] While such tactics increase the combat effectiveness of the submarine and improve its chances of survival, some [9] regard them as a breach of the rules of war, especially when employed against neutral vessels in a war zone.
- ↑ Holwitt, Joel I. "Execute Against Japan", Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005, pp.5-6.
- ↑ Holwitt, p.92: quoting Article 22 of the London Naval Treaty.
- ↑ Holwitt, p.93.
- ↑ Holwitt, p.6.
- ↑ Dönitz, Karl. Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days
- ↑ von der Poorten, Edward P. The German Navy in World War II (T. Y. Crowell, 1969)
- ↑ Milner, Marc. North Atlantic Run: the Royal Canadian Navy and the battle for the convoys (Vanwell Publishing, 2006)
- ↑ Holwitt, p.6.
- ↑ Holwitt, p.294, for instance. Holwitt, however, persistently refuses to acknowledge armed merchantmen are not protected, and most of the merchantmen sunk by both sides in World War II were armed.