The Armistice terms of 1918 required Germany to surrender all its U-boats, and the Treaty of Versailles forbade it to possess them in the future. In 1914–18 the destruction-more than 10,000,000 tons-caused by the U-boats was especially remarkable in view of the small size (less than l,000 tons), frailty, and vulnerability of the craft. The peak U-boat strength of 140 was reached in October 1917, but there were never more than about 60 at sea at one time. By the end of the war Germany had built 334 U-boats and had 226 under construction. ![]() destroyers, and the vast output of American shipyards turned the tables. However, the introduction of convoys, the arrival of numerous U.S. In April 1917, 430 Allied and neutral ships totaling 852,000 tons were sunk, and it seemed likely that the German gamble would succeed. The U-boat campaign then became a race between German sinkings of merchant ships and the building of ships, mainly in the United States, to replace them. The decision to do so in February 1917 was largely responsible for the entry of the United States into the war. At the outset of World War I, German U-boats, though numbering only 38, achieved notable successes against British warships but because of the reactions of neutral powers (especially the United States) Germany hesitated before adopting unrestricted U-boat warfare against merchant ships. Germany was the first country to employ submarines in war as substitutes for surface commerce raiders. The destruction of enemy shipping by German U-boats was a spectacular feature of both World Wars I and II. U-boat, German U-boot, abbreviation of Unterseeboot, (“undersea boat”), a German submarine. ![]() ![]() Learn how the Third Reich utilized U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic to destroy Allied supply convoys See all videos for this article
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