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Submarine warfare
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Naval warfare is divided into three operational areas: surface warfare, air warfare and submarine warfare. Each area is comprised of specialized platforms and strategies used to exploit tactical advantages unique and inherent to that area.
Modern submarine warfare is comprised primarily of diesel- and nuclear submarines using weapons (like torpedos or nuclear weapons) as well as advanced sensing equipment to attack other shipping or land targets.
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For most of history submarine warfare has been restricted to the deployment of mines and other unmanned static devices intended to deny use of naval assets on bodies of water. Ancient examples of this kind of warfare include placement of sharpened sticks in shallow water so that soldiers who waded out into the water, or jumped from boats into the water, would be injured. Modern history provides numerous examples of combatants placing obstacles at harbor mouths or in rivers to impede the passage of shipping.
Explosive mines were developed in the 18th century in naval applications, but their use was limited by the lack of adequate fusing technology.
Supposedly the first attempted submarine attack in wartime was by Sgt. Ezra Lee of the U.S. Continental Army in the Turtle. A mock up of how the Turtle may have have looked can be found at the submarine museum in Groton, Connecticut. Submarines waged war on the surface and undersea. The submarine could use its low silhouette to creep up on merchant ships (then sink them by surface fire.) This was the guerre de course (commerce war), which weaker nations were forced into by stronger naval rivals, and was to become a major feature during both world wars.
Submarine warfare in World War I was mostly a fight between German U-Boats and Atlantic supply convoys for Great Britain. Only some actions occurred outside of the wider European-Atlantic theatre.
In World War II, submarine warfare was split into two main areas - the Atlantic and the Pacific, although, while the war waged in Africa, the Mediterranean Sea was a very active area for submarine operations. This was particularly true for the British and the Germans. The Italians were also involved but achieved their greatest success using midget submarines and human torpedoes.
In the Atlantic, where German submarines again acted against Allied convoys, this part of the war was very reminiscent of World War I. Some US and British submarines were active as well, but lack of Axis surface shipping reduced their importance.
- Main article: Submarine war in the Pacific
In the Pacific, the situation was reversed, with US submarines hunting Japanese shipping, whereas Japanese submarines were few, and often ineffectual.
- See also: Nuclear submarine
Since the second world, no major wars (or even major military actions, with the exception of the Falklands War) have involved submarines. However, the importance of the submarine has shifted to an even more strategic role than the disruption of merchant shipping, with the advent of the nuclear submarine carrying nuclear weapons. To counter the threat of these submarines, hunter submarines were developed in turn.
At the end of his naval warfare book The Price of Admiralty, military historian John Keegan postulates that eventually, almost all roles of surface warships will be taken over by submarines, as they will be the only naval units capable of evading the increasing intelligence capabilities (space satellites, airplanes etc...) that a fight between evenly matched modern states could bring to bear on them.
- John Abbatiello. Anti-Submarine Warfare in World War I: British Naval Aviation and the Defeat of the U-Boats (2005)
- Blair, Clay. Silent Victory: The U. S. Submarine War Against Japan 2 vol (1975)
- Gray, Edwyn A. The U-Boat War, 1914-1918 (1994)
- Roscoe, Theodore. United States Submarine Operations in World War II (US Naval Institute, 1949).
- van der Vat, Dan. The Atlantic Campaign Harper & Row, 1988. Connects submarine and antisubmarine operations between WWI and WWII, and suggests a continuous war.