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Concept
Unrestricted submarine warfare
Summary
Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships such as freighters and tankers without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules (also known as "cruiser rules") that call for warships to search merchantmen and place crews in "a place of safety" (for which lifeboats do not qualify, except under particular circumstances) before sinking them, unless the ship shows "persistent refusal to stop ... or active resistance to visit or search". To follow the rules a submarine must surface, defeating the purpose of submarines and putting itself in danger of attack.
Limitations on warfare at sea date back to the 1899 Hague Convention.
During the First World War, the United Kingdom introduced Q-ships with concealed deck guns and many armed merchantmen, leading Germany to ignore the prize rules. In the most dramatic episode they sank in 1915 in a few minutes accelerated either by a coal dust explosion or possibly an explosion in a munitions cargo she may have been carrying . The U.S. demanded it stop, and Germany did so. Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, chief of the Imperial Admiralty staff, argued successfully in early 1917 to resume the attacks and thus starve the British. The German high command realized the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare meant war with the United States but calculated that American mobilization would be too slow to stop a German victory on the Western Front.
Following Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, countries tried to limit or even abolish submarines. The 1909 Declaration of London required submarines to abide by prize rules. These regulations did not prohibit arming merchantmen, but having them report contact with submarines (or raiders) made them de facto naval auxiliaries and removed the protection of the prize rules. This rendered the restrictions on submarines effectively useless. While such tactics increase the combat effectiveness of the submarine and improve its chances of survival, some regard them as a breach of the rules of war, especially when employed against neutral vessels in a war zone.
Official source
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