Commerce raiding
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2008) |
Part of a series on |
War |
---|
Commerce raiding
Privateering
The first sort of commerce raiding was for nations to commission privateers. Early instances of this type of warfare were by the English and Dutch against the Spanish treasure fleets of the 16th century, which resulted in financial gain for both captain and crew upon capture of enemy vessels ("prizes").[citation needed]
17th and 18th centuries
During the
In the
Napoleonic Wars
During
U.S. and British privateers also actively raided each other's shipping during the War of 1812.[8]
American Civil War
During the American Civil War, the Confederate Navy operated a fleet of commissioned Confederate States Navy commerce raiders. These differed from privateers as they were state-owned ships with orders to destroy enemy commerce rather than privately owned ships with letters of marque. These included Sumter, Florida, Alabama, and Shenandoah.[citation needed] Most of the ships used in this period were built in Britain, which resulted in the Alabama Claims.[citation needed]
By the 1880s, the navies of Europe began to deploy warships made of iron and steel. The natural evolution that followed was the installation of more powerful guns to penetrate such warships, followed by specialized armor plating, followed by larger guns and the development of effective torpedoes (followed by armored belts below the waterline to protect against them). This "arms spiral" (which included the development of
First seen at the
World War I
World War I saw Germany conducting a commerce war ("Handelskrieg") against Britain and her allies,
World War II
During World War II, the Battle of the Atlantic saw Nazi Germany conducting commerce raiding against Britain and its allies, again using U-boats, auxiliary cruisers, and small groups of cruisers and battleships (surface raiders). The goal was to wage a tonnage war against the British Empire, destroying merchant shipping (and its cargoes) faster than they could be replaced, ultimately strangling the island nation by cutting off supplies it was inevitably dependent upon.
Limitations set by the Treaty of Versailles meant Germany had been unable to build a large battle fleet between the World Wars as she had in the time leading up to the World War I; instead, she chose to covertly develop her U-boat fleet. Submarines were cheaper and quicker to build than capital ships. This meant Germany was not able to fight battles between fleets, and relied on commerce raiding instead. The extreme early success of Kriegsmarine U-boat wolfpacks led to the Allied development of an extensive and naval resource-straining convoy system.
In addition to U-boats Germany also deployed the small numbers of surface warships she possessed, such as the
During World War II, elements of the United States Navy based in Brazil conducted operations in the Atlantic against German commerce raiders and blockade runners. In the Pacific, the U.S. Navy operated against Japanese merchant shipping, as well as engaging in offensive operations against ships of the Japanese Imperial Navy. The bulk of the Japanese merchant marine was sunk by American submarines. By the end of the war, only 12% of Japan's pre-war merchant tonnage was still afloat.[10]
The
The staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy decided to send some raiders to Indian Ocean waters during December 12, 1941 – July 12, 1942.[11] The Germans had already been operating in the area and conducted mutual aid with Japanese submarines, in the form of re-supply and military intelligence.[12] The Indian Ocean was the largest operating area involving direct contact between the two Axis partners, in which their primary objective was to keep pressure on the shipping lanes. The Japanese Navy participated in some commerce raiding, but concentrated its efforts toward a "decisive battle" in the Pacific, which never took place.[citation needed]
See also
- Axis naval activity in Australian waters
- Demoralization (warfare)
- German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis
- Indian Ocean raid
- Japanese raiders in Indian Ocean Campaign
- Merchant raider
- Naval strategy
- Piracy
- Privateer
- Q-ship
- Tonnage war
- Unrestricted submarine warfare
Notes
- ^ (French: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; German: Handelskrieg, "trade war")
- ^ Douglas Peifer, “Maritime Commerce Warfare: The Coercive Response of the Weak?” Naval War College Review vol. 66, nr.2 (Spring 2013), 83-104.
- ISBN 1-55750-291-9.
- ^ Spanish Privateers
- ^ a b Privateering and the Private Production of Naval Power, by Gary M. Anderson and Adam Gifford Jr.
- ^ Brewer, John. The Sinews of Power: War, Money, and the English State, 1688-1783 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), p.197.
- ^ James, William (1835). "Light Squadrons and Single Ships: Kent and Confiance". The Naval History of Great Britain From the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV. London: Richard Bentley.
- ^ Coggeshall, George (1851). Voyages to various parts of the world, made between the years 1799 and 1844. 200 Broadway, New-York: D. Appleton & Company. Archived from the original on 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Lehmann Chapter VI
- ISBN 0-8047-2794-5.
- ^ Visser, Jan (1999–2000). "The Ondina Story". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942. Archived from the original on 2011-03-21.
- ^ Rosselli, Alberto (1999–2000). "The U-Boat War in the Indian Ocean". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942. Archived from the original on 2011-03-21.
References
- L, Klemen (2000). "Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942".
- Lehmann, Ernst A.; Mingos, Howard. The Zeppelins: The Development of the Airship, with the Story of the Zepplin Air Raids in the World War. *
Further reading
- Brown, David. Warship Losses Of World War II. 1995. ISBN 1-55750-914-X.
- Blair, Clay, Jr. Silent Victory. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975.
- Mahan, Alfred, Captain. Influence of Seapower on History.
- ISBN 0-09-905580-5. Novel detailing the last voyage of a WWI German commerce raider.
Chapter VI: "THE NORTH SEA PATROL—THE ZEPPELINS AT JUTLAND"(online chapter).