The War on Sea - LeFonch

Dreadnoughts and Battleships

Countries spent great amounts of money on massive battleships called dreadnoughts.
The ships were mainly used to escort merchant ships and didn't see much combat.
The German navy wanted to attack the southern part of the British navy as their navy was more powerful, however as Britain intercepted the plans they began moving down the northern part of their navy for battle.
However they were late in doing so and the battle ended in a draw. It was called the Battle of Jutland, which happened in 1916.
Other large scale naval battles wouldn't occur during the Great War due to the cost of battleships and their lack of versatility in most cases.

A photography of the British HMS Dreadnought. The battleship which was first launched in 1906 would give the class its iconic name.
The naval race was heated before and during the war.
Dreadnoughts became national symbols.
Submarines were successfully used for the first time.
The Royal navy was successful in blockading the German harbors.
This would have a huge impact as the war transformed into a war of attrition.

Submarines were now used more often.
They were relatively unreliable but were used effectively for the first time in the Great War.
Germany was quite behind France and Britain due to their lack of resources and had serious supply problems.
Both sides made offensives, and even if they couldn't gain any key objectives, the idea was that they could reduce enemy resources, destroying equipment, killing troops, etc.
It was agreed that civilian ships or neutral ships shouldn't have been able to be attacked.
This was a problem for Germany and Britain was trading with the United States, which gave the Allies an advantage in the war.
Thus Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare to stop any merchant ships traveling to Great Britain.
And although Britain and France were struggling, it was clear that they were winning the war of attrition.
As Germany sunk American merchant ships which the United States was angered by.
The Zimmerman telegrams, that were directed towards Mexico, asking for Mexico to attack the United States, preventing the United States from joining the Great War as they'd be busied in their own continent.
However when the United States intercepted these telegrams, they decided to join the war in April of 1917, soon after when Russia left the war in May.
The United States would contribute by shipping troops and resources.