Blockade of Germany (1939 - 1945)
The Blockade of Germany (1939–1945) was a naval blockade carried out during the Second World War by Great Britain, the Commonwealth Nations, France and later the United States in order to restrict the vital imports of food, minerals, metals and textiles Germany needed to sustain its war effort.
Description
The operation was essentially a more intricate and streamlined revival of the WW1 tactic of using immensely strong naval forces to stop and search neutral vessels and confiscating any cargoes included on a list of banned items a ship was intending to deliver to the enemy. This technique, known as Contraband Control is widely considered to have been a major factor in Germany’s eventual defeat and capitulation in 1918. The British Ministry of Economic Warfare also made use of its overseas - based officials and foreign trade contacts to create an intelligence network to provide Contraband Control with advance knowledge of ships that should be intercepted to have their cargoes removed
The system was initiated immediately on the outbreak of hostilities in early September 1939, and formed part of the wider Second Battle of the Atlantic. In the first 4 weeks of the war, official figures stated that the Royal Navy confiscated 289,000 tons of contraband and the French Marine Nationale 100,000 tons. Despite this early success however, the second blockade was not as major a factor in restricting Germany’s ability to fight s in WW1 and only marginally instrumental in deciding the outcome of World War 2
Historical background
Before World War I
At the beginning of WW1 in 1914 Britain, as the pre-eminent world power was able to use her powerful [British Navy|navy], her [British Empire|empire] and the control of key locations to dictate the movements of the world’s commercial shipping and to some extent enforce her will on other nations. Her geological location allowed her to dominate the North Sea and the immense expanses of the Atlantic. She could restrict entry into the Mediteranean from the Atlantic due to her control of the and her part ownership with France of the Suez Canal provided easy access to the Indian Ocean for her own and her allies’ ships while the enemy was forced to go the long way around Africa.
World War I
When hostilities began the Royal Navy swept German raiders from the world’s oceans and seaways while the Ministry of Blockade published a comprehensive list of items that neutral commercial ship operators were not to transport to the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey). This included food, weapons, minerals such as iron ore and animal hides used in the manufacture of shoes and boots. Enemy supply ships were sunk or captured and neutral ships subject to being stopped en route to be searched with any contraband found being confiscated.
Britain considered blockade to be a perfectly legitimate strategy of war, having previously used the tactic to blockade Napoleon’s fleet into its harbours to prevent a planned invasion of England, and during the first few months of the war they seized massive quantities of goods intended for delivery to her enemies.
Germany in particular was heavily reliant on a wide range of foreign imports and suffered very badly from the blockade. Her own substantial fleet of modern warships was hemmed into its bases at Kiel and Wilhelshaven by the Royal Navy and mostly forbidden by the emperor from venturing out. While she carried out her own blockade of Britain during the First Battle of the Atlantic, her U Boats sinking countless merchant ships and almost swung the war the way of the Central Powers, the allied blockade eventually caused large numbers of the German population to die of starvation and, the embargo is widely considered to be a major factor in the eventual collapse and mutiny of her armed forces in 1918.
References
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Germany_(1939_-_1945)
