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The Atlantic Ocean

Map of United States troop sailings from Canada and the United States to Great Britain, France, and Italy. Over 2,000,000 Americans sailed, divided roughly equally between Britain and France.

Map of United States troop sailings from Canada and the United States to Great Britain, France, and Italy. Over 2,000,000 Americans sailed, divided roughly equally between Britain and France.

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Before Britain entered the war, it received Germany's agreement that the German Imperial Navy would not enter the English Channel. When war began, and in keeping with prewar planning between the military staffs of both nations, The French Navy deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, while the British Royal Navy took responsibility for defending France's Atlantic coast.

The German Imperial Navy was concentrated in its North and Baltic Sea ports when war began. Its surface fleet never broke out into the Atlantic Ocean.

The SMS Karlsruhe was in the West Indies in 1914, and captured or sank sixteen ships before being destroyed by an internal explosion on November 4.

Having fled it home port of Tsingtao, most of the German East Asiatic Squadron crossed the Pacific Ocean to raid Allied shipping. After victory in the Pacific in the Battle of Coronel on November 1, the Squadron rounded Cape Horn on December 2. On December 8, 1914, the Squadron lost the Battle of the Falklands to a more powerful British fleet, losing four of its five ships.

Partially in response to the British Naval blockade, Germany declared a war zone around the British Isles and began submarine warfare, sinking ships of Britain and its allies within the zone.

Supply and troop transport ships from Canada, Newfoundland, and later the United States crossed the Atlantic. The convoy system was an effective defense against submarine warfare.

The Atlantic Ocean is an ocean.