Relief map of Great Britain and Ireland, the North Sea, English Channel, and Atlantic Ocean, with northwestern Europe: France, Belgium, Holland, and Scandinavia. The war-zone outlined on the map was declared on February 4, 1915. On May 7, the Lusitania entered the war zone southwest of Ireland.

Map Text:

Atlantisch Ozean, Nord-See, Kanal - Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, English Channel

Kriegs-Gebiets-Grenze - War-zone-boundary



Caption:

Westl[ichen] Kriegschaupl[atz]: Nr. 97. Karte III: Die Gewässer um Großbritannien und Irland werden als Kriegsgebiet erklärt. Serie 47/4

Western front: No. 97 Map III: The waters around Britain and Ireland will be declared a war zone. Series 47/4



Reverse:

Ausgabe des Kriegsfürsorgeamtes Wien IX.

Zum Gloria-Viktoria Album

Sammel. u. Nachschlagewerk des Völkerkrieges

War Office Assistance Edition, Vienna IX

For Gloria Victoria album

Collection and reference book of international war

Other views: Larger, Back

Wednesday, January 10, 1917

"Admiral von Holtzendorff took the floor and proved beyond dispute that in unrestricted warfare, 'in the course of which every enemy and neutral ship found in the war zone is to be sunk without warning,' his U-boats could sink six hundred thousand tons a month and force England to capitulate before the next harvest. It was all there on the table before him in the massive two-hundred-page memorandum drawn up by the Admiralty, complete with charts of tonnage entering and clearing British ports; tables showing freight rates, cargo space, rationing systems; comparisons with last year's harvest; statistics on everything from the price of cheese and the calorie content of the British breakfast down to the yardage of imported wool in ladies' skirts. With mathematical precision the German Admiralty had worked out the month, almost the day, when England would be forced to give in. It had designated February 1 as the day when the U-boat war was to start."

Quotation Context

At the Pless Conference, held at Pless Castle in Silesia, January 9 and 10, 1917, Germany decided in favor of unrestricted submarine warfare to begin on February 1. The date of the conference is frequently given at February 9, but our author, Barbara Tuchman, writes, that all though the decision was made on the 9th, the conference resumed the next day with the addition of Kaiser Wilhelm and German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. The latter had stood against the policy on the grounds that it would bring the neutral United States into the war against Germany, leading to Germany's defeat. After speaking for an hour, the Chancellor capitulated, but did not resign. The war zone extended from the coast of Belgium, around the British Isles to the coast of France. Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff was Germany's Chief of Naval General Staff.

Source

The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara W. Tuchman, page 135, copyright © 1958, 1966 by Barbara W. Tuchman, publisher: Ballantine Books, publication date: 1979

Tags

1917-01-10, 1917, January, U-boat, submarine, war zone, British Isles war zone