‘A Few Broad Stripes'

In February 1915, Imperial Germany launched unrestricted submarine warfare against Great Britain – from henceforth any ship, allied or neutral, could be attacked in British territorial waters. This act led to a new chapter in the Great War, one that involved international boundaries, changing moralities, a potentially catastrophic economic threat to Great Britain, and a unique development and expression of the material culture of conflict. The war at sea was about to bring forth a monumental experiment in altering human perceptions of space and direction, thereby altering the actual or imagined balance of naval power between the British and the Germans.