ABSTRACT
An advantage for the Entente Powers in a protracted war was British naval supremacy. During the decade before the war Germany’s construction of a battle fleet challenged, yet did not overthrow, this advantage. Instead, Germany conducted a campaign of cruiser raiding against British shipping. Meanwhile, Anglo-French naval and maritime operations in the Eastern Mediterranean sought to offset the stalemate on the Western Front by putting pressure on the southern flank of the Central Powers. The costly failure of these operations meant that no breakthrough was secured by either side in 1915 or 1916. Instead, Germany sought to use its battle fleet in British home waters in operations that climaxed in the Battle of Jutland, an engagement that upheld the naval balance of power in Britain’s favour. Thereafter, Germany waged a campaign of submarine warfare that inflicted significant damage on Atlantic shipping yet provoked American intervention in the war on the side of the Entente. In 1917 the war brought about the collapse of the Tsarist regime in Russia and facilitated a major German victory. However, this was negated by the gathering strength of the Western powers in France, so that in 1918 a desperate Germany sought an armistice.
