The Kaiser’s U-Boat Assault on America – Germany’s Great War Gamble in the First World War, Hans Joachim Koerver

Looks at the reasons why the German Navy’s High Command was so determined to be given permission to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare rather than obey the existing cruiser rules, going as far as disobeying direct orders from the Kaiser and distorting the evidence that cruiser rules actually worked perfectly well. A fascinating history of the First Battle of the Atlantic, painting a very different picture of the story and placing the blame for the failure of the U-boat campaign firmly on the shoulders of the German admirals who had campaigned against the cruiser rules and refused to operate in the western approaches unless they got their own way

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