WWI- Britain brought to her knees by U-Boats

OK, how could the German U-Boat campaign ahve brought Britain to her knees by 1917 ? How could unrestricted submarine warfare in WWI have become similar in scale to the Battle of the Atlantic in 1939-43 ?
 

Markus

Banned
The Germans build more subs, the Brits delay the introduction of the convoy system longer. IIRC the latter was done at the insistance of the French and it lead to a quick and big drop in sinkings.

In this case WW2-like wolfpacks are not needed. Frankly with ships all over the seas subs operating alone is a better tactic. Geographically it would be more like a "Battle of the British Isles" because there are no airplanes that have the range to chase the subs deep into the Atlantic.
 
Germany exempts passenger ships from unrestricted submarine warfare and doesn't suspend the campaign in 1915. If passenger ships are exempted there would be no Lusitania incident or Arabic but there would still be the Baralong incident. The United States would make less noise and the Januaruy 1917 the U-boat may have brought Britain to her knees
 
they could do better propaganda and say that every british vessel was a warship

the lusitania had 3000 cases of rifle cartridges along with a fair number of canadian soldiers. Wilson's boys suppressed the living hell out of this info. If this was played up along with calling every ship they sunk a Q ship it might keep public opinion less hostile

otherwise they need more boats not even a whole lot either maybe 100 because in 1917 they were allready sinking ships faster than they could be replaced
 
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