Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 6 August 1914
- The Imperial German submarines set sail from a military base on the Helgoland islands, located in the North Sea, some 46 km from the German coast.
On this day during the first year of World War I, Imperial German submarines set sail from their bases, preparing to attack British shipping.
This occurred only two days after the British declared war on the German Empire. A total of 10 submarines were mobilized, bearing the designations U-5, U-7, U-8, U-9, U-13, U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17, and U-18. These submarines had a displacement between 500 and 1,000 tons.
The Imperial German submarines set sail from a military base on the Helgoland islands, located in the North Sea, some 46 km from the German coast. These small islands have a great strategic importance and was the subject of a long territorial dispute between Germany and the UK.
It is interesting to note that the mentioned submarines were actually the first wartime submarine patrol in history. Their goal was to attack British warships, and the Germans later targeted even neutral American civilian ships (the sinking of the Lusitania, a large passenger ship, in 1915 was considered especially notorious, since it led to the deaths of 1,198 civilians).
