And so Germany entered the First world war, glorified “submarines of the Kaiser” as the most formidable weapon in the war at sea. Entered, having … only 28 submarines, half of which, as it was considered unlikely to have been able to act out of sight of shore, and the rest were barely able to operate close to even the nearest East coast of the UK. And any ideas on how all this “wealth” to use. Moreover, much improvement in the near future and not expected: in the program of development of the submarine fleet, adopted in 1912, it was decided to build 70 units. At first glance, quite a lot, but 36 of them were intended for the defense of the German Bay and 12 to cover the direct approaches to the bases, first of all, to the Keel, 10 had to be “material reserve”. And only 12 boats, according to the Admiral-staff, led the naval operations of the German fleet was originally allocated for active operations. Not later than in the North sea. Was also surprised by the slowness of time: the 70 units was supposed to have in the ranks already… in 1919! Germany almost all put on the development of the surface of the high Seas Fleet, which was to crush the British Grand fleet in a decisive battle at the expense of higher-quality ships and training of personnel.
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