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<p align="right"> [[Main_Page | WWI Document Archive ]] > [[1915 Documents]] > '''German Admiralty Declaration Regarding Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare''' </p><hr>


<font size =4>4 February 1915</font>
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This communication from Germany, forbidding all merchant
shipping traffic in British waters, opened the first wave of:
"unrestricted" submarine warfare:<i><BR><BR>

All the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland, including
the whole of the English Channel, are hereby declared to be a war zone.
From February 18 onwards every enemy merchant vessel found within this war zone
will be destroyed without it always being possible to avoid danger
to the crews and passengers.
<BR><BR>Neutral ships will also be exposed to danger in
the war zone, as, in view of the misue of neutral flags ordered on
January 31 by the British Government, and owing to unforeseen
incidents to which naval warfare is liable, it is impossible to avoid
attacks being made on neutral ships in mistake for those of the enemy.
<BR><BR>Navigation to the north of the Shetlands, in the eastern parts
of the North Sea and through a zone at least thirty nautical miles
wide along the Dutch coast is not exposed to danger.
</i>
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Translated from the <i>Reichsanzeiger</i>, February 4th, 1915,<br>
quoted on pages 260-261 of <i>Naval Operations</i> volume II,
by Sir Julian S. Corbett (Battery Press reprint).
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<p align="right"> [[Main_Page | WWI Document Archive ]] > [[1915 Documents]] > '''German Admiralty Declaration Regarding Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare''' </p><hr>
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