On this day 107 years ago, the German submarine U 20 sank the British passenger liner Lusitania. In the process, 1198 people were killed, including 128 U.S. citizens, which resulted in a turn in American foreign policy.
The British luxury steamer Lusitania, the largest ship in the world until the end of 1907, began its last voyage on Saturday, May 1, 1915. It operated on the route New York – Liverpool and had 1258 passengers and 701 crew members on board. Furthermore, there were ammunition supplies on the ship. The crossing was uneventful until the ship reached the war zone around the British Isles on May 6. During the night and the next morning, the Lusitania received warnings of submarine activity on its direct course, but the captain had to reduce the ship’s speed due to poor visibility. The German submarine had sighted the Lusitania around noon on May 7 and, after tracking, fired a torpedo that hit a coal bunker and caused the ship to sink within minutes.
Up to this point, the U.S. government under Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State William Bryan had taken a neutral course with respect to the war. Bryan’s deputy, Robert Lansing, however, had sympathized with the Entente (France, Russia, and Great Britain) since the outbreak of the war. The deaths of 128 American citizens from the sinking of the Lusitania caused Wilson to withdraw confidence from Bryan and side with Lansing. As a result, two notes were passed that brought the U.S. close to entering the war as early as 1915, which, however, dragged on until 1917. The U.S. reaction ended the German Empire’s unrestricted submarine warfare for the time being.
(fg)