Synopsis
In Nigel Hawkins' "The Starvation Blockades: Naval Blockades of WWI," the author provides a clear and accessible survey of the naval dimension of the First World War, centered on the competing strategies of economic warfare employed by Britain and Germany. While the armies fought to a bloody stalemate on the Western Front, the two nations' navies waged a parallel campaign to strangle each other's commerce and starve the enemy into submission, with devastating effects on civilian populations.
Britain quickly established a distant blockade of Germany using its superior surface fleet, sweeping German cruisers from the oceans and cutting off vital imports of food and raw materials. This led to widespread hardship and malnutrition in Germany, contributing significantly to the country's eventual collapse and desire for an armistice, as leaders feared they could not endure another winter of shortages. In response, Germany turned to unrestricted submarine warfare with its U-boat fleet, targeting British merchant shipping in an attempt to disrupt food and supply lines to the British Isles and force a similar famine there.
Hawkins recounts the major operations, tactical innovations, and key decisions on both sides, including the development and eventual success of the Allied convoy system that blunted the U-boat threat and enabled the safe transport of American troops to Europe. He highlights the bravery, ingenuity, and occasional miscalculations of commanders and crews, as well as the diplomatic complications—particularly how both blockades antagonized neutral powers like the United States, with incidents such as the sinking of the Lusitania playing a pivotal role in shifting American opinion. The book emphasizes how these naval blockades, though not decisive on their own, formed a critical attritional strategy that shaped the war's outcome by undermining home-front morale and economic sustainability. Overall, it offers a balanced, readable account of this often-overlooked "war at sea" that complemented the trench warfare on land.