![]() At the Admiralty, in London, a secret group of code breakers had deciphered a message Germany sent in March 1915, citing the Lusitania as a target. The Lusitania was at sea.īritain knew of the threat to the liner. And when the Germans attacked and sank a British merchant ship, killing 104 people, they made it clear they would attack any ship, military or otherwise. ![]() Though neither the British nor the Germans initially considered submarines a formidable threat, the countries quickly realized the vessels’ potential for destruction after one German U-boat sank three British warships in the North Sea, killing 1,459 sailors. When the Lusitania embarked from New York harbor on its journey to Liverpool, war had been raging for 10 months in Europe between the Allies (France, Russia and Great Britain) and the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary).Īnd in the waters off the coasts of Britain, which Germany had declared a war zone, a deadly type of naval warfare was being born. But he also shows that the ship and its passengers and crew were caught in the currents of many other world events and forces then at play. He centers, of course, on the Lusitania’s seven-day journey and its grim denouement. ![]() Larson’s book clears the haze, bringing the tragedy of the Lusitania into sharp focus. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |