[JohnGalt]

I am not defending the actions taken by the German Navy in a moral sense, but a strategic sense. Kaiser Bill and Ludendorf believed they were morally, and legally, justified to attack American shipping because the United States was viewed as violating the terms of their neutrality.

Your naval anecdote reminds me of the soccer game the Germans and the British played in no-mans land, Ypres, Belgium, Dec 24, 1914 (The Germans preportedly won 2-1.) It certainly was an age of warrior-poets.

[wasp69]

I am not defending the actions taken by the German Navy in a moral sense, but a strategic sense. Kaiser Bill and Ludendorf believed they were morally, and legally, justified to attack American shipping because the United States was viewed as violating the terms of their neutrality.

I understand what you are saying and would agree if it were not for the attacks on passenger craft. That's where their tactics lose any and all support from me. Attacking a merchant vessel is a smart tactical move especially if a neutral is violating it's promise and you are in a blockade.

Your naval anecdote reminds me of the soccer game the Germans and the British played in no-mans land, Ypres, Belgium, Dec 24, 1914 (The Germans preportedly won 2-1.) It certainly was an age of warrior-poets.

I definitely agree with you on that point and submit that we will probably never see two powers fight each other with the same honor in our lifetime. On the other hand, I think the Germans were sending a message to the US that they could send their subs across the Atlantic and sink shipping off our coast at will and we had better remember it if we knew what was good for us. Know what I mean?