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Commerce raiding[1] is a form ofnaval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking itsmerchant shipping, rather than engaging itscombatants or enforcing ablockade against them.[2][3]Privateering is a form of commerce raiding conducted by independent operators.
The first sort of commerce raiding was for nations to commissionprivateers. Early instances of this type of warfare were by the English and Dutch against theSpanish treasure fleets of the 16th century, which resulted in financial gain for both captain and crew upon capture of enemy vessels ("prizes").[citation needed]
Privateers formed a large part of the total military force at sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. In theFirst Anglo-Dutch War, English privateers attacked the trade on which theUnited Provinces entirely depended, capturing over 1,000 Dutch merchant ships. During the subsequentwar with Spain, Spanish and Flemish privateers in the service of the Spanish Crown, including the notoriousDunkirkers, captured 1,500 Englishmerchant ships, which provided a major boost to the flagging Dutch trade.[4] Dutch privateers and others also attacked English trade, whether coastal, Atlantic, or Mediterranean, in the Second and ThirdAnglo-Dutch wars.[citation needed]
During theNine Years' War, French policy strongly encouraged privateers, including the famousJean Bart, to attack English and Dutch shipping. England lost roughly 4,000 merchant ships during the war.[5] In the followingWar of Spanish Succession, privateer attacks continued, Britain losing 3,250 merchant ships.[6] Parliament passed an updatedCruisers and Convoys Act in 1708, allocating regular warships to the defence of trade.[citation needed]
In theWar of Austrian Succession, the Royal Navy was able to concentrate more on defending British ships. Britain lost 3,238 merchantmen, a smaller fraction of her merchant marine than the enemy losses of 3,434.[5] While French losses were proportionally severe, the smaller but better-protected Spanish trade suffered the least, and Spanish privateers enjoyed much of the best plunder of enemy merchantmen, particularly in the West Indies.[citation needed]
DuringBritain's wars againstRevolutionary andNapoleonic France, theRoyal Navy dominated the seas. France adopted aguerre de course strategy by licensing civilianprivateers to seize British shipping. BritishEast Indiamen of the time were therefore heavily armed to protect themselves against such raids, at the cost of considerable speed and maneuverability. Some East Indiamen, such asArniston, were successfully able to fend off these attacks in other parts of the world; others, such as whenKent metConfiance in 1800, were less fortunate.[7]
U.S. and British privateers also actively raided each other's shipping during theWar of 1812.[8]
During theAmerican Civil War, theConfederate Navy operated a fleet of commissioned Confederate States Navy commerce raiders. These differed fromprivateers as they were state-owned ships with orders to destroy enemy commerce rather than privately owned ships withletters of marque.
By the 1880s, the navies of Europe began to deploy warships made of iron and steel. The natural evolution that followed was the installation of more powerful guns to penetrate such warships, followed by specialized armor plating, followed by larger guns and the development of effective torpedoes (followed by armored belts below the waterline to protect against them). This "arms spiral" (which included the development ofhigh explosive andarmor-piercing shells) shifted focus from capture of"prizes" (that meant financial gain for captain and crew of the responsible vessel, and their government, when the prize and her cargo wereauctioned) to destruction of enemywarships.[citation needed]
First seen at theSinope in 1853, the change was little appreciated until 1905, when atTsushima sevenpre-dreadnoughts were sent to the bottom, and the only prizes were those that had voluntarily surrendered.[citation needed]
World War I sawGermany conducting a commerce war ("Handelskrieg") against Britain and her allies,principally with U-boats, but also withmerchant raiders andlight cruisers, and even occasionally withnaval airships.[9]
During World War II, theBattle of the Atlantic sawNazi Germany conducting commerce raiding against Britain and its allies, again using U-boats,auxiliary cruisers, and small groups of cruisers and battleships (surface raiders). The goal was to wage atonnage war against the British Empire, destroying merchant shipping (and its cargoes) faster than they could be replaced, ultimately strangling the island nation by cutting off supplies it was inevitably dependent upon.
Limitations set by theTreaty of Versailles meant Germany had been unable to build a large battle fleet between the World Wars as she had in the time leading up to World War I; instead, she chose tocovertly develop her U-boat fleet.Submarines were cheaper and quicker to build than capital ships. This meant Germany was not able to fight battles between fleets, and relied on commerce raiding instead. The extreme early success ofKriegsmarine U-boatwolfpacks led to the Allied development of an extensive and naval resource-strainingconvoy system.
In addition to U-boats Germany also deployed the small numbers of surface warships she possessed, such as theDeutschland "pocket battleships", her auxiliary cruisers, and a number of commercial vessels converted intomerchant raiders, perhaps the most famous beingAtlantis.
During World War II, elements of theUnited States Navy based in Brazil conducted operations in the Atlantic against German commerce raiders andblockade runners. In the Pacific, the U.S. Navy operated against Japanese merchant shipping, as well as engaging in offensive operations against ships of the Japanese Imperial Navy. The bulk of the Japanese merchant marine was sunk byAmerican submarines. By the end of the war, only 12% of Japan's pre-war merchant tonnage was still afloat.[10]
TheIndian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by theCarrier Striking Task Force of theJapanese Navy from 31 March to 10 April 1942 againstAllied shipping and bases in theIndian Ocean.[citation needed] It was an early engagement of the Pacific campaign of World War II.
The staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy decided to sendsome raiders toIndian Ocean waters from December 12, 1941 to July 12, 1942.[11] The Germans had already been operating in the area and conducted mutual aid with Japanese submarines, in the form of re-supply and military intelligence.[12] The Indian Ocean was the largest operating area involving direct contact between the two Axis partners, in which their primary objective was to keep pressure on the shipping lanes. The Japanese Navy participated in some commerce raiding, but concentrated its efforts toward a"decisive battle" in the Pacific, which never took place.[citation needed]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)Chapter VI: "THE NORTH SEA PATROL—THE ZEPPELINS AT JUTLAND"(online chapter).
