Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

However, the London Rules were obsolete before they were signed (though the Kriegsmarine based its Prize Rules on them). The use of disguised guns on auxiliary cruisers increased the risk inherent in stop-and-search rules, but the primary danger came from the wide-spread adoption of radio, which meant that a merchant could call for help as soon as a submarine appeared, even before it could issue its demands. Coupled with the rapidly-growing speed, range, and destructive power of combat aircraft, this technology ensured that complying with these rules would be suicide for any submarine.

For the first few weeks of the World War II the Kriegsmarine attempted to honour Germany's treaty obligations, but that attempt was in trouble almost immediately following the sinking of SS ''Athenia'' by ''U-30'' , and it was abandoned on October 17 , 1939 with the issuing of War Order No. 154 .

During the post war at the Yale Law School

Since the introduction of long-range Anti-ship Missile s after World War II, which are able to destroy a ship from beyond the horizon, the London Rules are universally regarded as entirely moot. It is indicative that despite the rules being used in the indictment of Dönitz, and although he was found guilty of breaching the 1936 Naval Protocol , his sentence was not assessed on the ground of his breaches of the international law of submarine warfare at the Nuremberg Trials.

There have been three major campaigns of unrestricted submarine warfare:
#The First Battle Of The Atlantic during World War I (intermittently between 1915 and 1918 ).
#The Second Battle Of The Atlantic during World War II ( 1939 – 1945 ).
#The Pacific War during World War II ( 1941 – 1945 ).

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Unrestricted Submarine Warfare