U-boats around Ireland : the Royal Navy's coast of Ireland command during the First World War /Guy Warner

"In 1914 Ireland was a naval backwater with only one base of any size in County Cork. However, by the end of World War I, there were 18 naval bases operated by thousands of personnel, hundreds of ships of all sizes and dozens of aircraft. Ireland had become a crucial theatre of the war, fundamental in winning the campaign to defeat the German U-boats. How and why did this come about? Guy Warner tells the story of how vital success at sea in the waters around Ireland became. If Germany could break or even seriously disrupt the flow of merchant vessels then Britain?s ability to have waged war, or indeed feed its population, would have been rendered either difficult or impossible. As well as examining the growth in Royal Navy anti-submarine activities and the roles of key personnel, it also looks at the important part played by rapidly developing technology and the measures devised to counter this new enemy - the U-boat."--Provided by the publisher.