Sinking of the Lusitania

The British passenger steamer „Lusitania“ – loaded with munitions for England from the neutral USA – is sunk without warning by a German U-boat near the southern coast of Ireland on 7 May 1915. In only 18 minutes after the torpedo strike, the giant ship sinks. 1,198 people die, among them at least 118 US citizens.

© Imperial War Museum Contemporary drawing

Under massive pressure from Washington the German naval warfare command retracts its order of February 1915 for „unlimited U-boat warfare“. Eventually the February 1917 resumption of „unlimited U-boat warfare“ in violation of international law will lead to the USA’s entrance into the war on the Allied side.