The First World War: The U Boat War

PowerPoint (with 6 slides) and two Word Documents on the threat posed to Britain by Germany’s U Boat fleet during the First World War. Please note that the lesson references the sinking of the Lusitania but this incident is covered in more detail in another resource.

Activities include:

• A quick quiz on previous learning focused on other elements of the war at sea already covered; Lusitania and Jutland. Feel free to edit to fit your circumstances.
• Discussion, supported by visual stimulus, as to why the U Boats posed such a threat to Britain.
• Matching task on the different tactics and weapons Britain used to try and overcome the U Boats.
• Reading, comprehension and highlighting exercise to identify British and German setbacks in the course of the U Boat War.
• Reading and comprehension task to identify evidence to support various statements related to the U Boat conflict.
• Plenary ranking task to identify the most important factor in overcoming the U Boat threat.

Designed for the teaching of Edexcel iGCSE History 4HI1 Paper 2 A1 The Origins and Course of the First World War, 1905-1918.
Lesson Length: 1hr depending on pace
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