In the years leading up to the First World War, Britain’s Royal Navy faced an existential challenge. Germany’s naval expansion, and especially its submarine warfare, forced the Admiralty to rethink what the future of sea power would look like. The dreadnought battleship still ruled the waves, but underwater warfare was evolving with a speed that made planners uneasy. In this atmosphere of urgency, innovation, and fear, the British instructed its engineers to build a submarine that was fast enough to operate with the battle fleet.
The result was the K-class submarine, a vessel so ambitious and so compromised that it earned a darkly comic set of nicknames— “Kalamity class” and “Killer class”. The K-class proved to be the deadliest warship ever built, but only for those who sailed them.
British submarine K15. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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