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American ships were supplying the Allied forces with arms and other equipment before America joined the war. After America's entry the ships carried supplies and personnel. The disruption of this source of support for the war in Europe was a logical way of disrupting he logistics of the Allied war effort. The sinking of ships was also a significant publicity effort for the Axis. If Allied forces knew they were likely to die before reaching the European theater they would be less anxious to participate in the war. So they did what they thought was a smart move and risked taking the chance of sinking the ships, because they did not think America's military was any threat, which turned out to be a bad move, because the US was one of the strongest forces and defeated them. American ships were supplying the Allied forces with arms and other equipment before America joined the war. After America's entry the ships carried supplies and personnel. The disruption of this source of support for the war in Europe was a logical way of disrupting he logistics of the Allied war effort. The sinking of the American ship was also a way to show the world how strong they were.

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9y ago
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17y ago

Mainly because they had received intelligence that the passenger liners were carrying ammunition and supplies for the Allied troops. Many of them were.

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15y ago

to win the war

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Q: Why did Germans sink merchant ships in World War 2?
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Related questions

In World War 2 how many ships did the you-boat sink?

3,000 Allied ships (175 warships; 2,825 merchant ships)


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The Sussex Pledge (:


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See How_many_times_a_year_do_ships_sink


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U-boats were German submarines. in the second world war their job was to sink merchant ships to cut oof supplies from America going to Britain.


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i suppose you mean the u-boat (unterseeboot) it's a submarine that the Germans used to sink the allies ships they even used them to sink the Lusitania which had American passengers on it and they all died.


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See How_many_times_a_year_do_ships_sink