Maritime Front on the Basque Coast, a Battlefield in the Rear of the Great War: U-Boats and Espionage

Abstract

This article aims to analyse how World War One became a total war which eventually involved neutral countries, particularly Spain. Although officially neutral, Spain became an espionage nest in which foreign agents cooperated with local sympathizers. The Allies and its collaborators tried to secure maritime supplies, while the Central Powers’ spies mainly aided and provided information to U-Boots, so that they could torpedo any cargos sailing towards France or Great Britain. Spies acted throughout Spain with particular intensive activity on the Basque Coast. In addition to extensive national and foreign trade in the Gulf of Biscay, Basque industry became a significant supplier of the Triple Entente. Nonetheless, the local population hoped that neutrality could spare them, and were shocked by being unexpectedly drawn into submarine warfare after 1916. Civilians tried to minimise the effects of torpedoing by helping local war casualties. Additionally, local sailors participated in the war too, by rescuing torpedoed seamen or themselves fleeing from German attacks in the open sea.