Bangkok--17 Mar--Image Impact
The Battleplan for Blockade is directed not against an army or navy, or an individual town or city, but against a nation as a whole. It is designed to destroy or at least damage a country’s ability to wage war.
The use of naval power to blockade an enemy’s ports, cut its supply lines and try to starve it into surrender has become steadily more possible as technology gave sailors greater control over the sea.Blockade is a Battleplan which has a major political dimension — it can have unexpected and unwelcome consequences such as turning neutral nations into enemies. It is also a Battleplan which can last for years and whose progress depends crucially on the weapons available and the way they are used.The programme looks at two major cases, both of which involved island nations fighting for their survival:The German attempt to blockade of Britain during World War 2 which was the longest-running campaign of the war, and offered Hitler his best chance of winning. And the US campaign submarine campaign against Japan in 1943 -45, which showed how a major nation could be brought to its knees. This would almost certainly have led to final surrender — but only at an appalling cost in civilian lives from starvation.