Submarines as the alternative to a fleet race

The video explains the apparent contradiction between Holtzendorff's pre-war caution and his later advocacy of submarine warfare. His premise was unchanged: Germany could not beat Britain through battleship construction because it lacked the yards, fleet, and wider industrial base. Once Germany was at war, he therefore looked for a weapon that could reduce British strength indirectly. Opening here shows how the U-boat strategy grew from the same industrial assessment that had made him oppose the naval race.