Current Information:

Age-18

7, Aislibie Road, Lee

In February 1917, the German navy introduced their ‘sink on sight’ policy whereby their submarines attacked all merchant shipping without warning. By doing this they hoped to starve Britain and the Allies of vital supplies and force them to sue for peace. At first it was very successful and hundreds of ships were were sunk in the opening months of the campaign and at one point Britain was reduced to just six weeks' supply of wheat. But there were dangers for Germany. Many of the ships sunk were American and this was one of the main factors why the United States entered the war in April 1917. Eventually the threat of the U-boats was weakened by the introduction of a convoy system, but not before many ships had been sunk and many lives lost.

One of the victims of this ‘sink on sight’ policy was the Steam Ship City of Paris that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UC-35  just of Cap d’Antibes in the Mediterranean on 4th April, 1917 while en route from India to Marseilles. 122 members of crew and passengers, including Thomas Jones, lost their lives.