Danger! and Other Stories

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. “Danger! And Other Stories” (1918) was a collection of short stories The collection's title story, "Danger!", was written eighteen months before the outbreak of World War I. First published in the Strand Magazine in July 1914,[1] it was based on an imaginary country in Europe fighting - and defeating - Britain and intended to direct public attention to the great danger (submarines) which threatened the country. The story describes how Britain is in need of getting up to date in its naval preparations. A small country in Europe (Norland[disambiguation needed]) has been fighting England, and is now invaded by an English army. However the small country has a naval flotilla of submarines under Captain John Sirius. Sirius uses his submarines to lay a naval blockade around the British Isles, so that no supplies can be landed. The result is that the British start suffering famine. However some of the submarines are sunk. The British are congratulating themselves, when Sirius, waiting outside of Liverpool, purposely torpedoes a large White Star liner. The British end up surrendering. The story correctly anticipated the U-boat strategy which would be used by Germany in both World Wars - i.e. to target ships bringing the foodstuffs which Britain was not able provide on its own soil. As would be confirmed by the events, the story forecast that for this strategy to be effective, the attackers would need to also target American ships bringing supplies to Britain - even at the price of violating International Law - and that the British would be forced to introduce rationing among their population. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)