When a German U-Boat submarine and tanks ended up in New York’s Central Park, 1917-1918

The so-called "Liberty Day" was a holiday invented by the federal government to finance the massive effort to enter World War I. One-third of war funding would come from implementing progressive new taxes, while two-thirds would come from. From selling "Liberty Bonds" to the American people.

Independence Day was celebrated in New York on October 25, 1917, and the authorities launched an unprecedented campaign to persuade the public to buy the bonds.

To make things more interesting, the government launched a spectacular display: a three-engine Caproni bomber plane flew low among skyscrapers, a parade of military motorcycles traveled down 5th Avenue, and was decorated with American flags. German U-boat captured submarine. Inside Central Park.

The submarine displayed signs such as "Submarines take lives, Freedom Bonds save them" and "You-by-a-Bond". The German submarine SM UC-5 was not just a random submarine; It recorded 29 shipwrecks to its name. The boat was ordered by November 1914 and was launched on June 13, 1915, being inducted into the German Imperial Navy just six days later.

During World War I, Germany struggled to develop a navy that could outpace England due to finances, yet Germany developed a strategy of building hundreds of cheap submarines that cut off its supplies from the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. Could.

Originally encircled during a UC-5 patrol on 27 April 1916, it was displayed to the public of London at Temple Pier on the River Thames and for propaganda purposes in New York the following year.

The submarine could operate at a depth of 160 feet and had a top speed of 7.47 mph while coming to the surface. The ship was built by AG Vulcan Stettin and consisted of a fourteen-man crew.

The New York Times wrote at the time that "the cargo ship for the lighter ... was towed to a pier at 131st Street. Here, a powerful wrecking crane transferred these sections to trucks drawn by heavy horses. It took forty-two large draft horses to haul the heaviest section from the pier to the park." Its exact fate is not certain, but it appears to have been scrapped after its promotional tour.

By the end of the war, twenty million individuals had purchased the bonds. This is very impressive as there were only twenty four million houses at that time. More than $17 billion was raised. In addition, the amount of taxes collected amounted to $8.8 billion. About two-thirds of war funding came from bonds and one-third from taxes.

It seems undeniable that the sentimental advertising campaign effectively generated a widespread and strong desire for the war effort by participating in this way.