Crusader (November 1941) serve as unstoppable commerce raiders, in which role they very much frightened the British until they were knocked out See also Armed Merchant Cruiser; auxiliary cruiser; battlecruiser CRUISER WARFARE Also known as “commerce raiding.” These rules were formally set in the 19th century They required that a surface raider must give enemy merchantmen fair warning and make provision for the safety of enemy or neutral crew and passengers before sinking a ship That could mean transporting civilians and crew to a neutral port, but at least providing lifeboats, food, and water Such rules could not be followed by submarines due to their inherent vulnerability to ramming by any larger surface ship, or to fire from armed merchantmen or escort vessels Submarines had extremely limited internal space and supplies, which did not permit taking survivors onboard The resulting tension between law and reality led to enormous friction between the United States and Germany during World War I, culminating in issuance by Woodrow Wilson of the “Lusitania Notes” in 1915 U.S entry into the war in 1917 was provoked by Imperial Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare A renewed effort to apply rules of cruiser warfare to submarines was made in the London Submarine Agreement (1936) At the start of World War II, all major navies avowed adherence to the London rules Adolf Hitler initially ordered his U-boats not to sink passenger liners even if they traveled with convoys His concern was strictly to avoid incidents that might provoke the United States Not for a moment was Hitler or the U-boat command of the Kriegsmarine constrained by moral or legal considerations: Hitler’s order was rescinded within a month On September 23, 1939, after just three weeks of war, Germany warned that it would sink any ship that used its radio for any reason once it was located by a U-boat A week later unrestricted submarine warfare was declared in the North Sea In mid-October, U-boat captains were told they could sink any ship running blacked out to 20° West A month later, the last restrictions were lifted on sinking identified passenger liners That left only the U.S.-declared War Zone restricted to U-boats, and even there Germany warned that it would sink on sight any ship that zigzagged or ran blacked out Subsequently, all combatant navies on both sides—without exception—abandoned cruiser rules in the conduct of submarine operations Also see anti-submarine warfare; Armed Merchant Cruiser; Athenia, sinking of; Atlantic, Battle of; auxiliary cruiser; Dönitz, Karl; Laconia Order; merchant marine; neutral rights and duties CRUSADER (NOVEMBER 1941) A British offensive operation assayed in November 1942, during the desert campaigns (1940–1943) British 8th Army pressed a real advantage in numbers of tanks against the Afrika Korps and Italians, for once taking General Erwin Rommel by surprise But British armored doctrine, officers, and training had not mastered combined-arms operations, and the advantage was wasted in sequential brigade-sized tank assaults that were often unsupported even by infantry The Germans also made mistakes, such as a wasteful counterattack 277