Plot

The small nation of Norland has been somewhat reluctantly drawn into war with Britain by a violent colonial incident. The Norland navy - while professional - is quite small, and wholly inadequate for a confrontation with the might of the Royal Navy. However, Norland possesses a flotilla of eight modern submarines, which captain John Sirius requests be placed under his command. Sirius uses the submarines to mount a naval blockade around the British Isles, destroying incoming food-laden freighters. The British experience rapid, enormous increases in the cost of basic staples, which soon turn into famine and massive social unrest. In the climax of the story, Sirius demonstrates that the British navy is unable to stop him by torpedoing the RMS Olympic off Liverpool. The humiliated British are forced to sue for terms.

Analysis

Norland is depicted as a North European country, with a shore on the North Sea. While linguistically Germanic - "Norrland" and "Nordland" are the names of a region in Sweden and a county in Norway, respectively, and Norland's main port is Blankenberg, the name of several actual German cities - it is however explicitly not Germany, which remains neutral in the war (though Germans are depicted as sympathetic to Norland's cause.) Norland has a colonial empire; and a border dispute with a British colony - exacerbated by the deaths of two missionaries, and the desecration of a British flag - is the direct cause of the war. It is also a monarchy, whose monarch seems to retain actual executive power; the crucial policy meeting in which it is resolved to defy a British ultimatum and embark on submarine warfare is attended by the king, the foreign secretary, an admiral, and Captain Sirius; a prime minister is conspicuously absent.

The story correctly anticipates the U-boat strategy, which Germany would use in both World Wars to target foodstuffs Britain was unable to produce domestically. It also forecast that attackers would have to target American ships bringing supplies to Britain, and that the British would have to introduce rationing.

Unusually in the invasion literature genre, the story is narrated in first person by Captain Sirius, the victorious enemy commander; while he is portrayed as a professional soldier who does not delight in killing, his chauvinism and veiled contempt for the UK were clearly intended to evoke a patriotic reaction from British readers.

Ironically, the work may have led to the thing it was warning against. The work was read by naval officers in Germany, including Alfred von Tirpitz, who cited it as influential on his thinking.^[2] Admiral Eduard von Capelle testified before the Reichstag that

Gentlemen, it is well known that there was published in England before the war a pamphlet which described U-boat warfare in an absolutely masterly manner and which attracted a great deal of attention. This was a pamphlet written by Conan Doyle. According to this pamphlet, a successful U-boat war was carried on against England, by eight U-boats.^[3]