Sinking of the Lusitania

Witness History

On 7 May 1915, the British ocean liner, the Lusitania, was sunk by a German submarine off the Irish coast, as it sailed from New York to Liverpool.

Thousands of passengers were onboard and 1,200 people died.

The attack helped turn American opinion against Germany.

In 2015, Alex Last used BBC archives to tell the story.

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(Photo: Sinking of the Lusitania. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)