German strategy to sink as much Allied shipping as possible to collapse Britain's wartime economy?

• A. Tonnage strategy
• B. Economic blockade
• C. Blockade
• D. Total war strategy

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is a naval strategy built around the idea of destroying enough shipping to cripple Britain’s ability to import what sustains its war effort. This approach is known as a tonnage strategy. The aim isn’t just to sink ships in a vacuum, but to sink merchant tonnage at a rate that Britain could not replace, so that essential supplies—food, fuel, materiel—gradually run short and the economy and war capability falter.

That focus on the metric of tonnage sunk, and on pressuring the supply line through merchant ships, is what makes this term the best fit. Other options are broader or less precise: a blockade or economic blockade describes restricting trade in general terms, not the specific objective of maximizing shipping losses to collapse the economy; and total war strategy refers to mobilizing all resources for total war, which is too broad for the particular maritime approach described.