The Fleets at War

THE FLEETS AT WAR

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Archibald Hurd

LACONIA PUBLISHERS

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Copyright © 2017 by Archibald Hurd

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION THE OPENING PHASE Peaceful Victories of British Sea Power

CHAPTER I The Relative Standing of the British and German Fleets

CHAPTER II The British Navy

CHAPTER III The German Navy

CHAPTER IV Admiral Sir John Jellicoe

CHAPTER V Officers and Men of the British Navy

CHAPTER VI The Commander-in-Chief of the German Fleet

CHAPTER VII Officers and Men of the Foreign Navies

CHAPTER VIII German Naval Bases

CHAPTER IX The Kiel Canal

THE FLEETS AT

WAR

BY

ARCHIBALD HURD

Author of Command of the Sea, Naval Efficiency,

"German Sea Power: Its Rise, Progress, and Economic

Basis" (part author), etc.

Photo: Speaight, Ltd.

ADMIRAL SIR JOHN JELLICOE.

Supreme Admiral, British Home Fleet.

PREFACE

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IT IS HOPED THAT THIS volume will prove of permanent value as presenting a conspectus of the great navies engaged in war when hostilities opened, and in particular of the events of singular significance in the naval contest between Great Britain and Germany which occurred in the years immediately preceding the war.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mr. H. C. Bywater for valuable assistance in preparing this volume.

Large map (550 kB).

INTRODUCTION THE OPENING PHASE PEACEFUL VICTORIES OF BRITISH SEA POWER

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THE DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST Germany, followed as it was by similar action against Austria-Hungary, was preceded by a sequence of events so remarkable in their character that if any British writer had made any such forecast in times of peace he would have been written down as a romantic optimist.

Owing to a series of fortunate circumstances, the British Fleet—our main line of defence and offence—was fully mobilised for war on the morning before the day—August 4th at 11 p.m.—when war was declared by this country, and we were enabled to enter upon the supreme contest in our history with a sense of confidence which was communicated to all the peoples of the British Empire. This feeling of assurance and courage furnished the best possible augury for the future.

Within a fortnight of diplomatic relations being broken off with Germany, and less than a week after Austria-Hungary by her acts had declared her community of interest with her ally, the British Navy, without firing a gun or sending a single torpedo hissing through the water, had achieved four victories.

(1) Germany’s elaborate scheme to produce a feeling of panic in this country—hence the army of spies, who took advantage of our open hospitality, using the telephone and providing themselves with bombs and arms, had failed.

(2) Germany’s over-sea commerce was strangled.

(3) British trade on the seas began to resume its normal course owing to the growing confidence of shipowners and shippers.

(4) The British Expeditionary Force, as detailed for foreign service, had been transported to the Continent under a guarantee of safety given by the British Fleet.

These successes were due to the influence of sea-power. Confidence in the Navy, its ships and men, and a belief in the competency of Mr. Winston Churchill and Prince Louis of Battenberg and the other Sea Lords, and the War Staff, steadied the nerve of the nation when it received the first shock. Apparently the crisis developed so swiftly that there was no time for effective co-operation between the German spies. All the mischievous stories of British reverses which were clumsily put in circulation in the early period of hostilities were tracked down; for once truth was nearly as swift as rumour, though the latter was the result of an elaborately organised scheme for throwing the British people off their mental balance. It was conjectured that if a feeling of panic could be created in this country, a frightened nation would bring pressure to bear on the naval and military authorities and our strategic plans ashore and afloat would be interfered with. A democracy in a state of panic cannot make war. The carefully-laid scheme miscarried. Never was a nation more self-possessed. It had faith in its Fleet.

In the history of sea power, there is nothing comparable with the strangulation of German oversea shipping in all the seas of the world. It followed almost instantly on the declaration of war. There were over 2,000 German steamers, of nearly 5,000,000 tons gross, afloat when hostilities opened. The German sailing ships—mostly of small size—numbered 2,700. These vessels were distributed over the seas far and wide. Some—scores of them, in fact—were captured, others ran for neutral ports, the sailings of others were cancelled, and the heart of the German mercantile navy suddenly stopped beating. What must have been the feelings of Herr Ballin and the other pioneers as they contemplated the ruin, at least temporary ruin, of years of splendid enterprise? The strategical advantages enjoyed by England in a war against Germany, lying as she does like a bunker across Germany’s approach to the oversea world, had never been understood by the mass of Germans, nor by their statesmen. Shipowners had some conception of what would happen, but even they did not anticipate that in less than a week the great engine of commercial activity oversea would be brought to a standstill.

By its prompt action on the eve of war in instituting a system of Government insurance of war risks, Mr. Asquith’s administration checked any indication of panic among those responsible for our sea affairs. The maintenance of our oversea commerce on the outbreak of hostilities had been the subject of enquiry by a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence. When war was inevitable, the Government produced this report, and relying on our sea power, immediately carried into effect the far-reaching and statesmanlike recommendations which had been made, for the State itself bearing 80 per cent. of the cost of insurance of hull and cargoes due to capture by the enemies. Thus at the moment of severest strain—the outbreak of war—traders recognised that in carrying on their normal trading operations overseas they had behind them the wholehearted support of the British Government, the power of a supreme fleet, and the guarantee of all the accumulated wealth of the richest country in the world. None of the dismal forebodings which had been indulged in during peace were realised. Traders were convinced by the drastic action of the Government and by the ubiquitous pressure of British sea power on all the trade routes that, though some losses might be suffered owing to the action of German cruisers and converted merchantmen, the danger was of so restricted a character and had been so admirably covered by the Government’s insurance scheme that they could carry on in calm courage and thus contribute to the success of British arms. Navies and armies must accept defeat if they have not behind them a civil population freed from fear of starvation.

Even more remarkable, perhaps, than either of these victories of British sea power was the safe transportation to the Continent of the Expeditionary Force as detailed for foreign service. Within a fortnight of the declaration of war, while we had suffered from no threat of invasion or even of such raids on the coast as had been considered probable incidents in the early stage of war, the spearhead of the British Army had been thrust into the Continent of Europe.

It is often the obvious which passes without recognition. The official intelligence that the Expeditionary Force had reached the Continent fired the imagination of Englishmen, and they felt no little pride that at so early a stage in the war the British Army—the only long-service army in the world—should have been able to take its stand beside the devoted defenders of France and Belgium.

It is, of course, obvious that the army of an island kingdom cannot leave its base except it receive a guarantee of safe transport from the Navy. The British Army, whether it fights in India, in Egypt, or in South Africa, must always be carried on the back of the British Navy. If during the years of peaceful dalliance and fearful anticipation it had been suggested that, in face of an unconquered German fleet, we could throw an immense body of men on the Continent, and complete the operation within ten days or so from the declaration of war, the statement would have been regarded as a gross exaggeration. This was the amazing achievement. It reflected credit on the military machinery; but let it not be forgotten that all the labours of the General Staff at the War Office would have been of no avail unless, on the day before the declaration of war, the whole mobilised Navy had been able to take the sea in defence of British interests afloat.

We do well not to ignore these obvious facts, because they are fundamental. The Navy must always be the lifeline of the Expeditionary Force, ensuring to it reinforcements, stores, and everything necessary to enable it to carry out its high purpose. That the Admiralty, with the approval of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, felt itself justified in giving the military authorities a certificate of safe transport before the command of the sea had been secured indicated high confidence that when the German fleet did come forth to accept battle the issue would be in no doubt, though victory might have to be purchased at a high price.

Nor was this all. Thanks to the ubiquitous operations of the British Navy, the Government was able to move two divisions of troops from India, and to accept all the offers of military aid which were immediately made by the Dominions. It was realised in a flash by all the scattered people of the Empire that the Fleet, with its tentacles in every sea, maintains the Empire in unity: when the earth was full of anger, the seas were full of British ships of war.

H.M.S. King George V.Photo: Cribb, Southsea.

KING GEORGE V CLASS.

KING GEORGE V, CENTURION, AUDACIOUS, AJAX.

Displacement: 23,000 tons.

Speed: 22 knots; Guns: