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006 - British Navy Sweeping the enemy from the oceans · Military Strategies Mountain and Naval Warfare

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  Speaker 1: Heart six of two essays on military history, Strategy and
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  Speaker 1: Tactics Mountain Warfare nineteen o nine and Naval Strategy nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventeen by various This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Heart six, Chapter three. Sweeping the enemy from the oceans,
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  Speaker 1: far flung the fleet, then freeing the seas, clearing the
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  Speaker 1: way forer men merchant men, these sinking or flying broken
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  Speaker 1: their power. The enemy dying left England her tower j L.
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  Speaker 1: In the foregoing chapter some reference was made to the
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  Speaker 1: campaign of the German raiding cruisers and armed liners against
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  Speaker 1: British and Allied commerce in the distant waters of the
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  Speaker 1: Atlantic and Pacific during the early months of hostilities, And
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  Speaker 1: before we go any further, this aspect of the war
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  Speaker 1: must be discussed. One object of the enemy was to
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  Speaker 1: lead to a scattering of British naval strength, but in
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  Speaker 1: this he was wholly disappointed. The distribution of the British
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  Speaker 1: fleet remained unchanged, and the great numbers of swift cruisers
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  Speaker 1: and armed liners, which had been apprehended as presenting a
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  Speaker 1: formidable menace to commerce, made but a feeble appearance. The
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  Speaker 1: commerce raiding campaign gave rise, however, to a good deal
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  Speaker 1: of alarm at the time, though it surprised no one
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  Speaker 1: who understood the means made available by the scientific and
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  Speaker 1: mechanical developments of modern naval warfare, and who had studied them.
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  Speaker 1: In the light of history, the interruption or destruction of
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  Speaker 1: the enemy's commerce has always been one of the objects
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  Speaker 1: in naval warfare. British floating commerce offered a very large target,
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  Speaker 1: and the swift German cruisers, directed by wireless telegraphy and
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  Speaker 1: supplied by friendly Neutrals, were at work on the lines
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  Speaker 1: followed by shipping, making it inevitable that there should at
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  Speaker 1: first be considerable losses to the Allies. Admiral Mahon thought
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  Speaker 1: that the British total losses in the long wars of
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  Speaker 1: the French Revolution and Empire did not exceed to and
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  Speaker 1: a half percent of the commerce of the Empire. The
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  Speaker 1: Royal Commission on the Supply of Food in Time of
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  Speaker 1: War expressed the opinion that four percent would have been
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  Speaker 1: a more accurate estimate. German cruisers, destructive as a few
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  Speaker 1: of them were, did not inflict losses amounting to anything
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  Speaker 1: like the figures of the old wars in those contests
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  Speaker 1: of power. Notwithstanding the depredations of commerce destroying frigates, British
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  Speaker 1: overseas trade grew while that of the enemy withered away.
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  Speaker 1: If the enemy captured ten British ships out of a thousand,
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  Speaker 1: the loss might be considered serious, but if the British
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  Speaker 1: frigates captured ten out of the enemy's one hundred, the
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  Speaker 1: injury inflicted was ten times more effective. Towards the end
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  Speaker 1: of the Long War with France, very few French traders
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  Speaker 1: were captured because scarcely any ventured to see, while the
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  Speaker 1: French continued to capture English ships up to the very
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  Speaker 1: end of the war, ten years after their fleet had
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  Speaker 1: been destroyed at Trafalgar. The loss by capture and sinking
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  Speaker 1: was at the rate of five hundred ships a year,
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  Speaker 1: and even in eighteen ten, six hundred nineteen English ships
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  Speaker 1: were lost. In the present war, the German commerce destroying
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  Speaker 1: campaign by means of cruisers and armed liners, though very
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  Speaker 1: effective at the beginning, collapsed with great rapidity. Hostile action
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  Speaker 1: against trade has never before been so rapidly brought under control. Steam,
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  Speaker 1: the telegraph, and wireless have enormously increased as compared with
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  Speaker 1: the safe days. The thoroughness and efficiency of superior sea power,
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  Speaker 1: difficulty of providing for coal and oil supply, the want
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  Speaker 1: of naval repairing and docking bases, and above all, the
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  Speaker 1: immense superiority brought quickly to bear by the combined naval
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  Speaker 1: forces of England, France and Japan, aided by the Australian
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  Speaker 1: Navy auxiliary to the British to which it belonged, within
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  Speaker 1: a comparatively short time, caused the whole of German commerce
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  Speaker 1: to disappear from the oceans. Soon, not a single ship
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  Speaker 1: remained trader, cruiser or armed liner as a target, except
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  Speaker 1: that such isolated raiders as the Muri might offer rare
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  Speaker 1: opportunities of attack. This failure of the Germans seemed the
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  Speaker 1: more remarkable because they had long recognized the floating commerce
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  Speaker 1: of England to be her achilles. Heel Prince Bulah described
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  Speaker 1: it as such. They had expressly reserved at the Hague
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  Speaker 1: Coombe Difference the right to convert merchantmen into cruisers on
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  Speaker 1: the high seas to serve as commerce destroyers. They used
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  Speaker 1: this right in some instances, as in that of the
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  Speaker 1: Cap Travalgar, which was sunk in single ship action by
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  Speaker 1: the British converted liner Carmania. Yet this procedure proved of
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  Speaker 1: no effect in the war. It would be a great
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  Speaker 1: mistake to regard the German cruiser campaign against commerce Apart
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  Speaker 1: from the general distribution of German warships and the means
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  Speaker 1: taken to supply them with their requirements. The writer is
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  Speaker 1: inclined to the belief that the impedence of the Germans
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  Speaker 1: in distant waters shows that their navy was not ready
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  Speaker 1: nor effectively prepared for the war. The great expenditure on
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  Speaker 1: the high sea fleet proved unavailing. The submarine boats did
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  Speaker 1: not exist in any considerable number. Only about twenty seven
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  Speaker 1: or twenty eight of them were completed in August nineteen fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: of which about a dozen were of early experimental type,
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  Speaker 1: fit only for local use, and the program provided only
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  Speaker 1: for the building of half a dozen in each year.
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  Speaker 1: The German navy possessed not more than a couple of
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  Speaker 1: big airships and a few effective aeroplanes. The cruisers on
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  Speaker 1: foreign service were scattered about the world without plan. The
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  Speaker 1: battle cruiser Gibbon and the light bruiser Breslau had been
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  Speaker 1: detached in the Mediterranean during the Balkan War, and according
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  Speaker 1: to the Greek White Book Turkey, having entered into alliance
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  Speaker 1: with Germany. On August fourth, the two cruisers fled to
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  Speaker 1: the Dardanelles in conformity with orders received from Berlin. The
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  Speaker 1: Germans were apprehensive as to their safety, and their naval
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  Speaker 1: authorities never intended to leave them in their dangerous situation
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  Speaker 1: of isolation in an Italian port. The business of controlling
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  Speaker 1: and directing the operations of the commerce, destroying cruisers and
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  Speaker 1: armed liners, and providing their supplies was admittedly dexterously arranged
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  Speaker 1: by the Agency of Wireless, mainly through the means placed
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  Speaker 1: at disposal by German sympathizers in the United States, the
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  Speaker 1: States of Southern America and other neutral countries, though nothing
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  Speaker 1: they did could withstand the steady pressure of sea power.
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  Speaker 1: The most considerable German force in distant waters was the
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  Speaker 1: East Asian Squadron under command of Admiral Count Banchepei. It
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  Speaker 1: was located at Kao Chow and its principal elements were
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  Speaker 1: the armoured cruisers Sharnhorst and Nisnow. Sooner or later, this
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  Speaker 1: squadron was bound to be defeated, as its commanding officer
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  Speaker 1: fully realized, the Japanese declared war on August twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: and the fleets of Admiral Baron Dewa and Admiral Kato
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  Speaker 1: were stretched out to blockade and intercept him. He extricated
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  Speaker 1: himself very dexterously crossed the Pacific, defeated Admiral Sir Christopher
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  Speaker 1: cratik Off, Coronel, on November one, rounded Cape Horn, and
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  Speaker 1: was himself defeated with the loss of his whole squadron
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  Speaker 1: in the Battle of the Falkland Isles on December eighth.
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  Speaker 1: One of his cruisers, the Emden, which had escaped the Japanese,
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  Speaker 1: made a great noise in the world. Her captain was
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  Speaker 1: a very capable and also a very gallant officer, who
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  Speaker 1: bombarded oil tanks at Madras, sank the Russian cruiser Jimptug
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  Speaker 1: and the French destroyer Mosque at Penang, and sent to
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  Speaker 1: the bottom seventeen British vessels representing a value of two million,
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  Speaker 1: two hundred eleven thousand pounds, besides three sent into port.
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  Speaker 1: The Emden was destroyed by His Majesty's Australian cruiser Sydney
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  Speaker 1: at the Coco Skialing Islands on November eighth. The cars
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  Speaker 1: Root sank vessels representing a value of one million, six
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two thousand pounds. It is not the
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  Speaker 1: purpose here to describe the depredations and ocean wanderings of
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  Speaker 1: the other German cruisers or auxiliary cruisers. The object is
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  Speaker 1: to show how, by the all compassing pressure of naval
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  Speaker 1: power they were successively destroyed. It would be folly to
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  Speaker 1: deny that there was something defective in the disposition of
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  Speaker 1: the British naval forces at the beginning. Admiral von SpeI
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  Speaker 1: was at large with two powerful armored cruisers, but Sir
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Cratick was left in inferior force off the coast
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  Speaker 1: of Chile. The obsolescent battleship Cannopus, which had inferior speed,
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  Speaker 1: was to join him, but did not reach him in time.
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  Speaker 1: The Australian battle cruiser Australia, which would have been an
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  Speaker 1: extremely valuable aid to Gratic squadron, did not pursue the
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  Speaker 1: German squadron across the Pacific. Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Fisher,
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  Speaker 1: returned to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord on October
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  Speaker 1: twenty ninth, nineteen fourteen, and at once set about to
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  Speaker 1: use the naval instrument he had been so largely instrumental
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  Speaker 1: in creating in dead secrecy, and with incredible speed, a
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  Speaker 1: force was prepared and dispatched. Admiral Sturdy had with him
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  Speaker 1: the magnificent battle cruisers Invincible and Inflexible, the armoured cruisers Kent,
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  Speaker 1: Cornwall and Carnavan, the light cruisers Bristol and Glasgow, and
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  Speaker 1: the armed liner Macedonia. The battleship Cannopus was already at
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  Speaker 1: Port Stanley before anyone knew he had left England. He
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  Speaker 1: arrived at the Falkland Islands on December seventh, after having
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  Speaker 1: steamed a distance of seven thousand miles. The German admiral
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  Speaker 1: was known to be approaching with the object of utilizing
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  Speaker 1: the islands as a base on the next day, but
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  Speaker 1: was taken by complete surprise, though he was conscious of
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  Speaker 1: impending fate, and his squadron ceased to exist. This was
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  Speaker 1: one of the master strokes of the war, made with
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  Speaker 1: lightning rapidity. Strategy was seen in action, and thenceforward the
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  Speaker 1: control of the ocean was secured. There remained the business
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  Speaker 1: of rounding up the enemy cruisers which were still preying
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  Speaker 1: upon shipping on the roots of commerce. Cruisers of sufficient
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  Speaker 1: force were dispatched with instructions to remain at certain rendezvous,
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  Speaker 1: each forming a base upon which lighter cruisers could fall
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  Speaker 1: back or to the support of which they could proceed.
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  Speaker 1: The lighter vessels cruised on specified curves or lines of search,
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  Speaker 1: and in this way a network was spread over the oceans,
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  Speaker 1: comparable to a spider's web. Thus, in due course every
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  Speaker 1: enemy cruiser and auxiliary was intercepted, or conscious of the
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  Speaker 1: toils which were spread for her, abandoned her task and
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  Speaker 1: sought safety in the interment of a neutral port. The
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  Speaker 1: Grand fleet in the North Sea was the master of
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  Speaker 1: the situation and made possible the decisive blow which was
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  Speaker 1: struck at enemy power in the oceans. Thenceforward, the enemy
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  Speaker 1: was impotent in every sea. Not a man could he
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  Speaker 1: send afloat to bring aid to his colonies and protectorates.
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  Speaker 1: His distant possessions collapsed like a house built of cards.
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  Speaker 1: No means had he to interrupt the transport of troops,
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  Speaker 1: which have brought about the darkening of every German place
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  Speaker 1: in the sun. Deutschland ist velt reich gevauden, it was said,
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  Speaker 1: But distant possessions are the ripe fruit which falls into
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  Speaker 1: the lap of the ultimate sea power, and the veldt
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  Speaker 1: Reich exists no more by means of sea power. It
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  Speaker 1: has been destroyed. The submarine is an effective weapon within
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  Speaker 1: its sphere, but no victory has ever been won by evasion,
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  Speaker 1: and no sea power can be exercised by stealthy craft
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  Speaker 1: which hide beneath the surface of the sea. End of
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  Speaker 1: Part six.