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004 - British Navy Duties and responsibilities of the sea service · Military Strategies Mountain and Naval Warfare

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  Speaker 1: Part four 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: Part four British Navy, Chapter one, Duties and Responsibilities of
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  Speaker 1: the Sea Service. Had I the fabled herb that brought
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  Speaker 1: to life the dead, whom would I dare disturb in
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  Speaker 1: his eternal bed? Great Grenville, would I wake and with
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  Speaker 1: glad tidings make the soul of Mighty Drake lift an
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  Speaker 1: exulting head William Watson. When King George returned from the
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  Speaker 1: visit he paid to the Grand Fleet in June nineteen seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: he sent a message to Admiral Sir David Betty, who
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  Speaker 1: had succeeded Sir John Jellicoe in the Command, in which
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  Speaker 1: he said that never had the British Navy stood higher
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  Speaker 1: in the estimation of friend or foe. His Majesty spoke
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  Speaker 1: of people who reason and understand. But it is certainly
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  Speaker 1: true that the work of the Sea Service during this
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  Speaker 1: unparalleled war has never been properly appreciated by many of
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  Speaker 1: those who have benefited by it. The most the silent
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  Speaker 1: Navy does its work unobserved. The record of its heroism
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  Speaker 1: and the services it renders pass unobserved by the multitude.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it emerges to strike a blow, engage in a scrap,
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  Speaker 1: or it may be to fight a battle, and then
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  Speaker 1: it retires into obscurity again. Its achievements are forgotten. Only
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  Speaker 1: the bombardment of a coast town or the torpedoing of
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  Speaker 1: a big ship which the Navy did not frustrate, is remembered.
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  Speaker 1: Such has been the case in all the naval campaigns
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  Speaker 1: of the past. Englishmen, who depend upon the Navy for
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  Speaker 1: their security and the means of their life and livelihood,
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  Speaker 1: as well as for their power of action against their enemies,
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  Speaker 1: are but half conscious of what the Fleet is doing
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  Speaker 1: for them. On this matter, British statesmen, when they speak
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  Speaker 1: about the war, almost invariably fail to enlighten them. Who
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  Speaker 1: can wonder that people in the Allied countries are still
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  Speaker 1: less able to realize that behind all the fighting of
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  Speaker 1: their own armies lies the influence of sea power exercised
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  Speaker 1: by the British Fleet and the fleet that came one
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  Speaker 1: after another into co operation with it. Without this power
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  Speaker 1: of the sea, there could have been no hope of
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  Speaker 1: success in the war. As the King said, the Navy
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  Speaker 1: defends British shores and commerce, and secures for England and
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  Speaker 1: her allies the ocean highways of the world. The purpose
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  Speaker 1: of this book is to show how these things are done.
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  Speaker 1: On the first day of hostilities, the British Navy laid
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  Speaker 1: hold upon the road that would lead to victory. There
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  Speaker 1: is no hyperbole in saying that the Grand Fleet, in
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  Speaker 1: its northern anchorages, from the very beginning, influenced the military
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  Speaker 1: situation throughout the world, and made possible many of the
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  Speaker 1: operations of the armies which could neither have been successfully
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  Speaker 1: initiated nor continued without it. But in the early days
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  Speaker 1: of August nineteen fourteen, when from the war cloud which
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  Speaker 1: had overshadowed Europe broke forth the lurid horrors of the conflict,
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  Speaker 1: the situation was extremely critical. What was required to be
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  Speaker 1: done had to be done quickly and unhesitatingly, lest the
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  Speaker 1: enemy should strike an unforeseen blow. Happily, with faultless knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: the strategy of the emergency was realized, and with unerring
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  Speaker 1: instinct and sagacity it was applied. The foresight of great
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  Speaker 1: naval administrators, and chiefly of Lord Fisher, who had brought
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  Speaker 1: about the regeneration of the British Navy, shaping it for
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  Speaker 1: modern conditions, was justified one thousand fold. Never was the
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  Speaker 1: need of exerting sea command more urgent than at the
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  Speaker 1: outbreak of war. Everything that Englishmen had won in all
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  Speaker 1: the centuries of the storied past was involved in the quarrel.
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  Speaker 1: Only by mastery of the sea could the country be
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  Speaker 1: made secure. Its soil had never been trodden by an
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  Speaker 1: invader since Norman William came in ten sixty six. The
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  Speaker 1: very food that was eaten, and the things by which
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  Speaker 1: the industries and commerce of the country existed, demanded control
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  Speaker 1: at sea. If the British Empire was to be safe
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  Speaker 1: from aggression, it must be safeguarded on every sea. If
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  Speaker 1: England was to set armies in any foreign field of operation,
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  Speaker 1: and to retain and maintain them there with the gigantic
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  Speaker 1: supplies they would require, if she was to render help
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  Speaker 1: to her allies in men, or munitions, or anything else,
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  Speaker 1: whether they came from England or the United lace States
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  Speaker 1: or any other country, and were landed in France, Russia, Italy,
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  Speaker 1: or Greece, or in Egypt, Mesopotamia, or East or West Africa.
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  Speaker 1: For the defeat of the enemy, that must be done
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  Speaker 1: by virtue of power at sea. Therefore, in this war,
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  Speaker 1: as John Holland, writing his Discourse of the Navy in
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  Speaker 1: sixteen thirty eight, said of the wars of his time,
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  Speaker 1: the naval part is the thread that runs through the
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  Speaker 1: whole wooft, the burden of the song, the scope of
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  Speaker 1: the text. The moment when the first Fleet, as it
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  Speaker 1: was then called, slipped away from its anchorage at Portland
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of Wednesday, July twenty ninth, nineteen fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: will yet be regarded as one of the decisive moments
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  Speaker 1: of history. The initiative had been seized, and all real
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  Speaker 1: initiative was thenceforward denied to the enemy. The gauge of
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  Speaker 1: victory had been won. Time is everything. Five minutes makes
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  Speaker 1: the difference between a victory and a defeat, said Nelson.
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  Speaker 1: The advantage and gain of time and place will be
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  Speaker 1: the only and chief means for our good, Drake had
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  Speaker 1: said before him. By a fortunate circumstance which should have
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  Speaker 1: arrested the imagination, as with a pressedge of victory, a
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  Speaker 1: circumstance arranged five months before, as the result of a
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  Speaker 1: series of most intricate preparations. Time and place were both
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  Speaker 1: on the British side. The first, second, and third fleets
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  Speaker 1: and the flotillas attached to them had been mobilized as
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  Speaker 1: a test operation and inspected at Spitthead by King George.
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  Speaker 1: On July twentieth. The first fleet had returned to Portland,
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  Speaker 1: and the other fleets to their home ports, where the
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  Speaker 1: surplus or balance crews of the naval reserves were to
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  Speaker 1: be sent on shore. Then had come the now famous
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  Speaker 1: order to stand fast issue, viewed on the night of Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: July twenty sixth, which had stopped the process of demobilization.
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  Speaker 1: Dark clouds had shadowed the international horizon Austria. Hungary had
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  Speaker 1: presented her ultimatum to Serbia. She declared war on the
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  Speaker 1: twenty eighth. The second Fleet remained therefore in proximity to
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  Speaker 1: its reserves of men, and the men were ready to
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  Speaker 1: be re embarked in the third fleet. Few men realize
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  Speaker 1: at the time the immense significance of the memorable eastward
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  Speaker 1: movement of the squadrons from Portland roads, or of the
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  Speaker 1: assembly of those powerful forces at their northern strategic anchorages.
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  Speaker 1: Those forces became the Grand Fleet, that unexampled organization of
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  Speaker 1: fighting force under command of that fine Sea officer, Admiral
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  Speaker 1: Sir John Jellicoe. War was declared by Great Britain on
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  Speaker 1: August fourth. Successive steps of supreme importations were taken, which,
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  Speaker 1: in very truth save the cause of the Allies. Disaster
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  Speaker 1: and surprise attack were forestalled. The Fleet, fully mobilized and
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  Speaker 1: growing daily in strength, was already exerting command of the Sea,
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  Speaker 1: and the safe transport of the expeditionary force to France
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  Speaker 1: was assured. Cooperation with the French Fleet was immediately established,
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  Speaker 1: its cruiser squadron in the Channel and its battle squadrons
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  Speaker 1: in the Mediterranean. Fighting episodes were not delayed, but for
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  Speaker 1: many months the operations of the Grand Fleet remained shrouded
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  Speaker 1: as by a veil lifted only on rare occasions. Few
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  Speaker 1: people knew the tremendous anxieties and responsibility of the British
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  Speaker 1: commander in chief. His vast command of vessels of all
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  Speaker 1: classes and uses had to be organized into a mighty fleet,
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  Speaker 1: complete in every element, battle squadrons, battle cruiser squadron, light
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  Speaker 1: bruiser squadrons, flotillas and auxiliaries, transports, hospital ships, and every
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  Speaker 1: ship and thing that a fleet can require. A whole
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  Speaker 1: series of intricate dispositions had to be made. Officers were
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  Speaker 1: to be inspired with the ideas of the commander in chief,
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  Speaker 1: and the whole fleet was to be so trained under
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  Speaker 1: squadron and flotilla commanders that each would know on the
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  Speaker 1: instant how he should act. If Nelson in seventeen eighty
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  Speaker 1: nine spent many hours in explaining to his band of
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  Speaker 1: brothers his plan for his attack at the Nile with
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  Speaker 1: fourteen sail of the line, what must it have been
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  Speaker 1: for Sir John Jellicoe to communicate to his officers and
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  Speaker 1: discuss with them all his plans for every emergency or
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  Speaker 1: call for the service of every squadron and ship in
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  Speaker 1: his vast command. All this must be realized now and
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  Speaker 1: during the anxious early month of the war, as the
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  Speaker 1: winter was drawing near. The great anchorages were as yet unprotected,
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  Speaker 1: and safety from hostile submarines could often only be found
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  Speaker 1: in rapid steaming at sea. The mining campaign of the
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  Speaker 1: enemy had also to be overcome. The anxieties were enormous,
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  Speaker 1: and it was only the power of command, the sea instinct,
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  Speaker 1: the deep understanding, the readiness to act in moments of
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary responsibility, and the resource and professional skill of the
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  Speaker 1: Commander in chief and his staff and officers in command
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  Speaker 1: that enabled the tremendous work to be accomplished. While this
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  Speaker 1: was in progress, other work of immense significance had been
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  Speaker 1: going on. The Admiralty had undertaken a gigantic task of
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  Speaker 1: supreme importance with complete success. Great defensive preparations were made
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  Speaker 1: in British waters, where all traffic was regulated and controlled.
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  Speaker 1: The vast maritime resources of the country were added to
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  Speaker 1: the Naval service. Two battleships building for Turkey, another for Chili,
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  Speaker 1: and certain flotilla leaders and other craft building in the
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  Speaker 1: country were taken over. Officers and men in abundance were ready.
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  Speaker 1: The magnificent seafaring populations of the merchant marines and the
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  Speaker 1: fisheries were drawn into the Naval service, and subsequently the
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  Speaker 1: whole mercantile marine was brought under naval control and for
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  Speaker 1: practical purposes was embodied with the Navy. Officers and men
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  Speaker 1: of these services showed splendid heroism in situations of terror
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  Speaker 1: and responsibility, never anticipated a wide network of patrols was
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  Speaker 1: brought into being, The blockade was organized and strengthened, the
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  Speaker 1: examination services were set on foot and perfected, and the
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  Speaker 1: coast sectors of defense, with their flotillas, were raised to
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  Speaker 1: a standard of high efficiency. Minesweepers and net drifters were
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  Speaker 1: at work every shipyard in the country, and a multitude
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  Speaker 1: of engineering and ammunition works began to buzz with work
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  Speaker 1: for the Navy and the mercantile Marine. Provision was made
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  Speaker 1: for dealing with the raiding cruisers and armed merchantmen of
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  Speaker 1: the enemy. At the time, the public knew little or
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  Speaker 1: nothing of what was in progress. Imagination fails even now
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  Speaker 1: to grasp the magnitude of what was achieved. The naval
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  Speaker 1: share in the campaign was of baffling obscurity, while the
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  Speaker 1: stage of the war on land became crowded with fighting
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  Speaker 1: men locked in a terrible conflict which at that time
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  Speaker 1: seemed to bode no good to the Allies. After the
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  Speaker 1: brush in the Haligoland Bite on August twenty eighth, nineteen fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: the fleet was lost to view. Not at first, but
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  Speaker 1: slowly did it become realized that the prognostications of peacetime
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  Speaker 1: alarmists had proved baseless. There had been no bolt from
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  Speaker 1: the blue as had been foretold. Neither invasion, nor raid
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  Speaker 1: nor foray was attempted upon British shores, and there was
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  Speaker 1: no anxiety about food. There was always with economy enough
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  Speaker 1: to eat. But popular competence seemed for a time to
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  Speaker 1: be unreasonably disturbed by a record of successive, alarming and
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  Speaker 1: generally unexplained incidents. The escape of the Urban and Breslaw
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  Speaker 1: in the Mediterranean, the sinking of the Abukir, Cressy, Fogue,
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  Speaker 1: Formidable and other vessels. The depredations of German raiding cruisers
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  Speaker 1: on the distant lines of our trade, the bombardment of Hartlepool,
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  Speaker 1: Whitby and Scarborough, and other disquieting episodes. Strange as it
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  Speaker 1: may seem, there were people who went about asking what
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  Speaker 1: is the fleet doing? Was it not the ancient inspiration
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  Speaker 1: of the navy to seek out the enemy and to
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  Speaker 1: capture or sink or burn his ships wherever they were
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  Speaker 1: to be found. Yet there was no battle, the German
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  Speaker 1: coast was not attacked. Allied shipping to the value of
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  Speaker 1: millions of pounds was being sunk. Why then, was the
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  Speaker 1: Navy inactive. When later on the submarine menace assumed formidable proportions,
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  Speaker 1: alarm began again to seize upon the newspapers. When there
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  Speaker 1: was justification only for precaution, the hidden truth was not comprehended.
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  Speaker 1: Victories were expected, when owing to the coyness of the
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  Speaker 1: enemy's strategy, none were possible. The Seven Years wore the
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  Speaker 1: most successful in British annals. The turning point in British history.
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  Speaker 1: The war in which Horace Walpoole asked each morning what
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  Speaker 1: victory there was to record, began with the disaster of Minorca,
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  Speaker 1: followed by the tragedy of Being. The central facts of
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  Speaker 1: naval history were but little known. Yet the Navy was
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  Speaker 1: and is, in truth all in all to the country,
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  Speaker 1: the Empire, and the Allies. Before we enter into the
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  Speaker 1: main purpose of this book, in which we shall discover
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  Speaker 1: in several theaters of war, the real nature of sea power,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the character and momentous consequences of the
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  Speaker 1: antagonism which grew up between England and Germany, we may
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  Speaker 1: inquire what services could in reason have been expected from
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  Speaker 1: the Navy in the Great Cataclysm which was about to
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  Speaker 1: sweep with destruction over the nations. It would not have
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  Speaker 1: been expected to fight a battle every month, or even
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  Speaker 1: every year, for battles are rare events in naval history.
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  Speaker 1: It would not have been expected to attack fortified coasts,
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  Speaker 1: though it might do so on occasions, because ships are
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  Speaker 1: designed and built to fight at sea. The Navy would
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  Speaker 1: not have been expected to forestall every untoward incident. Fish
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  Speaker 1: often slipped through the net, as raiders have slipped through
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  Speaker 1: our guard in this and other wars. Nor in these
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  Speaker 1: days of the stealthy submarine and the blind death dealing mine,
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  Speaker 1: could the fleet have been expected to remain immune from
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  Speaker 1: every misfortune. No one could have expected the Navy to
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  Speaker 1: devise a single, conclusive defense against the attack of the submarine,
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  Speaker 1: anymore than it was asked to find an infallible remedy
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  Speaker 1: for the effects of gunfire. What we should have expected
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  Speaker 1: was that it would make the sea again the protecting wall,
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  Speaker 1: as Shakespeare says of the British Isles, or as a
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  Speaker 1: moat defensive to a house against the envy of less
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  Speaker 1: happier lands. We should have expected it to safeguard the
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  Speaker 1: incoming of the supplies, without which neither the people nor
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  Speaker 1: their industries could exist to be the panoply of all
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  Speaker 1: trade and interests afloat, whether in the nature of imports
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  Speaker 1: or exports, We should have expected it to deny all
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  Speaker 1: external activity to the enemy at sea. We might not
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  Speaker 1: have anticipated the advent of the submarine as a pirate
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  Speaker 1: commerce destroyer, to shut off his sea borne supplies, and
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  Speaker 1: to exert that noiseless pressure on the vitals of the
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  Speaker 1: adversary of which Admiral Mahon speaks, that compulsion whose silence,
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  Speaker 1: when once noted, becomes to the observer the most striking
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  Speaker 1: and awful mark of the working of sea power. We
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  Speaker 1: should have expected the Navy to become the support in
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  Speaker 1: thrusting and holding of the armies in the field, the
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  Speaker 1: shaft to their spearhead, their flank and rear guard. Also,
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  Speaker 1: inasmuch as the war is worldwide and we have powerful allies,
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  Speaker 1: we should have expected naval influence and pressure to be
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  Speaker 1: manifested in the oceans, in the Mediterranean, and indeed wherever
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  Speaker 1: the enemy is and the seas are. Finally, we should
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  Speaker 1: have expected the Navy to be to the British Empire
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  Speaker 1: what it has always been to the Empire's heart, its
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  Speaker 1: safeguard from injury and disruption, and the bond that holds
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  Speaker 1: it together. Each one of these functions has been executed
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  Speaker 1: by a navy with triumphant success in the war, and
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  Speaker 1: history should show that it is executing them now, as
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  Speaker 1: the Sea Service has accomplished them in all the wars
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  Speaker 1: of the past, and of Part four