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005 - British Navy The centre of sea-power · Military Strategies Mountain and Naval Warfare

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  Speaker 1: Part five of two essays on military history, strategy and
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  Speaker 1: tactics Mountain Warfare nineteen o nine A 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 five British Navy, Chapter two. The Center of Sea,
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  Speaker 1: Power of speedy victory. Let no man doubt our worst
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  Speaker 1: works past. Now we have found them out. Behold, their
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  Speaker 1: navy does at anchor lie, and they are ours. For
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  Speaker 1: now they cannot fly. Andrew Marvel sixteen fifty three. Of
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  Speaker 1: all the theaters of the war, on sea or land,
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  Speaker 1: the North Sea is the most important. It is vital
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  Speaker 1: to all the operations of the Allies. Command of its
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  Speaker 1: waters and its outlets is the thing that matters most.
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  Speaker 1: In that sea is the center of naval influence. It
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  Speaker 1: is the key of all the hostilities from either side
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  Speaker 1: of it. The great protagonists in the struggle look at
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  Speaker 1: one another there. The great constriction of the blockade is
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  Speaker 1: exerted upon Germany. It is the mare clausum against which
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  Speaker 1: she protests. Geography is there in the scales against her.
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  Speaker 1: She rebels against British sea supremacy. The freedom of the
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  Speaker 1: seas is therefore her claim though she is endeavoring to
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  Speaker 1: qualify to be the tyrant of them. Her only outlook
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  Speaker 1: towards the outer seas is from the bite of Aligoland
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  Speaker 1: and the fringe of coast behind the East Frisian Islands,
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  Speaker 1: or from the Baltic If her ships pass the Sound
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  Speaker 1: or the Belt, issuing into the North Sea through the
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  Speaker 1: Skagger Rack, but they cannot reach the ocean except through
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  Speaker 1: the North Passage, where the Grand Fleet holds the guard.
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  Speaker 1: Only isolated raiders bent upon predatory enterprise have still healthily
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  Speaker 1: gone that way after nightfall. In the southern gate of
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  Speaker 1: the North Sea, through the Straits of Dover, and in
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  Speaker 1: the Channel. The way is barred the guns of Dover,
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  Speaker 1: the Dover Patrol, and certain other deterrents forbid the enemy
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  Speaker 1: to adventure in that direction. The new engines of naval warfare,
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  Speaker 1: the mine, submarine, airship and aeroplane, found their first and
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  Speaker 1: greatest use in the North Sea. Only by employing craft
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  Speaker 1: which hide beneath the water, and on rare occasions by
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  Speaker 1: destroyers which seek the cover of darkness for local forays,
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  Speaker 1: have the Germans been able to exert their efforts in
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  Speaker 1: any waters outside the North Sea. At the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the war, they had raiding cruisers in the Pacific and Atlantic,
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  Speaker 1: and a detached squadron in the Far East. But the
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  Speaker 1: British Fleet reached out to those regions, and, aided by
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  Speaker 1: the warships of Japan and France, it drove every vestige
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  Speaker 1: of German naval power from the oceans in the North Sea. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: sea power has exerted its greatest, most vital, and most
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  Speaker 1: far reaching effect there. The Germans, if they had possessed
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  Speaker 1: the power, could have struck a blow which, if successful
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  Speaker 1: for them, would have proved a mortal stroke at the
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  Speaker 1: British Empire, and would have rendered useless all the efforts
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  Speaker 1: of the Allies. Millions of men, incalculable volumes of guns, munitions,
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  Speaker 1: and stores of every imaginable kind for the use of
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  Speaker 1: the greatest armies ever set in the field have entered
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  Speaker 1: the French ports solely because the Grand Fleet holds the
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  Speaker 1: guard in the North Sea. The whole face of the
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  Speaker 1: world would have been changed by German naval victory. England
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  Speaker 1: would have been subjected by invasion and famine. If the
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  Speaker 1: heart of the Empire had been struck, what would have
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  Speaker 1: been the future of its members if sea communication with
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  Speaker 1: the Allies had been cut, what would have been their
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  Speaker 1: fate at the hands of the victors. The attacks of
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  Speaker 1: sallying cruisers and destroyers upon the coast towns of England,
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  Speaker 1: the tip and run raids, as they have been called,
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  Speaker 1: and the visits of bomb dropping airships and aeroplanes, are
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  Speaker 1: the signs of the naval impedance of Germany. The situation
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  Speaker 1: in the North Sea is therefore of absorbing interest. It
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  Speaker 1: may be studied chiefly from the two points of view
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  Speaker 1: of the strategy of the opposing fleets and the exercise
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  Speaker 1: of the blockade. There is a peculiarity in naval warfare
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  Speaker 1: which is not found in warfare upon land, that a
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  Speaker 1: belligerent can withdraw his naval forces entirely from the theater
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  Speaker 1: of war by retaining them as with a threat or
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  Speaker 1: in a position of weakness, behind the guns of his
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  Speaker 1: short offenses. Nothing of the kind is possible with land armies.
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  Speaker 1: A general can always find his enemy and attack or
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  Speaker 1: invest him, and a successful drive him back, or cause
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  Speaker 1: him to surrender and occupy the territory he has held.
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  Speaker 1: The Germans have chosen the reticent strategy of the sea.
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  Speaker 1: They have never come out to make a fight to
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  Speaker 1: a finish, to put the matter to the touch, to
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  Speaker 1: gain or lose it all the animus pugdandi is wanting
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  Speaker 1: to their fleet, it was necessary that they should do something.
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  Speaker 1: They could not lie forever stagnant at Kiel and Villimshauben.
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  Speaker 1: They could keep their officers and men in training. By
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  Speaker 1: making brief cruises in and outside the bite of a lligoland.
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  Speaker 1: They might, with luck, meet some portion of the Grand
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  Speaker 1: Fleet detached and at a disadvantage. In any case, they
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  Speaker 1: were bold enough to take their chances on occasions. Always
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  Speaker 1: with their fortified ports and mind waters, and their submarines
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  Speaker 1: under their lee, they might succeed in reducing British superiority
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  Speaker 1: by the attrition of some encounters. Such was the genesis
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  Speaker 1: of the dogger Bank Battle of January twenty fourth, nineteen fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: when that gallant officer, Sir David Betty inflicted a severe
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  Speaker 1: defeat upon Admiral Hipper and drove him back in flight
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  Speaker 1: with the loss of the Blucher and much other injury.
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  Speaker 1: The same causes brought the German high Sea Fleet under
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  Speaker 1: Admiral Scheer into the Great Conflict, first with Sir David Betty,
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  Speaker 1: and then with the main force of the Grand Fleet
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  Speaker 1: under command of Sir John Jellicoe on May thirty one,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen. The events of the Great Engagement of the
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  Speaker 1: Jutland Bank will not be related here. All that it
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  Speaker 1: is necessary to note is that the Germans had so
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  Speaker 1: chosen their time that they were able to avoid decisive
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  Speaker 1: battle with Sir John Jellico's fleet by retreating in the
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  Speaker 1: failing light of the day, and that their adventure availed
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  Speaker 1: them nothing to break the blockade or otherwise to modify
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  Speaker 1: the impotent position in which they are placed at sea.
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  Speaker 1: That action operated to the disadvantage of England and er allies.
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  Speaker 1: In no degree whatever the superiority of the British fleet
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  Speaker 1: as a fighting engine had been placed beyond dispute. The
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  Speaker 1: mine and the submarine have put an end to the
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  Speaker 1: system of naval blockade as practiced by Saint Vincent and Cornwallis.
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  Speaker 1: No fleet can now lie off or within striking range
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  Speaker 1: of an enemy's port. Battleships cannot be risk against submarines
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  Speaker 1: acting either as torpedo craft or mine layers, nor against
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  Speaker 1: swift destroyers at night. That is the explanation of the
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  Speaker 1: sea situation which has arisen in the North Sea. The
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  Speaker 1: blockade is necessarily of a distant kind. There are no
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  Speaker 1: places on the British coasts where the Grand Fleet could
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  Speaker 1: be located, except those in which it lies and from
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  Speaker 1: which it issues. To sweep the North Sea periodically. The
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  Speaker 1: first essential is to control the enemy's communications, which is
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  Speaker 1: done effectively at the North passage between the Orkneys and
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  Speaker 1: Shetlands and the Norwegian coast, and at the Straits of Dover.
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  Speaker 1: If the enemy desired a final struggle for supremacy at sea,
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  Speaker 1: with all its tremendous consequences, he could have it. But
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  Speaker 1: he can be attacked only when he is accessible. There
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  Speaker 1: shall be neither sickness nor death which shall make us
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  Speaker 1: yield until this service be ended, wrote Howard in fifteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty eight. That is the spirit of the British Navy today.
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  Speaker 1: But then the Spanish Armada was at sea, it was
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  Speaker 1: not hiding behind its shore defense. Be it noted that
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  Speaker 1: the Germans, thus hiding themselves, enjoy a certain opportunity of
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  Speaker 1: undertaking raiding operations in the North Sea. It is not
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  Speaker 1: a difficult thing to rush a force of destroyers on
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  Speaker 1: a dark night against some point in an extended line
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  Speaker 1: of patrols and effect a little damage somewhere. What advantage
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  Speaker 1: the Germans hope to gain by such proceedings is difficult
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  Speaker 1: to discover. The magnificence of the work of the British
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  Speaker 1: patrol flotillas and the auxiliary patrols must be recognized. In
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  Speaker 1: the North Sea. These are subsidiary services of the Grand Fleet,
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  Speaker 1: day and night, in every weather. In summer heats and
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  Speaker 1: winter blasts and blizzards, when icy seas wash the boats
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  Speaker 1: from stem to stern, and the cold penetrates to the bone,
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  Speaker 1: these patrols are at work. The records of heroism at
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  Speaker 1: sea and these so services have never been surpassed. And
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  Speaker 1: England owes a very great deal to the men who
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  Speaker 1: came to her service. The Mercantile Marine has given its
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  Speaker 1: vessels to the State, from the luxurious liner to the
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  Speaker 1: fishing trawler, and officers and men have come in who
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  Speaker 1: have rendered priceless services. The trawlers have carried on their
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  Speaker 1: perilous work of bringing up the strange harvest of horned mines.
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  Speaker 1: By the score. The patrol boats have examined suspicious vessels,
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  Speaker 1: controlled sea traffic, and watched the sea passages. The destroyer
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  Speaker 1: flotillas have been constantly at work and ready at any
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  Speaker 1: time to bring raiding enemy forces to action. The Royal
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  Speaker 1: Navy Air of Service has never relaxed its activity and
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  Speaker 1: has engaged in countless combats. It has sometimes been wondered
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  Speaker 1: why the Grand Fleet did not take some aggressive action.
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  Speaker 1: Why did it not attack the North German sea coast
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  Speaker 1: or root out the pestilent hornets nest of Zevruga, which
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  Speaker 1: the enemy, by internal communications, impregnable to sea power, had
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  Speaker 1: provided with the most powerful guns, besides defending it by
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  Speaker 1: great mine fields. This matter requires to be examined. Naval
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  Speaker 1: history abounds with evidence that to attack coast defenses is
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  Speaker 1: not the proper or even the permissible work of warships.
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  Speaker 1: It is the business of military forces, though naval forces
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  Speaker 1: may often assist and even give the means of victory. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: what was once possible is not possible now. Would Nelson
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  Speaker 1: have attacked the French fleet at the Nile if it
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  Speaker 1: had lain under the powerful guns of these days and
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  Speaker 1: behind mine fields, through the secret passage of which submarines
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  Speaker 1: could have issued to destroy him, It would be absurd
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  Speaker 1: to compare Nelson's attack upon a line of block ships
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  Speaker 1: and rafts at Copenhagen covered by by a few forts
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  Speaker 1: armed with old smooth boars, to an attack upon Coat's
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  Speaker 1: positions defended by modern guns. When old Sir Charles Napier
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  Speaker 1: was in the Baltic in eighteen fifty four, he was
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  Speaker 1: denounced at home because he did not destroy Cronstot or Helsingfor's.
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  Speaker 1: He rightly refused to play his enemy's game by endangering
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  Speaker 1: his ships Captain. Afterwards, Admiral Sir B. J. Sullivan, who
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  Speaker 1: was with the fleet, put the situation quite clearly in
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  Speaker 1: a letter written at the time. A military operation was
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  Speaker 1: really required then, as it would be now to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: such a task. We know that two guns have beaten
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  Speaker 1: off two large ships with great loss. Had Nelson been
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  Speaker 1: here with thirty English ships, he would have blockaded the
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  Speaker 1: gulf for years without thinking of attacking such fortresses to
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  Speaker 1: get at ships inside pressed. Toulon and Cadiz were probably
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  Speaker 1: much weaker than these places. I suppose there will be
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  Speaker 1: an outcry at home about doing nothing here, but we
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  Speaker 1: might as well try to reach the moon. But the
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  Speaker 1: Navy has never left the Belgian coast secure from attack.
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  Speaker 1: It has never lost its aggressive spirit. It has attacked
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  Speaker 1: from the ship and the air. The seaplanes of the
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  Speaker 1: Royal Naval Air Service spotted for the guns when the
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  Speaker 1: monitors were bombarding. Bombs have repeatedly been dropped on othdan
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  Speaker 1: Zeebruga and the places in the rear when the guns
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  Speaker 1: were silent. There were reasons for it. A conjoint naval
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  Speaker 1: and military expedition was required. The enemy began to feel
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  Speaker 1: his hold on the coast. Precarious continued operations by sea
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  Speaker 1: and land might compel him to relax his grasp. Ships
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  Speaker 1: may not attack places defended by big guns, mine fields
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  Speaker 1: and submers, marriens and destroyers issuing from secret passages through them.
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  Speaker 1: But it is certain the British naval offensive will never
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  Speaker 1: be paralyzed. Such is the magnificent work of the British
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  Speaker 1: Navy in blockading the German fleet, molesting the enemy's coast positions,
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  Speaker 1: and controlling his communications with the oceans. The commercial blockade,
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  Speaker 1: by which the enemy's supplies and commodities are cut off
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  Speaker 1: and his exports paralyzed, is too large a subject to
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  Speaker 1: be dealt with here. The object is to bring the
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  Speaker 1: full measure of sea power to bear in crushing the
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  Speaker 1: national life of the enemy. It is vital but silent
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  Speaker 1: work of the Navy and does not lend itself to
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  Speaker 1: discussion or description. Questions of contraband and the right and
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  Speaker 1: method of search which arise from the blockade cause discussions
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  Speaker 1: with the United States. Before the States came into the war,
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  Speaker 1: the only object of the British Navy in the Force
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  Speaker 1: Foreign Office was to put an end to the transit
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  Speaker 1: of the enemy's commodities, and to do so with the
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  Speaker 1: utmost consideration for the interest of Neutrals and complete protection
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  Speaker 1: for the lives of the officers and crews in their
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  Speaker 1: ships and in the examining ships. For these reasons, neutral
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  Speaker 1: vessels were taken into port for examination, safe from the
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  Speaker 1: attentions of the enemy's submarines. One great hope of the
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  Speaker 1: Germans was that the Neutrals would become more and more
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  Speaker 1: exasperated with England. They remembered that the War of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: twelve arose from this very cause. But they were completely
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  Speaker 1: disappointed in all such hopes, and they themselves, by interfering
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  Speaker 1: with the free navigation of other countries, brought the United
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  Speaker 1: States into the war against them. The blockade. Work of
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  Speaker 1: the Examination service and of the armed boarding steamers has
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  Speaker 1: been extremely hazardous. It has called for the greatest qualities
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  Speaker 1: of seamenship whip because conducted in every condition of weather,
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  Speaker 1: and when storm and fog have made it extremely perilous
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  Speaker 1: to approach the neutral vessels, which moreover have sometimes proved
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  Speaker 1: to be armed enemies in disguise. Hundreds of vessels have
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  Speaker 1: been brought into port by the Navy in these northern waters.
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  Speaker 1: Sleepless vigilance has been required, and the highest skill of
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  Speaker 1: the sea in every possible condition of the service. While
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  Speaker 1: the seaman has become a statesman in his dealings with
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  Speaker 1: the neutral shipmaster. It has been for the Navy to
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  Speaker 1: bring the ships into port, and for other authorities to
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  Speaker 1: inquire into their status and to take them before the
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  Speaker 1: Prize Court if required. The German high Sea Fleet, having failed,
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  Speaker 1: the submarine campaign was instituted and began chiefly in the
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  Speaker 1: North Sea. It has never answered the expectations of its authors.
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  Speaker 1: It has not changed these stratigic situation in any degree.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever great damage has been inflicted upon British interests, and
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  Speaker 1: invaluable ships and cargoes have been sunk and officers and
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  Speaker 1: men cast adrift in situations of ruthless hardship. The tail
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  Speaker 1: of the Sea has never had a more terrible record,
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  Speaker 1: nor one lighted by so much noble self sacrifice and
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  Speaker 1: unfailing courage. And of Part five,