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| ISBN-13: | 9781843440994 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Oldcastle Books |
| Publication date: | 11/01/2014 |
| Series: | Pocket Essential Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 332 KB |
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WW1 at Sea
By Victoria Carolan
Oldcastle Books
Copyright © 2014 Victoria CarolanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84344-101-4
CHAPTER 1
The War Begins
Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo saw the start of an era in which Britain's maritime supremacy was virtually unchallenged for nearly a hundred years. However, as the nineteenth century drew to a close, Britain's Empire was beginning to feel the strain, with war in South Africa and increasing tension over the question of Home Rule in Ireland. None the less, Britain in 1900 was still the wealthiest nation in the world. She was dependent on her sea power for world trade and to import sufficient food to feed a densely populated island. It was essential that she maintained her maritime supremacy and fear of losing it was to become a dominant feature of the early twentieth century.
The Background to the Build Up to War
Tensions were beginning to mount throughout Europe from the 1890s onwards and these years saw an intensification of ambitious nationalism that would ultimately lead to the outbreak of World War One. The balance between the major European powers started to shift with the rise of the German Empire. Successful wars in 1866 against the Austrian Empire and against France in 1870 saw the unification of German states with the Kingdom of Prussia to create what was the most powerful empire in Europe. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was also an ally of Germany.
Even as late as the 1890s, Britain perceived her old enemy France as her biggest rival. The belief was not entirely without foundation. After its humiliating losses to Germany, the French army turned to Africa which brought it into conflict with British interests. In addition, the French navy had been keeping abreast of new technology and in some cases had introduced it ahead of Britain. In fact, the Royal Navy was the only major maritime power not to have submarines by 1900, although there were plans for their introduction. Britain's other fear in the nineteenth century was France's major ally, the Russian Empire, whose expansion endangered British routes into India through the Middle East. In order to protect these routes into India, Britain supported the Turkish Empire. Russia's ambitions in the East were halted when they were defeated by Japan in the war of 1904–5 and they turned instead towards the Ottoman Empire. Slav communities in Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria traditionally looked to Russia for support. Austria-Hungary became increasingly fearful of its own minority Slav population as Russia encouraged Slav independence.
Britain was alarmed when Russia and France signed the Dual Entente in 1891. A solution to the country's anxieties may have been to ally herself with Germany but Britain was unwilling to make such a commitment, German diplomacy failed and, most importantly, Germany's naval programme was a direct threat to Britain. Britain was aware that her maritime supremacy was under threat and made an alliance with Japan in 1902. This was the first union that Britain had made for nearly a hundred years. In 1904, Britain put aside her recent problems with France over Africa and entered into the so-called Entente Cordiale, although this was not a formal alliance. In 1907, after Japan defeated Russia, Britain settled the border disputes in Persia and Afghanistan with Russia and formed the Triple Entente with the Tsarist Empire and with France. The agreement did not commit Britain to provide military support in the event of war but, when Germany attempted to undermine France's influence in Morocco with a show of naval might in 1911, Britain made her backing of France more explicit. As a result it became clearer that, in the event of war, Britain would most likely provide military support to the Entente.
War between Germany and Britain began to look more likely, as Germany stepped up its naval expansion and, at the same time, relations between Russia and Austria-Hungary worsened. In 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina and the then Serb government set up a liberation movement that included the covert terrorist group called the Black Hand. With Russian support, Serbia formed the Balkan League with Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro. The primary aim was to remove the Turks from the Balkan peninsula and the first Balkan war started in 1912, at a time when the Turks were also defending their lands in Libya from the Italians who had grand plans to expand their own empire. The countries in the Balkan League were victorious but, in 1913, they fought a second war between themselves over the gains. Serbia's successes led to great fears in Austria which reached their zenith with the assassination in Sarajevo of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, on 28 July 1914. His assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a young member of the Black Hand.
Austria's primary concern now was to destroy the Serbian enemy for good. Knowing that Russia would come out in support of Serbia, the Austrians first made sure that Germany would support them and then they issued an ultimatum to Serbia. The ultimatum was ignored and so Austria declared war on 28 July. Russia, unwilling to abandon Serbia, mobilised on 30 July and her ally France, equally unwilling to abandon Russia, planned to follow suit. Russian mobilisation was followed by German mobilisation. Germany's plan was to invade Belgium and to hope for a quick victory over France so that the French would be unable to mobilise in support of Russia. It was the invasion of Belgium that drew Britain into the war, because an implicit part of British naval policy since the sixteenth century had been that the Low Countries should not fall into enemy hands. When the British government's request for Belgian neutrality to be respected received no answer, Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914.
The Naval Arms Race 1890–1914
The years leading up to the First World War saw a period of intense navalism throughout Europe, and Britain was no exception. There had never been a period when the concerns and armament of the Royal Navy figured more highly in the public sphere. Organisations such as the Navy Records Society and the Navy League began to flourish and there were numerous naval exhibitions. Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Seapower on History was published at this time, and its ideas partly affected the decisions of other nations to begin building modern fleets of their own in the hope that they could wield the kind of influence that Britain had across the world. Japan was one of the first nations to take up the maritime challenge and Britain set up a naval mission in Tokyo in 1882 to aid them. Theodore Roosevelt was an enthusiastic supporter of Mahan and so led America to build up her own navy, seeing its expansion as the key to world power. However, there was no keener disciple of Mahan than Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm who had long envied the navy of his grandmother, Queen Victoria.
The experience of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, when the Japanese wiped out the Russian fleet at the battle of Tsuchima, demonstrated to the world that, with the threat from mines and torpedoes, it made sense to greatly extend the range at which battleships fought each other. It was seen that Russian battleships could accurately fire over 18,000 yards. The common practice at this time in the Royal Navy was to target at around 3,000 yards but future battles, it was clear, would be fought at ranges of five to ten miles, and this meant that battleships would be best armed with long-range 12-inch guns, supported by flotillas of torpedo boats. Admiral John (Jacky) Fisher, who had just been appointed First Sea Lord in 1904, almost immediately set designers to work to create what would become HMS Dreadnought, launched in February 1906. Dreadnought was armed with ten 12-inch guns, double the number of any other vessel, and could reach speeds of 21 knots which was, on average, three knots faster than most battleships. The launch of the Dreadnought effectively made all other battleships obsolete and forced the German Admiral, von Tirpitz, to suspend his shipbuilding programme so that the German navy could begin its own plans for dreadnought-class vessels. It ultimately intensified the Anglo-German naval race.
There was great excitement in Britain over the Dreadnought, although Fisher's critics were concerned about not only the enormous cost of building it but also the cost of replacement if it was lost, especially since Fisher had actually been appointed to make cuts in naval spending. Nevertheless she inspired a class of vessel that became known universally as the dreadnought and very soon the navies of the world were designing their own versions. Fisher was a very controversial figure and the many reforms that he introduced between 1904 and 1909, which essentially modernised the Royal Navy, made him many enemies. He was ruthless in taking older vessels out of service (many of them were used again during the war) or scrapping them but he also reformed recruitment, training and introduced naval reserves, all of which would prove important in fighting World War One. He was largely responsible for the creation of a submarine service at a time when many felt that submarines were weapons of dirty warfare and not quite 'British'. Britain had previously maintained her navy with the expectation that her major rivals would be France and Russia, but now they were forced to respond to the German expansion.
The rise of the German Navy was remarkable. The first Navy Act was passed in 1898 and, within little more than a decade, the Germans built the second largest battle fleet in the world from scratch, largely under Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. The realisation of the necessity to respond to Germany culminated in 1909 with the biggest peacetime naval scare that Britain had had in her history. Intelligence in London reported that there was to be a further acceleration in the German building of dreadnoughts. Also, the improvements and expansion of German shipbuilding meant that they could build approximately eight dreadnoughts per year, thus equalling the British capacity. This information led to a huge debate in Parliament over the 1909 naval estimates (budget) and over the question of whether four or six new dreadnoughts should be built. The radical Liberals, including Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, argued that the nation could only afford four ships, and that the Admiralty was being alarmist in wanting more. The Conservatives fought for six ships. Prime Minister Asquith brokered a solution that ironically would provide for eight new vessels – four to be built in 1909–10 and provision for a further four vessels if it proved necessary. The decision was prompted by further intelligence that Germany's ally, Austria, had begun plans for three or four dreadnoughts. This, in turn, had caused concern in Italy which had immediately begun its own building programme.
For Fisher, however, dreadnoughts were very much a deterrent to the Germans rather than necessarily a decisive instrument of war and he was perceptive in realising that the submarine and torpedo would come to be as important in naval warfare. Fisher was confident that Britain could maintain her advantage over Germany in the strength of her fleet and, indeed, this was true. However, it was clear that it was becoming too costly for Britain to maintain her fleets throughout the world and Fisher began to concentrate on deployments in home waters. The Mediterranean Fleet was very much reduced and, when Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty in October 1911, he intended to take this reduction even further. The French moved their only battleship squadron from Brest to the Mediterranean. Many took this to be the result of an agreement Britain had made in advance with France under the Entente Cordiale but, in reality, the French had reached the decision separately. Essentially, the move left the French to guard the Mediterranean and the British with only a small force at Gibraltar, though enough that the combined Anglo-French force would outnumber the Italian and Austrian fleets.
In 1912, Churchill revealed in Parliament that Britain was no longer maintaining the long-held policy of the two-power standard, meaning that the British fleet should be superior to the combined force of her two most powerful rivals. Now the fleet was to be built to ensure superiority over Germany alone. There were some efforts around this time to halt the naval race with Germany (for example, Churchill's proposal that both countries should suspend further shipbuilding for a year) but all diplomacy eventually failed. In fact, technological advances intensified the race even further with the development of the superdreadnought which carried 15-inch guns.
The Early Stages of War
The mobilisation of the Navy went very efficiently and there was the added bonus that there had been a major exercise for reservists in the summer of 1914. They were about to be dispersed but, with the outbreak of war, they were detained and therefore ready for action almost immediately. The British Grand Fleet (previously known as the First Fleet) with twenty dreadnoughts and four battle cruisers was sent to its war station, Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, to prevent German entry into the North Sea. The commander-in-chief was the newly appointed Sir John Jellicoe who had been a previous Director of Naval Ordnance and Controller of the Navy. He replaced a devastated Sir John Callaghan at the last minute on 4 August, and had been Fisher's preferred candidate for some time. Also to the north there were two patrols, the Sixth Cruiser Squadron with four Drake class vessels and the Tenth Cruiser Squadron with eight Edgar class cruisers. In the Channel was Vice Admiral Sir Cecil Burney's fleet with eighteen pre-dreadnoughts and four light cruisers. Off Harwich, Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt was in command of thirty-five destroyers and two light cruisers, as well as sixteen D and E class submarines under Commodore Roger Keyes in the Eighth Submarine Flotilla. In addition, Keyes was in command of the Sixth Submarine Flotilla comprising six older vessels. There were also smaller forces at the Nore, Portsmouth and Devonport. Rear Admiral George Ballard was the admiral of patrols and commanded forces, generally made up of older vessels, to protect the east coast and the shipping lanes to and from France. However, the majority of cruisers in the Channel were French, and it had been agreed in 1913 that, should France and Britain be allies in war, the French would protect the western side between the Contentin Peninsula and England and the Royal Navy would be responsible for the straits of Dover.
Merchant ships were also an important part of British defences and more than 200 were requisitioned for blockade duties, in addition to a small number of armoured vessels, in the first months of the war. By the end of the war the number had grown to 3,700 merchant vessels involved in auxiliary patrol.
The High Seas Fleet, Germany's strongest naval force, was based in the North Sea under the command of Admiral Ingenohl. Two squadrons (1st and 3rd), comprising eight older dreadnoughts and four new Konig class dreadnoughts (with plans for another two to join), were based at the mouth of the Jade River in northwest Germany with entry into the North Sea. Also based at Jade River was a group of four battle cruisers under the command of Rear Admiral Franz Hipper who was the senior officer in charge of scouting groups. The Second Squadron, with eight pre-dreadnoughts, was based at the mouth of Elbe. Both river mouths were protected by a number of lighter vessels and two submarine flotillas, made up of nineteen vessels, were attached to the High Seas Fleet. Other groups, generally with older vessels, were being assembled for the Baltic and were commanded separately by Prince Heinrich of Prussia, brother to the Kaiser.
At the beginning of war, many people expected that there would be a major sea battle within the first few days with a decisive victory to rival Trafalgar. However, it was immediately obvious at the outset of war that the traditional British tactic of close blockade was impractical. The technological breakthroughs of torpedoes, submarines, mines and long-range coastal defences meant that it was too dangerous to blockade at close quarters. In addition, ships would have to return to port every three to four days to coal and, depending on the distance to a home port, a blockade might require three squadrons – one to blockade, one in port and one in transit – which would have needed more ships than were available. The strategy adopted was therefore a distant blockade. The Germans were surprised both by the speed of the British mobilisation and by the fact that a close blockade was not forthcoming, since much of their strategy had been predicated on that eventuality. They had also not been prepared for the fact that the British did not have a squadron patrolling Heligoland. The Germans had intended to grind down the anticipated close-blockading British Fleet with submarines and mines, rather than risking full battle, as they fully expected that the Grand Fleet would seize upon them as soon as they left port. They were also reluctant to risk full battle while the British maintained their numerical advantage in ships.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from WW1 at Sea by Victoria Carolan. Copyright © 2014 Victoria Carolan. Excerpted by permission of Oldcastle Books.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 11
1 The War Begins 13
The Background to the Build Up to War
The Naval Arms Race 1890-1914
The Early Stages of War
The Battle of Heligoland Bight
2 The Surface Raider and the Battles of Coronel and the Falklands 37
The Surface Raiders
The Battle of Coronel
The Battle of the Falklands
Dogger Bank
3 Turkey and Mesopotamia 59
Germany and Turkey 1914
Forcing the Dardanelles
Mesopotamia 1914-1918
4 Submarines and the Baltic 83
The Creation of the British Submarine Service
The Baltic
5 The Battle of Jutland 99
6 Defeating the U-Boat and the Final Stages of the War 117
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Zeebrugge and Ostend
The Final Stages of War
Profiles 137
Beatty, David, first Earl Beatty
Fisher, John Arbuthnot, First Baron Fisher
Hipper, Franz von
Jellicoe, John Rushworth, first Earl Jellicoe
Kejes, Roger John Brownlow, first Baron Keyes
Scheer, Admiral Reinhardt
Spee, Admiral Maximilian von
Tirpitz, Admiral Alfred von
Tyrwhitt, Sir Reginald Yorke
Chronology 151
Selected Bibliography 155
Index 157