5 Minute History At Sea

by David Wragg

Overview

How much can you really find out about the War at Sea during the First World War in five minutes? This handy little history book will surpass all your expectations and leave you well versed on all you wish to know, and maybe even a little bit more… Which was stronger, the German or British navy? What was the biggest battle? Who were the heroes? Who led the navies? And how successful were they? Jam-packed with facts, stats and first-hand accounts of the action, all woven together in an accessible way by an expert in the field, this 5 Minute History is a valuable addition to anyone's bookshelf, ready to be delved into at a moment's notice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780750956901
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	04/07/2014
Series:	5 Minute History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	234 KB

About the Author

David Wragg has written many books on railway, aviation and defence subjects, including Wartime on the Railways, The Southern Railway Story, The LMS Story and The Steam Locomotive Story (all The History Press). He has also written on these subjects for The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator and The Scotsman.

Read an Excerpt

5 Minute History: First World War at Sea

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By David Wragg

The History Press

Copyright © 2014 David Wragg
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-5690-1

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CHAPTER 1

THE ROYAL NAVY IN 1914

IN OCTOBER 1904, Admiral Sir John Fisher became First Sea Lord, the service head of the Royal Navy, while the political head was the First Lord of the Admiralty. The Second Sea Lord was responsible for personnel and the Third Sea Lord was Controller of the Navy and responsible for warship design and support. Fisher had held both these posts earlier in his career.

Fisher was one of the great reforming admirals. He was what today would be described as a 'technocrat', rather than a fighting admiral, although he was no engineer and at the time engineers were treated with disdain, despite half a century of steam power. A controversial figure, Fisher incurred the wrath of many senior officers by bringing home from the various fleets, squadrons and overseas stations many older ships, which, in his words, 'could neither fight nor run away'. Many of the ships already at home and in reserve were in a similar condition and were scrapped. His predecessors had kept as many ships as possible, confusing sheer numbers with efficiency and having a fleet that had quantity rather than quality.

It was very much a spit and polish navy. Smartness and cleanliness were more highly regarded than fighting efficiency; one battleship's watertight doors had been polished so much that they were too thin to be effective. Gunnery practise was neglected because it made the ships dirty and it was not unknown for practice munitions to be quietly dumped over the side.

Yet, ships could not avoid becoming dirty when they had to recoal, which took some time as a battleship required some 3,000–3,500 tons of coal, loaded largely by hand, apart from a hoist lifting the coal out of a barge or collier. Working together, the ship's company could handle some 300 tons per hour. Coaling was necessary every seven to ten days, with HMS Dreadnought, regarded as being economical, needing 300 tons of coal daily. Of course, oil would have been a more efficient fuel and much easier to refuel, but the United Kingdom had scant oil resources, whereas coal was abundant. The new Queen Elizabeth-class battleships were amongst the first to be oil-fired from the start.

In 1914, the Royal Navy had 147,667 men, but mobilisation raised this to just over 201,000, and by 1917 the number had risen to 450,000. By 1918, it also had 7,000 women in the newly formed Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), more commonly known as the 'Wrens'.

DID YOU KNOW?

The contract for supplying the oil needed by the Royal Navy was awarded to British Petroleum (BP) in return for the state taking a half -share in the company.

I WAS THERE

Painting the ship's sides and superstructure was an evolution that usually had to be done in a day. With one captain it would be every six or seven weeks, with another every six months ... Every brush you lost, you paid for. So you hung them round your neck.

James Cox, a pre-1914 naval rating

At the outbreak of the First World War, the Royal Navy had sixty-nine capital ships: twenty Dreadnought and forty pre-Dreadnought battleships and nine battlecruisers. It also had forty-six cruisers and sixty-two light cruisers, twenty-eight gunboats, eleven sloops, 215 torpedo-boat destroyers, 106 torpedo boats, seventy-six submarines, a seaplane carrier and seven small minelayers. The light cruisers were no bigger than a Second World War destroyer, while the torpedo-boat destroyers, of less than 1,000 tons displacement, were the predecessors of the much larger modern destroyer. Despite its size, the Royal Navy lacked minelayers, minesweepers, night gunnery systems, anti-airship weapons, anti-submarine equipment and tactics, efficient torpedoes and safe harbours.

DID YOU KNOW?

One of the ships used for pre-war trials with seaplanes was a light cruiser, HMS Hermes, but she was converted back on the outbreak of war and all wartime seaplane carriers were converted merchant vessels.

I WAS THERE

I Was There We get up at 6.30, and have to take our dip in the plunge bath and dress by 7.00, when we begin work till 8.00. At 8.00 the bugle blows 'Cease Fire' and we are marched into the mess room. At 9.00 we have prayers and divisions (that is, fall in) and off we march to work, which varies ...

Douglas King-Harman, an officer cadet at Osborne, aged 12½ years

The main naval bases were at Chatham (sometimes referred to as the Nore Command), Portsmouth and Plymouth. There were historical reasons for the location of these, as wars had been fought against the Spanish, French and the Dutch. However, as war with Germany grew more likely, a new base was started at Rosyth, on the north bank of the Firth of Forth, but progress was slow, as many senior officers thought the location too far from the open sea. Locating a base further north was difficult as the railway lines to the north of Scotland were single-track. Nevertheless, a forward base was built at Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth, north of Inverness, which was provided with a floating dock. Further north still, an anchorage was created at Scapa Flow, off the mainland of Orkney, which had to be resupplied by sea. A shortage of funds further delayed the completion of these bases.

The largest force in the Royal Navy was the Home Fleet, with its bases in the south of England, while there was also the Atlantic Fleet based in Gibraltar, the Mediterranean Fleet based in Malta, the China Squadron based in Hong Kong, the East Indies Station at Singapore and the North American and West Indies Station at Bermuda. There was also an Australian Squadron.

Impressive though this spread of warships might be, Admiral Lord 'Jacky' Fisher maintained that away from home waters, the Royal Navy was still very weak.

The Home Fleet consisted of a First Fleet with three squadrons of Dreadnought battleships manned by regular personnel, a Second Fleet of two pre-Dreadnought battleship squadrons, which when mobilised would be manned by personnel from the naval schools, and a Third Fleet manned by skeleton maintenance or core crews, but dependent on reservists for operations. The First Fleet alone was stronger than the German Navy.

On the outbreak of war, the Home Fleet's sub-fleets came together to form the Grand Fleet.

CHAPTER 2

THE IMPERIAL GERMAN NAVY IN 1914

PRIOR TO UNIFICATION in 1872, Germany was a collection of states, of which the strongest and most important was Prussia, which already had a navy that formed the basis of the new Kaiserliche Marine, or Imperial German Navy. At first, Germany was content to view itself simply as a Continental power. The senior service was the army, but in 1900 the Kaiser decreed that both services had equal status. Earlier, in 1898, a Naval Act had authorised the construction of a substantial German navy.

While the new state had far-flung ambitions and wanted its own empire to rival those, in particular, of the United Kingdom and France, one problem was the short length of coastline outside the confines of the Baltic Sea. This meant that ships sailing to and from Germany had to use the confined and shallow waters of the Kattegat and Skagerrak. Therefore, between 1887 and 1895, the Kiel Canal was constructed so that shipping, and especially warships, could navigate between the North Sea and the Baltic in any weather and at all states of the tide.

In 1906, a programme to widen the Kiel Canal began and was completed in August 1914, just in time for the start of hostilities. German ambitions were also helped by the UK ceding the island of Heligoland to Germany in 1890. Had it remained in British hands, the island could have provided a base for light forces and aircraft to attack Germany and German shipping. Also in 1906, HMS Dreadnought was launched, making all other battleships obsolete. Overnight, British naval superiority was lost, as a race got under way to see which country could build the largest number of battleships before the start of hostilities.

DID YOU KNOW?

In 1910, the parental contribution for a German cadet officer was 1,505 marks for the first year, some 200 marks above the average industrial wage, and 1,000 marks for the following three years, after which it was 600 marks as an annual allowance for four years so that a junior lieutenant could maintain the lifestyle expected of an officer.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, who came to the throne in 1888, was determined to create a navy that was the equal of the Royal Navy, an ambition that was shared by his Secretary for the Navy, Admiral Tirpitz. German naval expansion was viewed with alarm by many in the UK, especially as Germany had its first Dreadnought-standard battleships by 1907 and was improving her shipbuilding capabilities, as well as other important aspects such as heavy gun production. The first Dreadnought battlecruisers were in service with the Royal Navy by 1907 and with the Imperial German Navy by 1910.

I WAS THERE

The whole [German] Navy without exception are absolutely devoted to HM [the Kaiser], not only as their Emperor but also particularly in a personal sense.

Report by the British naval attaché in Berlin, 1910

In 1914, the Imperial German Navy had seventeen Dreadnought-standard battleships and seven Dreadnought-standard battlecruisers. By this time, it was the second largest navy in the world, ahead of the United States and Japan, but still behind the Royal Navy. In addition to its Dreadnoughts, it had another twenty pre-Dreadnought battleships, seven modern light cruisers and eighteen older ships, as well as thirty submarines with petrol engines and another ten with the more efficient and much safer diesel engines, while another seventeen were building.

It was not just a case of raw numbers of ships. German investment in gun production and in developing superior guns meant that an 11in gun aboard a German ship could fire twenty-four shells, or rounds, a minute, compared to sixteen shells a minute from the British 12in guns. The British 12in gun would have a slightly longer range than the German 11in gun, and would also pack a bigger punch. On the other hand, the Germans had far superior optical technology that meant that they had far better range-finders and night-fighting equipment than the British, even though they did not have a director-firing system.

The other important aspect of German naval power was its use of airships, the large Zeppelin dirigibles. These were, at first, far superior to any bomber fielded by the British, but were vulnerable to fire from British warships. They were, nevertheless, able to attack British towns and cities while the Royal Navy was limited in its ability to attack German cities, although it did send seaplanes against Zeppelin bases.

German naval ratings were far less experienced than their British counterparts, signing on for three years, while in the Royal Navy twelve years was the minimum. Officers did not usually assist in coaling ships and flogging was still practised, having been abolished in the Royal Navy in the nineteenth century.

DID YOU KNOW?

Although retired from the Royal Navy, the former First Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, was able to calculate virtually the date of war breaking out by using estimates for the completion of widening the Kiel Canal.

I WAS THERE

His first question, which he put to me without knowing what I wanted of him at such an early morning hour, was: 'Would England take part in the coming war or not?'

Karl Dönitz, Signals Officer of the cruiser Breslau, on meeting the German consul in Brindisi

CHAPTER 3

ALLIED NAVAL STRATEGY

FOR THE NAVAL officers of the period, war at sea meant looking for a major naval engagement. The great British victory against the French at Trafalgar in 1805 cast a shadow over officers of all ranks, and Nelson was regarded as the model for captains and admirals. There had been only three major naval engagements between steamships: the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Battle of the Japanese Sea, both in August 1904; and the Battle of Tsushima, in May 1905. However, the Royal Navy had not been involved in them, as these were major engagements in the Russo–Japanese war of 1904–05.

The Allies, or Entente Powers, consisted of the United Kingdom and France, joined by Italy and, later, Japan. The Royal Navy was stronger than the Imperial German Navy. While Germany was the main opponent, France and Italy had to counter the Austro-Hungarians in the Adriatic and Mediterranean, with Turkey allied with Germany in the Mediterranean. Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire comprised the Central Powers.

British naval strategy was the key to that of the Entente's. The framework of the country's naval strategy was largely that of one man, Admiral of the Fleet Lord 'Jackie' Fisher, who had become First Sea Lord in October 1904, and remained in post until January 1910.

DID YOU KNOW?

In 1914, Germany had a far larger merchant fleet than today, totalling 5.5 million tons or 12 per cent of the world total. After 5 August 1914, the British moved quickly to seize German and Austrian vessels, with 623 German and 101 Austrian ships in neutral harbours, while 675,000 tons of the Central Powers' shipping was seized and another 405,000 tons captured on the high seas so that within weeks the operational German merchant fleet was down to just 2 million tons.

Fisher believed that there were 'five strategic keys to the empire and world economic system: Gibraltar, Alexandria and Suez, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Straits of Dover', and saw his role as keeping control of them all. He also believed that the German Navy never fought more than a few hours from its home ports, and that the Royal Navy's fighting ground should also be its training ground, meaning the North Sea.

A somewhat similar view was taken by Admiral John Jellicoe, sent from the Admiralty on the outbreak of war to take command of the Grand Fleet. On 30 October, he wrote to the Admiralty testing his strategy, which was to confront the Germans in the northern North Sea rather than the southern, as the latter would favour the Germans, who would be able to deploy minelayers and submarines. The problem would arise when, in chasing retreating German forces, the Grand Fleet ran into a chain of submarines.

Where Jellicoe broke ranks with many of his peers was that he believed that retaining control of the seas was more important than engaging the enemy. One reason for this was that he did not want to lose any of his major fleet units, battleships and battlecruisers, but instead keep the Royal Navy's overwhelming dominance intact. This was essential to enforce the blockade of German ports.

The importance of the blockade meant that the war on land benefitted as well as the war at sea. Before the First World War, Germany imported around a quarter of its food, as well as half of its animal fodder. Much of the food and animal fodder was supplied by Russia, a source that would dry up as soon as war began. Although self-sufficient in some items, such as potatoes, the country was heavily dependent on fertilisers, half of which came from North America or North Africa, which were vital for crops to grow in the sandy soils of northern Germany. Germany relied on the United States for all of its cotton and for 60 per cent of its copper.

I WAS THERE

In the middle of coaling the ship this evening, the Admiral ... made a general signal that 'Hostilities with Germany commence at midnight'. So we are in for it.

Sub Lieutenant Douglas King-Harman, letter dated 4 August 1914

DID YOU KNOW?

Although Germany was not a maritime power, it was heavily dependent on imports for both the economy to function and the people to survive.

The German response to the blockade was to use neutral ships to sail to ports in neutral nations such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. Cargoes could be unloaded and moved by railway or coastal shipping, or, in the case of cargo, unloaded at Rotterdam and moved inland by barge. Goods landed in Norway could be taken by railway to Sweden. Between 1913 and 1914, imports to Germany from Sweden, or perhaps more accurately via Sweden, rose from US $2.2 million to US $17.7 million, with similar increases in trade between the Netherlands and Denmark and Germany.

If the enemy would not come out to sea and fight, then the next measure was to bombard its coastal positions. The short length of the German North Sea coastline did not make this a cost-effective option, but at Gallipoli British and French warships bombarded Turkish forts and even attempted, at some cost, to enter the Dardanelles – the channel between the Gallipoli Peninsula and Asiatic Turkey or Anatolia. There were also raids on the German-held ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge, using blockships and troops to close these for enemy use.

The Royal Navy managed with some difficulty and much skill and courage on the part of its submarine commanders to send submarines into both the Baltic Sea and the Bosporus, where they inflicted much damage, although operations in the Baltic were gradually reduced as the Russian Revolution saw bases lost to the Bolsheviks, who had concluded a peace with the Germans.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from 5 Minute History: First World War at Sea by David Wragg. Copyright © 2014 David Wragg. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents

Contents

Title,
Introduction,
The Royal Navy in 1914,
The Imperial German Navy in 1914,
Allied Naval Strategy,
Key Figures of the Naval War,
Naval Heroes,
Heligoland Bight and Dogger Bank,
Battle of Jutland,
Submarines in the Baltic,
The Dardanelles,
Bases,
German Coastal Raids,
Coronel and the Falklands,
Impact of the War at Sea,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Copyright,