During the First World War the reputation of the British Royal Navy was put on the line in its defence of the country, and, crucially, it was in those years, 1914–19, that the Grand Fleet became the single most potent weapon of war of any nation. In this comprehensive, illustrated history, Ridley-Kitts tells of the creation and development of the Grand Fleet under the drive of the energetic and charismatic Admiral of the Fleet 'Jacky' Fisher, who modernised the navy with the introduction of the revolutionary Dreadnought battleship. This type of vessel in particular made other nations' battleships obsolete, created a powerful weapon for the defence of the British Empire and its trade, and finally defeated the machinations of Kaiser William II. Using unique illustrations rendered by the author, the story of the Grand Fleet is told in accessible narrative style, with outstanding technical detail that will satisfy naval enthusiasts.
During the First World War the reputation of the British Royal Navy was put on the line in its defence of the country, and, crucially, it was in those years, 1914–19, that the Grand Fleet became the single most potent weapon of war of any nation. In this comprehensive, illustrated history, Ridley-Kitts tells of the creation and development of the Grand Fleet under the drive of the energetic and charismatic Admiral of the Fleet 'Jacky' Fisher, who modernised the navy with the introduction of the revolutionary Dreadnought battleship. This type of vessel in particular made other nations' battleships obsolete, created a powerful weapon for the defence of the British Empire and its trade, and finally defeated the machinations of Kaiser William II. Using unique illustrations rendered by the author, the story of the Grand Fleet is told in accessible narrative style, with outstanding technical detail that will satisfy naval enthusiasts.
The Grand Fleet 1914-19: The Royal Navy in the First World War
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Overview
During the First World War the reputation of the British Royal Navy was put on the line in its defence of the country, and, crucially, it was in those years, 1914–19, that the Grand Fleet became the single most potent weapon of war of any nation. In this comprehensive, illustrated history, Ridley-Kitts tells of the creation and development of the Grand Fleet under the drive of the energetic and charismatic Admiral of the Fleet 'Jacky' Fisher, who modernised the navy with the introduction of the revolutionary Dreadnought battleship. This type of vessel in particular made other nations' battleships obsolete, created a powerful weapon for the defence of the British Empire and its trade, and finally defeated the machinations of Kaiser William II. Using unique illustrations rendered by the author, the story of the Grand Fleet is told in accessible narrative style, with outstanding technical detail that will satisfy naval enthusiasts.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780750952002 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 11/01/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 970,548 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
| Age Range: | 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Grand Fleet 1914-19
The Royal Navy in the First World War
By Daniel G. Ridley-Kitts
The History Press
Copyright © 2013 Daniel G. Ridley-KittsAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-5200-2
CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORIAN NAVY
On 26 June 1897, on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, the sparkling waters of Spithead were alive with bustling activity with four lines, each stretching 5 miles in length, of great warships drawn up in review order at anchor under a cloudless sky.
The Prince of Wales, representing the queen, sailed between the long columns of warships aboard the Royal Yacht HMY Victoria and Albert as each in turn fired a twenty-one-gun salute.
The assembled fleet comprised more than 150 ships, including twenty-two battleships, the most powerful warships of their day, dressed overall with flags and resplendent in their Victorian paint scheme of black hulls, red boot topping, white superstructure, and buff masts and funnels.
The port line was led by the fleet flagship HMS Renown of the Royal Sovereign class, mounting four 13.5in guns and displacing 14,000 tons, together with the even more modern units of the Majestic class of similar displacement, but with better armour protection and armed with the new 12in 46-ton wire wound weapons, which gave greater penetrating power and accuracy together with a higher rate of fire.
Also present were more than forty cruisers, including the new first-class cruisers HMS Powerful and HMS Terrible, each of 14,600 tons and 100ft longer than the battleships, whose purpose was to protect merchant trade and hunt down would be commerce raiders.
Along with these giant vessels were the smaller second- and third-class protected cruisers, the maids of all work to carry the flag to all oceans of the world, the successors of the frigates of Nelson's day.
Among the smaller craft were twenty torpedo boats, the precursors to the later destroyers whose dashing exploits became legendary in two World Wars in the next century.
The inclusion of the submarine in the ranks of the Royal Navy was still three years away on that sunny afternoon, but the portent of change that all too soon would radically alter the structure of the service, its training and the design of the ships themselves was represented by the uninvited presence of Charles Parsons' revolutionary steam-turbine propelled launch Turbinia, which, to the chagrin of the assembled high-ranking officers, raced up and down the lines at 30 knots in a demonstration of the superiority of this method of propulsion, while the naval steam pinnaces ineffectively tried to intercept this vision from the future.
This overwhelming display of naval might represented the high-water mark of empire and Great Britain's predominance as master of the oceans of the world.
Since the Battle of Trafalgar almost one hundred years before, the Royal Navy had been the undisputed master of the waves. The British fleet was the sure shield that protected British trade and the Empire, and it was no empty boast, as stated in the Articles of War drawn up during the Dutch wars, that, 'It is upon the Navy, under the good Providence of God, that the safety, honour and welfare of this realm do chiefly depend.'
The rattle of the anchor chain through the hawse pipe as a cruiser anchored in some foreign roadstead under the White Ensign was all that was necessary to project the awesome power of Great Britain, evoking awe and envy in equal measure, and regarded as guarantee of the Pax Britannica that protected our extensive overseas maritime trade, ensuring that our merchantmen could ply the oceans of the world in perfect safety.
During this period British supremacy at sea was unassailable. The following table demonstrates the comparative strengths in battleships of the great powers in 1897:
Great
France Italy Russia Germany U.S.A. Japan
Britain
Built
Built Built Built Built Built
Built
– – – – – – –
Bldg
Bldg
Bldg Bldg
Bldg
Bldg
Bldg
24 13
8 6
4 3
2
– – – – – – –
10 5
2 5
2 6
2
It will be seen from the table that only France anywhere near approached Great Britain in terms of battleship numbers. In the forty years since the Crimean War Great Britain had not been involved in a major European war, although conflict of colonial interests with France during the Scramble for Africa from the 1870s onward cast that country in the role of a potential future enemy. British military and naval defence strategy were therefore oriented towards this possibility.
As early as 1858, the launching of the 5,600-ton steam-powered ironclad Gloire and three later sister ships caused great concern to the Lords of the Admiralty, who controlled a fleet of 'Wooden Walls' that had hardly evolved since Nelson's time. The immediate response by a hastily convened parliamentary committee was to recommend that, as an interim measure, several of the latest three-deckers should be cut down to two decks and converted to 'razee' steam frigates, sheathed over with iron plating.
On further consideration, this was seen to be an inadequate panic response to the situation, and wiser counsels at that Admiralty reflecting on this expansion of French naval power requested revolutionary designs of armoured steam-powered ships from the Royal Dockyards and no fewer than twelve private shipyards.
Following the results of the competition, the Naval estimates for 1858 set aside £252,000 for the construction of two large iron-framed armoured frigates. The first of these, HMS Warrior, was laid down at the Thames Ironworks at Blackwall in May 1859 and launched in December 1859, joining the Channel Fleet in October 1861, with her sister HMS Black Prince built on the Clyde a year later. In rapid succession, a further fourteen armoured frigates came down the ways between then and 1864.
At a stroke, the French attempt to steal a march over the Royal Navy had been effectively trumped, and faced with this overwhelming display of powerful warships ranged against them, the French Government decided that coming to some form of an understanding with their rival naval power offered a better solution than an arms race, and almost immediately there was a general improvement in Anglo-French relations.
Because of the abrupt change from wood to all-iron construction, new armoured frigates such as HMS Royal Oak, HMS Prince Consort and the Caledonia had a composite wood and iron construction in order to use up the vast stocks of timber stored in the Royal Dockyards.
The Warrior herself, although iron framed and clad, also benefited from a backing of 14in of teak, and was further protected along the waterline by twelve coal bunkers arranged on the outboard side of the two boiler rooms.
The Gloire was demonstrably a converted wooden three-decker that had been cut down to two decks and with iron plating fixed to her sides.
The Warrior, on the other hand, was revolutionary in design, having been built from the keel up, incorporating a more powerful armament, armour protection and propulsion system than her French rival.
Her displacement of 9,000 tons was almost twice that of the French ship and she was 367ft on the waterline, mounting originally a battery of 26 × 68pdr muzzle-loading smooth-bore cannon together with 10 × 110pdr breech-loading rifled Armstrong guns, and 4 × 70pdr breech-loading bow and stern chasers, disposed on the upper and lower gun decks in broadside fashion and protected by the 1,200 tons of armour in the ship's sides.
Her machinery comprised a powerful two-cylinder horizontal trunk engine of 5,200hp built by John Penn and Co. at a cost of £79,400. Fed by steam from her two boiler rooms, this gave her a speed of 14 knots, with sufficient coal stowage for steaming 5,000 miles. Her three masts carried 36,000 sq. ft of canvas, plus an additional 18,000 sq. ft if studding sails were set, and with her screw lifted out of the water, with a favourable wind this press of canvas was capable of driving her at 12 knots on sail alone.
Warrior and Black Prince were formidable vessels that completely outperformed the French ironclads in every respect and it was not for nothing that they were referred to as the 'Black Snakes' of the Channel.
In subsequent ships the mounting of an ever more powerful armament in the broadside battery arrangement required ever longer ships, such as the 400ft-long Minotaur from the Thames Ironworks at Blackwall, and it became evident that this disposition of guns was no longer tenable due to the increasing weight of armour needed to cover the large areas on the sides of these long ships.
During the American Civil War the appearance of the Federal armoured turret ship USS Monitor directed attention towards the revolving turret-mounted gun, which coincided with the development of larger and improved breech-loading guns. The revolving turret offered not only the advantage of being able to bring guns to bear on a target independent of the heading of the ship but also concentrated the main armour around the guns and their magazines in a more satisfactory manner.
Over the following years a range of largely experimental turret ships were built with varying degrees of success, including HMS Devastation and her sister HMS Thunderer of 1873. These were the first British warships to dispense with a sailing rig, successfully relying solely on steam power and having a range of 5,000 miles.
An accident occurred in one of the Thunderer's turrets in January 1879 due to the accidental double charging of one of the 38-ton muzzle-loading guns, which caused it to burst, killing and wounding most of the turret crew.
This incident highlighted the inherent danger when two barrels were discharged simultaneously and, if an unexpected hang-fire went undetected, it could then be double loaded with a charge leading to an explosion. This dangerous set of circumstances was to be repeated a number of times in various ships over the years and eventually encouraged the general changeover to breech-loading guns as the main armament.
A little before this accident in 1876 another naval scare materialised in the Mediterranean with the launching by Italy of two very heavily armed warships, the Duilio and Dandolo.
Designed by the talented naval architect Benedetto Brin, these ships displaced 12,000 tons and mounted four huge 100-ton 17.7in rifled muzzle loaders, built by the British armaments manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth, mounted in two armoured barbettes under a light spar deck amidships.
Despite their massive size, the rate of fire from these weapons was painfully slow as they could only be reloaded from a single fore and aft position, with the guns being depressed below the armoured deck where a hydraulic rammer loaded the charges and shells. From there the gun was then raised into firing position and trained on the target, the whole process of firing a salvo taking from 10 to 15 minutes.
In this design the vitals of the ship, engines, magazines, turrets and control positions were contained in a central armoured citadel, comprised of 50cm-thick plate backed by 20in of oak planking, leaving the ends of the vessel unprotected, but subdivided into numerous watertight compartments to counter flooding in case of damage during action.
The appearance of these ships carrying what were at that time the biggest naval guns in the Mediterranean required an immediate reply from the Admiralty, which took the form of HMS Inflexible, designed by Sir William White. This was a rather hurried and unsatisfactory response, built following the same layout as the Italian ships but carrying four smaller 81-ton 16in guns.
The Inflexible had the distinction of being the first ship in the Royal Navy to be equipped with electric lighting and in July 1882 took part in the bombardment of Alexandria during the Urabi revolt, where she fired eighty-one shells, again with a slow rate of fire of one salvo every 10 minutes. Despite receiving some minor damage, she managed to silence the Egyptian shore batteries.
At the time, the Italian ships represented such a threat to British naval supremacy in the Mediterranean – being superior in power to any vessel of the fleet and outgunning the shore batteries at British Mediterranean bases – that immediate action was called for.
In response, the Government ordered four of the 100-ton Armstrong guns, two of which were installed at Gibraltar and two at Malta, to protect the naval bases there and to restore the status quo.
In the years that followed, the Royal Navy experimented with an assortment of battleship designs, employing differing layouts of armament and armour protection in the search for the optimum type of ship to fulfil their needs.
Perhaps the most notable of these were the Admiral class of 1885, mounting four 13.5in breech-loading guns in unprotected barbettes fore and aft, which pointed the way towards a standard layout that more nearly represented the vessels present at the Diamond Jubilee review.
A few anomalous designs were still to be built, such as the Victoria and HMS Sans Pareil of 1887, a curious layout with two 110-ton 16.25in breech-loaders mounted in a single huge turret forward, with a smaller 10in gun at the stern, plus twelve 6in guns disposed around the citadel on a 10,500-ton low freeboard hull that made working the guns difficult in heavy weather.
As with the earlier ships, the rate of fire of these guns was very slow, with battle practice being made at a range of around only 4,000 to 5,000yd, the distance between ships in which it was considered future actions would take place. In such actions against similarly armed ships the low rate of fire would render them ineffectual weapons of war, and one can speculate that their main use in time of war would have been to reduce coastal forts and batteries rather than fighting in the line of battle, much like the Inflexible did. As was the fashion in ship design of the period, the Victoria also carried a sharp ram bow, which at that time was seen by naval strategists to be a viable weapon in the close-range actions envisaged by the Lords of the Admiralty.
The Victoria herself achieved notoriety when on manoeuvres in the Mediter-ranean off the coast of the Lebanon on 22 June 1893 she was lost in an altogether avoidable accident.
The Victoria was part of a fleet of eight battleships and five cruisers that were cruising in two lines six cables (1,200yd) apart coming into Tripoli Bay, when they were ordered by the Commander, Vice-Admiral Tyron, leading the starboard division aboard the flagship Victoria, to turn inward through 180°.
Admiral Markham, leading the port division aboard HMS Camperdown and parallel to the flagship, knowing the turning radius of both ships required 3.5 cables (700yd) to complete the manoeuvre, questioned the order by flag signal, but was again ordered by Tyron to execute the order.
As both ships turned inward it became clear to Markham that a collision was inevitable and, despite reversing the engines in a desperate attempt to avoid disaster, the 10,000-ton battleship struck the Victoria on her starboard bow, with the Camperdown's ram ripping a huge hole below the waterline.
As the ships drifted apart, the watertight doors in Victoria were closed in an attempt to save her as she began to head for shallower water, but within 12 minutes of the collision the ship suddenly rolled over to starboard and, with her screws still turning, plunged bow first to the bottom, taking more than half her crew with her, including Vice-Admiral Tyron. The Camperdown, also badly damaged, managed to limp into port safely. While the reasoning behind Vice-Admiral Tyron's actions is difficult to understand, as he was well known as an able tactician, it is recorded that a survivor heard him say 'It was all my fault' on the bridge as the vessel slipped beneath the waves.
In 2001 the wreck of the Victoria, which had eluded those looking for it with side-scan sonar, was discovered some 5 miles off the port of Tripoli and showed why it was such an elusive target, as it was standing vertically in the silt of the seabed at a depth of 490ft.
The great weight of the guns had caused the ship to plummet vertically downward causing 100ft of the bow to be buried in the mud up to the bridge structure.
The hull is in excellent condition, thanks to the thickness of armour plate, and is likely to survive for several centuries as one of the few wrecks in the world to have ended up in this unusual position.
One of the survivors of the disaster was Commander John Jellicoe, who was to become Admiral of the Grand Fleet in 1914.
Sometime before this unfortunate incident, the British position relative to France in the number of battleships in the battle fleet, although seemingly satisfactory, still gave cause for concern. In 1889 Britain had sixteen first-class and seventeen second-class battleships, while France had twelve first-class and seventeen second-class.
Other navies were at this time beginning to expand, particularly the USA and Italy, while the German Navy was still essentially a coast defence force and did not at this time figure in the Admiralty's concerns. British cruiser squadrons were twice the number of their French counterparts.
While on the surface Great Britain seemed to be in an unchallengeable position, the spectre of France forming an alliance with some other foreign power, most of whom were at that time modernising and expanding their fleets, caused disquiet at the Admiralty and in Parliament and encouraged the 'Two Powers' doctrine, whereby it was decreed that the Royal Navy should at all times be sufficiently strong in first-line warships to be able to take on and vanquish the combination of any two foreign navies in a possible naval alliance against Great Britain.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Grand Fleet 1914-19 by Daniel G. Ridley-Kitts. Copyright © 2013 Daniel G. Ridley-Kitts. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Dedication,
Foreword by Stephen M. Payne OBE, RDI, FRINA, FREng,
Acknowledgements,
1. The Victorian Navy,
2. Lessons from the East,
3. The Coming of the Dreadnought,
4. From Naval Reviews to War,
5. Armed Merchant Cruisers and Surface Raiders,
6. Coronel and the Falklands,
7. East Coast Raids,
8. Heligoland Bight and the Christmas Day Raid,
9. Cruiser Warfare,
10. Dogger Bank,
11. The Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow,
12. Destroyers and Torpedo Boats,
13. The Dardanelles Operation,
14. East Africa and the Indian Ocean,
15. Jutland – Equal Speed Charlie London,
16. Submarines and U-Boats,
17. Baltic Operations,
18. Air Power at Sea,
19. The Zeebrugge and Ostend Raids,
20. 'The German Flag Will Be Hauled Down at Sunset ...',
Epilogue – The Captains and the Kings,
Appendix 1,
Appendix 2,
Bibliography,
Copyright,