America's War for Humanity Part 40

The United States has 110,000,000 population and an estimated national wealth of $250,000,000,000, to pay nearly $18,000,000,000 war debt already created, or approximately $23,000,000,000 up to the end of May, 1919. This means that the per capita burden will be at least three times greater in Germany than in the United States.

CHAPTER XV

THE MYSTERY OF THE FLEETS

_Movements of British Battleships Veiled in Secrecy--German Dreadnoughts in North Sea and Baltic Ports--Activity of Smaller Craft--English Keep Trade Routes Open-- Several Minor Battles at Sea_.

Shortly before war was declared a great review of the British navy was held at Spithead, on the English Channel, when several hundred vessels were gathered in mighty array for inspection by King George and the lords of the Admiralty. The salutes they fired had hardly ceased to reverberate along the sh.o.r.es of the Channel when the momentous struggle was on. It found the British fleet fully mobilized and ready for action.

The ships had their magazines filled, their bunkers and oil tanks charged, their victualing completed, and last, but not least, their full crews aboard.

Then, without a moment's delay, they disappeared, under orders to proceed to stations in the North Sea, to cruise in the Channel, the Atlantic or the Mediterranean; to keep trade routes open for British and neutral ships and capture or destroy the ships of the enemy. Silently and swiftly they sailed, and for weeks the world knew little or nothing of their movements or whereabouts.

Mystery equally deep shrouded the German fleet. In all probability it lay under the guns of the coast cities and forts of Germany, but nothing definite was permitted to leak out. The test of the two great navies, the supreme test of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts, failed to materialize, and for weeks the people of Great Britain and Germany could only wonder what had become of their naval forces and why they did not come into contact with each other. A few minor engagements in the North Sea, in which light cruisers and torpedo-boat destroyers were concerned, served only to deepen the mystery.

Only naval men and well-informed civilians realized that Germany was biding her time, waiting to choose her own hour for action, realizing the strength of the opposing force and determined not to risk her own ships until the opportune moment should arrive which would offer the best possible chances for success. And meanwhile the main British fleet lay in the North Sea, waiting for the enemy to appear.

After a while letters began to come from the North Sea, telling of the life aboard the vessels lying in wait, scouting or patrolling the coasts. The ships were all stripped for action; all inflammable ornaments and fittings had been left behind or cast overboard; stripped and naked the fighting machines went to their task. All day long the men were ready at their guns, and during the night each gun crew slept around the weapon that it was their duty to serve, ready to repel any destroyers or submarines coming out of the surrounding darkness to attack them.

Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe had a.s.sumed supreme command of the British home fleet on August 4, with the rank of admiral. His chief of staff was Rear Admiral Charles E. Madden. Rear Admiral Sir George Callaghan was in command of the North Sea fleet.

AN ADMIRALTY ANNOUNCEMENT

On Thursday, September 10, the secretary of the British Admiralty made the following announcement: "Yesterday and today strong and numerous squadrons and flotillas have made a complete sweep of the North Sea up to and into the Heligoland Bight. The German fleet made no attempt to interfere with our movements and no German ship of any kind was seen at sea."

That much patience had to be exercised by the seamen of the North Sea fleet is evidenced by a letter in which the writer said to his family, "If you want to get away from the excitement of war, you should be here with me." This situation, of course, might be changed at a moment's notice. The London Times said in September: "It is not to be wondered at if our seamen today envy a little the old-time sailors who did not have to compete with such things as mines, destroyers and submarines. In the accounts of the old blockades we read how by means of music and dancing, and even theatrical entertainments, the monotonous nature of the work was counteracted, and the officers of the ships, including Nelson and other great commanders, welcomed these diversions for the prevention of the evils which might be bred by enforced idleness. It is a true saying that everything that stagnates corrupts. There is no possible chance of the crews of our modern vessels stagnating under the new conditions of war. Whether engaged in blockading in the big ships, scouting in the cruisers, or patrolling the coasts in the destroyers, the life is described as tremendously interesting and exciting. There has been no sense of monotony whatever. Indeed, the conditions are such that, were it not obligatory for portions of every crew to take rest, all of them would be continually on the alert. We may be certain that arrangements have been made for ensuring that the crews obtain periods of relaxation from the constant strain; but the only real change comes in the big ships when they have of necessity to refill their bunkers."

LOSS OF THE CRUISER AMPHION

The cruiser Amphion was the first British war vessel lost in the war.

The survivors on landing at the North Sea port of Harwich, England, on August 10, stated that hardly had they left Harwich than they were ordered to clear the decks for action. They sighted the German mine-laying vessel Koenigin Luise, and, as it refused to stop even when a shot was fired across its bows, they gave chase.

The German ship fired and then the destroyers, accompanying the Amphion, surrounded and sank it after a brief combined bombardment.

The captain, it is said, was beside himself with fury. He had a revolver in his hand and threatened his men as they prepared to surrender to the rescuing ships. He flatly refused to give himself up and was taken by force.

When the smoke of a big ship was seen on the horizon the Amphion gave chase, firing a warning shot as it drew near the vessel, which at once made known its ident.i.ty as the Harwich boat St. Petersburg, carrying Prince Lichnowsky, the German amba.s.sador, to the Hook of Holland. While returning to port came the tragedy of the Amphion. As it struck a sunken mine it gave two plunging jerks. Then came an explosion which ripped up its forepart, shot up its funnels like arrows from a bow, and lifted its heavy guns into the air. The falling material struck several of the boats of the flotilla and injured some of the men on board them.

The Amphion's men were dreadfully burned and scalded and had marks on their faces and bodies which resembled splashes of acid.

The scene at Harwich was like that which follows a colliery explosion.

Of the British seamen in the hospital thirteen were suffering from severe burns, five from less serious burns, two from the effects of lyddite fumes, and one each from concussion, severe injury, slight wounds, shock, and slight burns. A few wounded German sailors also lay in the hospital.

SINKING A GERMAN SUBMARINE

On August 12 there came from Edinburgh the story of an eyewitness of a naval battle in the North Sea on the previous Sunday between British cruisers and German submarines, in which the German submarine U-15 was sunk.

"The cruiser squadron on Sunday," the story ran, "suddenly became aware of the approach of the submarine flotilla. The enemy was submerged, only the periscopes showing above the surface of the water.

"The att.i.tude of the British in the face of this attack was cool and the enemy was utterly misled when suddenly the cruiser Birmingham, steaming at full speed, fired the first shot. This shot was carefully aimed, not at the submerged body of a submarine, but at the thin line of the periscope.

"The gunnery was superbly accurate and shattered the periscope.

Thereupon the submarine, now a blinded thing, rushed along under water in imminent danger of self-destruction from collision with the cruisers above.

"The sightless submarine was then forced to come to the surface, whereupon the Birmingham's gunner fired the second shot of the fight.

This shot struck at the base of the conning tower, ripping the whole of the upper structure clean and the U-15 sank like a stone.

"The remainder of the submarine flotilla fled." NAVAL BATTLE OFF HELIGOLAND

In the last week of August a naval engagement occurred off the island of Heligoland, in the North Sea. British war vessels sank five German ships, killing 900 men. A graphic description of the engagement was given by a young lieutenant who was on one of the British torpedo boat destroyers:

"I think the home papers are magnifying what really was but an affair of outposts. We destroyers went in and lured the enemy out and had lots of excitement. The big fellows then came up and afforded some excellent target practice, and we were very glad to see them come; but it was a ma.s.sacre, not a fight.

"There was superb generalship and overwhelming forces on the spot, but there was really nothing for them to do except to shoot the enemy, even as father shoots pheasants.

"Have you ever noticed a dog rush in on a flock of sheep and scatter them? He goes for the nearest and barks and goes so much faster than the flock that it bunches up with its companions. The dog then barks at another and the sheep spread out fanwise, so in front of the dog there is a semicircle of sheep and behind him none.

"That was much what we did at 7 a. m. on August 28. The sheep were the German torpedo craft, which fell back on the limits of our range and tried to lure us within the fire of the Heligoland forts. But a cruiser then came out and engaged our Arethusa and they had a real heart-to-heart talk, while we looked on, and a few of us tried to shoot at the enemy, too, though it was beyond our distance.

"We were getting nearer Heligoland all the time. There was a thick mist and I expected every minute to find the forts on the island bombarding us, so the Arethusa presently drew off after landing at least one good sh.e.l.l on the enemy. The enemy gave every hit as good as he got there.

"We then reformed, but a strong destroyer belonging to the submarines got chased, and the Arethusa and Fearless went back to look after it. We presently heard a hot action astern, so the captain in command of the flotilla turned us around and we went back to help. But they had driven the enemy off and on our arrival told us to 'form up' on the Arethusa.

CRUISER FIRES ON SHIPS

"When we had partly formed and were very much bunched together, making a fine target, suddenly out of the mist arrived five or six sh.e.l.ls from a point not 150 yards away. We gazed at whence they came and again five or six stabs of fire pierced the fog, and we made out a four-funneled German cruiser of the Breslau cla.s.s.

"Those stabs were its guns going off. We waited fifteen seconds and the shots and noise of its guns arrived pretty well from fifty yards away.

Its next salvo of shots went above us, and I ducked as they whirred overhead like a covey of fast partridges.

"You would suppose our captain had done this sort of thing all his life.

He went full speed ahead at once, upon the first salvo, to string the bunch out and thus offer less target. The commodore from the Arethusa made a signal to us to attack with torpedoes. So we swung round at right angles and charged full speed at the enemy like a hussar attack.

"Our boat got away at the start magnificently and led the field, so all the enemy's firing was aimed at us for the next ten minutes, when we got so close that debris from their sh.e.l.ls fell on board. Then we altered our course and so threw them out in their reckoning of our speed, and they had all their work to do over again.

"Humanly speaking, our captain by twisting and turning at psychological moments saved us. Actually, I feel that we were in G.o.d's keeping that day. After ten minutes we got near enough to fire our torpedo. Then we turned back to the Arethusa. Next our follower arrived just where we had been and fired its torpedo, and of course the enemy fired at it instead of at us. What a blessed relief!

"After the destroyers came the Fearless, and it stayed on the scene.

Soon we found it was engaging a three-funneler, the Mainz, so off we started again, now for the Mainz, the situation being that the crippled Arethusa was too tubby to do anything but be defended by us, its children.

"Scarcely, however, had we started when, from out of the mist and across our front, in furious pursuit came the first cruiser squadron of the town cla.s.s, the Birmingham, and each unit a match for three like the Mainz, which was soon sunk. As we looked and reduced speed they opened fire, and the clear bang-bang of their guns was just like a cooling drink.

"To see a real big four-funneler spouting flame, which flame denoted sh.e.l.ls starting, and those sh.e.l.ls not at us but for us, was the most cheerful thing possible. Once we were in safety, I hated it. We had just been having our own imaginations stimulated on the subject of sh.e.l.ls striking.

"Now, a few minutes later, to see another ship not three miles away, reduced to a piteous ma.s.s of unrecognizability, wreathed in black fumes from which flared out angry gusts of fire like Vesuvius in eruption, as an unending stream of hundred-pound sh.e.l.ls burst on board it, just pointed the moral and showed us what might have been.

"The Mainz was immensely gallant. The last I saw of it it was absolutely wrecked. It was a fuming inferno. But it had one gun forward and one aft still spitting forth fury and defiance like a wild cat.