The Crisis of the Naval War Part 19

January 46,929 July 81,188 February 78,436 August 100,900 March 115,654 September 60,685 April 67,536 October 145,844 May 68,083 November 158,826 June 108,397 December 112,486 In January, 1918, the total dropped to 58,568 tons, and in February was only 100,038 tons. In March it was announced that Lord Pirie would take the position of Controller General of Merchant Shipbuilding. The subsequent results in the direction of output of merchant ships do not properly come within the scope of this book, which is intended to deal only with work during the year 1917, but it may be of interest to give here the output month by month. It was as follows:

January 58,568 July 141,948 February 100,038 August 124,675 March 161,674 September 144,772 April 111,533 October 136,000 May 197,274 November 105,093 June 134,159 December 118,276

Total for the year 1,534,110 It will be seen that the results for 1918 were an improvement on those for 1917, the exact figure for that year being 1,163,474 tons; these results, however, fell very short of the optimistic estimates given in July, 1917.

MERCANTILE REPAIR WORK The Controller's Department undoubtedly succeeded in the work of improving the arrangements for the repair of merchant ships. This is shown by an a.n.a.lysis of the total number of vessels that completed repairs during various months.

In August, 1917, the number was 382, with a tonnage of 1,183,000. In November the figure became 542 ships, with a tonnage of 1,509,000. There remained under repair at the end of August 326 ships, and at the end of November 350 ships, these figures indicating that the greater number of completions was not due to the smaller number of vessels being damaged or the damages being less in extent.

Considerable credit is due to the Department for this successful acceleration of repair work which naturally had a great influence on the shipping situation.

ARMAMENT PRODUCTION It was not, I think, realized either by the Government or by the civilians brought into the Admiralty during the year 1917 that there was a very great difference between the Admiralty and the War Office organizations in the matter of production of material, nor was it recognized that naval officers are by their training and experience better fitted to deal with such matters on a large scale than are military officers, except perhaps officers in the Artillery and Royal Engineers. Whatever may be the case in the future, the Navy in pre-war days was so much more dependent on material than the Army as to make questions relating to naval material of far greater importance that was the case with military material. This fact is apt to be forgotten by those writers on naval affairs who think that an intimate knowledge of questions relating to naval material and its use is of little importance. I trust that this belief will never become general in the service, for the naval officer who is not familiar with the design and production of material is handicapped when he comes to use it.

Ignorance of the great experience of the Admiralty in handling problems of production and of the past success of Admiralty methods in this respect gave rise to a good deal of misconception. The fact that it had been necessary to form a separate Ministry (that of Munitions) to deal with the production of war material for the Army probably fostered the idea that matters at the Admiralty should be altered in a similar direction.

The post of Deputy Controller of Armament Production was created under the new organization, and all matters concerning the production of guns, gun-mountings, projectiles, cordite, torpedoes, mines, paravanes and all other war material was placed under him. I have dealt earlier in this chapter with the questions of design and inspection over which some disagreement arose.

I was not conscious that the new organization succeeded in speeding up armament production during 1917, and during the latter part of the year I was much concerned with the delays in ordnance production as revealed during 1917 and as exposed by the forecasts for 1918.

It is very possible, on the other hand, that in the case of mines the results were good. The old Admiralty organization had not been equipped to deal with such an immense number of mines as were on order, and although a large organization for their production was started by Sir Lionel Halsey, when Fourth Sea Lord, with the a.s.sistance of Admiral Fitzherbert and Captain Litchfield-Speer, it had not been sufficiently long at work for an opinion to be given as to whether the results in production would have been as good as under the D.C.A.P.

In considering the whole question of production during the year 1917 it should be borne in mind that very extensive orders were placed in the early part of that year for guns, gun-mountings, mines, warships of the smaller cla.s.s and patrol craft, and that if we compare only the actual output for 1917 with that of previous years without taking the above fact into account, we might form an incorrect impression as to the success of the organization for production. For instance, in the last quarter of 1917, 1,515 guns of all calibres were delivered, as against 1,101 in the first quarter; in the month of November 1,335 mines of all natures and 2,078 depth charges were filled, as compared with 625 mines and 542 depth charges in July. These figures were the result of the large orders placed early in the year, and it was not until 1918 that the full fruits of the orders placed in 1917 became apparent. The figures for that year, however, are not at my disposal.

One great advantage which resulted from the new organization, viz., the creation of a Directorate of Materials and Priority, must be mentioned. This Directorate controlled the distribution of all steel for all services and produced a very beneficial effect on the issue of supplies of steel to shipbuilders. The immense increase in staff which resulted from the inst.i.tution of the office of Admiralty Controller is exhibited in the lists of staff in 1918 as compared with the staff in the early part of 1917.

CHAPTER XI

NAVAL WORK The main effort of the Navy during the year 1917 was directed towards the defeat of the enemy's submarines, since the Central Powers confined their naval effort almost entirely to this form of warfare, but many other problems occupied our attention at the Admiralty, and some of these may be mentioned.

Considerable discussion took place in the early part of the year on the subject of the policy to be pursued in the Eastern theatre of war, and naval opinion on the possibility of effecting a landing in force at different points was invited and given. It need only be said here that the matter was brought forward more than once, and that the situation from the naval point of view was always clear. The feasible landing places so far as we were concerned were unsuited to the military strategy at that period; the time required to collect or build the great number of lighters, horse boats, etc., for the strong force required was not available, and it was a sheer impossibility to provide in a short period all the small craft needed for an operation of magnitude, whilst the provision of the necessary anti-submarine defences would have taxed our resources to the utmost and have prevented essential work of this nature in other theatres.

The work of the Navy, therefore, off the coast of Palestine was confined to protecting the left flank of the advancing army and a.s.sisting its operations, and to establishing, as the troops advanced, bases on the coast at which stores, etc., could be landed. This task was effectively carried out.

The anchorages on this coast are all entirely open to the sea, and become untenable at very short notice, so that the work of the Navy was always carried out under considerable difficulty. Nor could the ships working on the flank be adequately guarded against submarine attack, and some losses were experienced, the most important being the sinking of Monitor M15 and the destroyer Staunch by a submarine attack off Deir el Belah (nine miles south of Gaza) in November.

The Navy continued its co-operation with the Army in the Salonika theatre of war, a.s.sisted by the Royal Naval Air Service, and bombardments were continually carried out on military objectives. Similarly in the Adriatic our monitors and machines of the R.N.A.S. a.s.sisted the military forces of the Allies; particularly was this the case at the time of the Austrian advance to the Piave, where our monitors did much useful work in checking enemy attempts to cross that river.

Off the Gallipoli Peninsula the Naval watch on the mouth of the Dardanelles was continued; extensive new minefields were laid during the year, and were effective in sinking the Breslau and severely damaging the Goeben when those vessels attempted a sortie on January 20, 1918. The R.N.A.S. during the year carried out many long distance reconnaissance and bombing operations over Constantinople and the vicinity.

In the Red Sea Naval operations were carried out in conjunction with friendly Arabs, and the Arabian coast cleared of Turkish forces.

In the White Sea during the latter part of 1917 the whole of the Naval work fell upon British Naval forces when the Russian ships, which had co-operated hitherto, had come under the influence of the political situation. Our force in these waters consisted largely of trawlers engaged in minesweeping and escort work. The latter duty imposed a very heavy strain on officers and men, involving as it did the safe conduct during the year of no fewer than one thousand ships carrying stores and munitions for the Russian military forces.

In the Baltic the situation became very difficult owing first to the Russian revolution and, finally, to the Russian debacle. Our force in these waters consisted of seven submarines. It became evident at the beginning of October, 1917, that the Germans were intending to carry out some operations in the Baltic against Russia, and the question of affording a.s.sistance was at once considered by the Naval Staff. It was surmised that but little dependence could be placed on the Russian Baltic Fleet (events showed this surmise to be accurate), and in order to keep our control over the North Sea and ensure the safety of our communications with France it was obvious that for any action we might decide to take we should be obliged to divide the Grand Fleet, sending such portion of that Command into the Baltic as could successfully engage the High Sea Fleet if encountered, as well as to secure the return pa.s.sage via the Great Belt, and retaining a sufficient force to deal with such German vessels as might attempt operations in the North Sea or Channel during our raid into the Baltic.

There were many ways in which the Germans might seriously hamper, if not entirely prevent, the return of our fleet from the Baltic unless we secured the exits. The Great Belt could easily be closed by block-ships at its narrowest points, and extensive minefields could be laid. It was obvious, therefore, that to secure the exit a strong force would be required, and that it would necessarily occupy a position where it would be open to serious attack.

The initial operation of gaining access to the Baltic via the Great Belt, though not impossible, was difficult, involving as it did sweeping pa.s.sages through very extensive minefields, and even when our ships were in the Baltic fairly constant sweeping would be necessary.

Finally, the whole operation would be complicated by the question of fuel supply, especially to the destroyers and other small craft with a limited radius of action, since we could not depend upon Russian sources of supply. These were amongst the considerations which made it clear that the operation was not one that I could recommend. The Russian naval view is given in the following statement which appeared in the Russian Press in October:

The Naval General Staff categorically denies the rumours circulated in Petrograd on the 8th and 9th instant, to the effect that the British or French Fleet had broken through to the Baltic Sea.

At the same time it is pointed out that it would be a physical impossibility for the Allies' Fleet to come in from the western entrance, because it would be necessary to pa.s.s through the Sound or through one of the two Belts.

Entry to the Sound through Danish or Swedish waters could not also be affected owing to the fact that these waters in part are only 18 feet deep, while large-sized vessels would require at least 30 feet of water.

As regards the entry to the Belts, this would be an extremely hazardous undertaking as parts of the routes are under control of the Germans who have constructed their own defences consisting of mines and batteries.

In these circ.u.mstances, according to the opinion of our naval experts, an entrance into the Baltic by the Allies' Fleets could only be undertaken after gaining possession of these waters and the adjacent coast; and then only with the co-operation of land forces.

The Germans had an easy task in the Baltic, as the Russian resistance was not of a serious nature; our submarines attacked on every possible occasion, and scored some successes against German vessels. Towards the end of the year it became necessary to consider the action to be taken in regard to our submarines, as the German control of the Baltic became effective, and the demobilization of the Russian fleet became more and more p.r.o.nounced. Many schemes for securing their escape from these waters were discussed, but the chances of success were so small, and the submarines themselves possessed so little fighting value owing to their age, that eventually instructions were sent to the senior officer to destroy the submarines before they could fall into German hands.

CHAPTER XII

THE FUTURE It is natural that the task of recounting the facts in the foregoing chapters should cause one's thoughts to turn to the future. The Empire has pa.s.sed through a period of great danger, during which its every interest was threatened, and it has come successfully out of the ordeal, but to those upon whom the responsibility lay of initiating and directing the nation's policy the serious nature of the perils which faced us were frequently such as to justify the grave anxiety which sprang from full knowledge of events and their significance.

An international organization is in process of being brought into existence which, if it does not entirely prevent a recurrence of the horrors of the four and a half years of war, will, it is hoped, at least minimize the chances of the repet.i.tion of such an experience as that through which the world has so recently pa.s.sed. But the League of Nations is still only a skeleton to be clothed with authority and supported by the public opinion of the world if it is to be a success. It is in its infancy, and so far the most optimistic have not advanced beyond hopes in its efficiency; and if the lessons of the past are correctly interpreted, as they were interpreted by our forefathers in their day, those upon whom responsibility lies in future years for the safety and prosperity of the Empire will see to it that, so far as lies in their power, whatever else may be left undone, the security of the sea communications of the Empire is ensured. Not one of us but must have realized during the war, if he did not realize it before, that the all-important thing upon which we must set our minds is the ability to use the sea communications of the far-flung Empire, which is only united by the seas so long as we can use them. But while governments may realize their duty in this matter, and set out with good intentions, it is, after all, upon the people who elect governments that the final responsibility lies, and therefore it is to them that it is so necessary to bring home in season and out of season the dangers that confront us if our sea communications are imperilled.

The danger which confronted the British peoples was never so great in any previous period as it was during the year 1917 when the submarine menace was at its height, and it may be hoped that the lessons to be learned from the history of those months will never be forgotten. The British Empire differs from any other nation or empire which has ever existed. Our sea communications are our very life-blood, and it is not greatly exaggerating the case to say that the safety of those communications is the one consideration of first-cla.s.s importance. Upon a solid sense of their security depends not only our prosperity, but also the actual lives of a large proportion of the inhabitants. There is no other nation in the world which is situated as the people of these islands are situated; therefore there is no other nation to whom sea power is in the least degree as essential as it is to us. Four out of five of our loaves and most of our raw materials for manufacture must come to us by sea, and it is only by the sea that we can hold any commercial intercourse with the Dominions, Dependencies and Crown Colonies, which together make up what we call the Empire, with a population of 400,000,000 people.

What, then, are we to do in the future to ensure the safety of the communications between these islands and the rest of the Empire? As a matter of course we should be in a position to safeguard them against any possible form of attack from whatever quarter it may come. So far as can be seen there is no present likelihood of the transport of food or raw materials being effected in anything but vessels which move upon the surface of the sea. It is true that, as a result of the war, people's thoughts turn in the direction of transport, both of human beings and of merchandise, by air or under the water, but there is no possible chance, for at least a generation to come, of either of these methods of transport being able to compete commercially with transport in vessels sailing on the sea. Therefore the problem of guarding our communications resolves itself into one of securing the safety of vessels which move upon the surface of the sea, whatever may be the character of the attack.

I do not desire to enter into any discussion here as to the method by which these vessels can be protected, except to say that it is necessary for us to be in a position of superiority in all the weapons by which their safety may be endangered. At the present time there are two princ.i.p.al forms of attack: (1) by vessels which move on the surface, and (2) by vessels which move under water. A third danger-namely, one from the air-is also becoming of increasing importance. The war has shown us how to ensure safety against the first two forms of attack, and our duty as members of a great maritime Empire is to take steps to maintain effective forces for the purpose.

In order to carry out this duty it will be greatly to our advantage if the matter can be dealt with by all the const.i.tuent parts of the Empire. A recent tour of the greater part of the British Empire has shown me that the importance of sea power is very fully realized by the great majority of our kith and kin overseas, and that there is a strong desire on their part to co-operate in what is, after all, the concern of the whole Empire. It seems to me of the greatest possible importance that this matter of an Empire naval policy and an Empire naval organization should be settled at the earliest possible moment, and that it should be looked at from the broadest point of view.

I do not think that we in this country can claim to have taken into sufficient account the very natural views and the very natural ambitions which animate the peoples overseas. We have, in point of fact, looked at the whole question too locally, whilst we have been suggesting to the Dominions that they are inclined to make this error, and unless we depart from that att.i.tude there is a possibility that we shall not reap the full benefit of the resources of the Empire, which are very great and are increasing. In war it is not only the material which counts, but the spirit of a people, and we must enlist the support, spontaneous and effective, of every section of the King's Dominions in the task of sea defence which lies before us, consulting fully and unreservedly the representatives of our kith and kin, and giving them the benefit of whatever instructed advice we, with ancient traditions and matured knowledge, may possess.

In framing our future naval policy it is obvious that we must be guided by what is being done abroad. We are bound to keep an absolutely safe margin of naval strength, and that margin must exist in all arms and in all cla.s.ses of vessels. At the moment, and no doubt for some time to come, difficulties in regard to finance will exist, but it would seem to be nothing more than common sense to insist that the one service which is vital to our existence should be absolutely the last to suffer for need of money. During a period of the greatest financial pressure it may be necessary to economize somewhat in the construction of new ships, and in the upkeep of certain of our naval bases which the result of the war and consequent considerations of future strategy may suggest to be not of immediate importance, although even here it may well be necessary to develop other naval bases to meet changed conditions; but we cannot afford to fall behind in organization, in the testing and development of new ideas, or in the strength of our personnel or in its training. A well trained personnel and a carefully thought out organization cannot by any possibility be quickly extemporized.

It is the height of economic folly to stint experimental research, for it is in times of stress that the value of past experimental work is shown. In the matter of organization we must be certain that adequate means are taken to ensure that the different arms which must co-operate in war are trained to work together under peace conditions. A modern fleet consists of many units of different types-battleships, battle-cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers and submarines. Before I relinquished the command of the Grand Fleet, large sea-going submarines of high speed, vessels of the "K" cla.s.s, had been built to accompany the surface vessels to sea. It is very essential that senior officers should have every opportunity of studying tactical schemes in which various cla.s.ses of ships and kinds of weapons are employed. In considering the future of the Navy it is impossible to ignore aircraft. There are many important problems which the Navy and the Air Service ought to work out together. A fleet without aircraft will be a fleet without eyes, and aircraft will, moreover, be necessary, not only for reconnaissance work, but for gun-spotting, as well as, possibly, for submarine hunting. Air power is regarded by many officers of wide practical experience as an essential complement to sea power, whatever future the airship and aeroplane may have for independent action. A captain who is going to fight his ship successfully must have practised in time of peace with all the weapons he will employ in action, and he must have absolute control over all the elements const.i.tuting the fighting power of his ship. In a larger sense, the same may be said of an admiral in command of a fleet; divided control may mean disaster. The advent of aircraft has introduced new and, at present, only partially explored problems into naval warfare, and officers commanding naval forces will require frequent opportunities of studying them. They must be worked out with naval vessels and aircraft acting in close a.s.sociation. With the Air Service under separate control, financially as well as in an executive and administrative sense, is it certain that the Admiralty will be able to obtain machines and personnel in the necessary numbers to carry out all the experimental and training work that is essential for efficiency in action? Is it also beyond doubt that unity of command at sea, which is essential to victory, will be preserved? In view of all the possibilities which the future holds now that the airship and aeroplane have arrived, it is well that there should be no doubt on such matters, for inefficiency might in conceivable circ.u.mstances spell defeat.

Then there is the question of the personnel of the fleet. It would be most unwise to allow the strength of the trained personnel of the Navy to fall below the limit of reasonable safety, because it is upon that trained personnel that the success of the enormous expansions needed in war so largely depends. This was found during the late struggle, when the personnel was expanded from 150,000 to upwards of 400,000, throwing upon the pre-war nucleus a heavy responsibility in training, equipment and organizing. Without the backbone of a highly trained personnel of sufficient strength, developments in time of sudden emergency cannot possibly be effected. In the late war we suffered in this respect, and we should not forget the lesson.

In future wars, if any such should occur, trained personnel will be of even greater importance than it was in the Great War, because the advance of science increases constantly the importance of the highly trained individual, and if nothing else is certain it can surely be predicted that science will play an increasing part in warfare in the future. Only those officers and men who served afloat in the years immediately preceding the opening of hostilities know how great the struggle was to gain that high pitch of efficiency which the Navy had reached at the outbreak of war, and it was the devotion to duty of our magnificent pre-war personnel that went far to ensure our victory. It is essential that the Navy of the future should not be given a yet harder task than fell to the Navy of the past as a result of a policy of starving the personnel.

There is, perhaps, just one other point upon which I might touch in conclusion. I would venture to suggest to my countrymen that there should be a full realization of the fact that the Naval Service as a whole is a highly specialized profession. It is one in which the senior officers have pa.s.sed the whole of their lives, and during their best years their thoughts are turned constantly in one direction-namely, how they can best fit the Navy and themselves for possible war. The country as a whole has probably but little idea of the great amount of technical knowledge that is demanded of the naval officer in these days. He must possess this knowledge in addition to the lessons derived from his study of war, and the naval officer is learning from the day that he enters the Service until the day that he leaves it.

The Navy, then, is a profession which is at least as highly specialized as that of a surgeon, an engineer, or a lawyer. Consequently, it would seem a matter of common sense that those who have not adopted the Navy as a profession should pay as much respect to the professional judgment of the naval officer as they would to that of the surgeon or the engineer or the lawyer, each in his own sphere. Governments are, of course, bound to be responsible for the policy of the country, and policy governs defence, but, both in peace and in war, I think it will be agreed that the work of governments in naval affairs should end at policy, and that the remainder should be left to the expert. That is the basis of real economy in a.s.sociation with efficiency, and victory in war goes to the nation which, under stress and strain, develops the highest efficiency in action.