By John Leyland HODDER   AND   STOUGHTON LONDON  NEW YORK  TORONTO MCMXVII E SHILLING THE ACHIEVEMENT of the BRITISH NAVY IN THE WORLD-WAR  ::  JOHN LEYLAND THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE BRITISH NAVY IN THE WORLD-WAR BY JOHN LEYLAND ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY...

When King George returned from the visit he paid to the Grand Fleet in June, 1917, he sent a message to Admiral Sir David Beatty, who had succeeded Sir John Jellicoe in the command, in which he said that “never had the British Navy stood higher in the estimation of friend or foe.” His Majesty spoke of people who reason and understand. But it is certainly true that the work of the Sea Service during this unparalleled war has never been properly appreciated by many of those who have benefited by i

Of all the theatres of the war, on sea or land, the North Sea is the most important. It is vital to all the operations of the Allies. Command of its waters and its outlets is the thing that matters most. In that sea is the centre of naval influence. It is the key of all the hostilities. From either side of it the great protagonists in the struggle look at one another. There the great constriction of the blockade is exerted upon Germany. It is the mare clausum against which she protests. Geograph

In the foregoing chapter some reference was made to the campaign of the German raiding cruisers and armed liners against British and Allied commerce in the distant waters of the Atlantic and Pacific during the early months of hostilities, and before we go any further this aspect of the war must be discussed. One object of the enemy was to lead to a scattering of British naval strength, but in this he was wholly disappointed. The distribution of the British Fleet remained unchanged, and the great

SEA- AND LAND-POWER It is important next to consider the situation in the Mediterranean, where sea-power is of momentous importance to the Allies. In those historic waters the fate of many nations has been decided. They are a vital link and the highway of the British Empire. Between Gibraltar and Port Said two thousand miles of British welfare lie outrolled. To France, with her great possessions in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunis, the importance of this sea highway is supreme. She must, in this war

Having seen the British Fleet and the fleets allied with it operating in the North Sea, the Oceans, and the Mediterranean, we may suitably turn to some special features of the duties and work of the Navy in the war. The submarine came as a sign and a portent of new developments in the means and the practice of warfare at sea. Regarded once as the weapon of the weaker Power, it was adopted into the naval armoury of the strongest. When, in 1901, under Lord Fisher’s administration as First Sea Lord

The British Navy fights for the great ideals of the people, acting upon the lines of old and loyal traditions; but, while doing so, it has encountered the desperate devices of the enemy, who has used the latest achievements of scientific and mechanical invention in such a manner as to overthrow many preconceived methods and accepted conventions of naval warfare. We have already spoken of the submarine. Now we shall see what the mine is, and how it is dealt with by the Navy and the services the N

The stupendous and scarcely calculable operation of transporting by sea the enormous armies which are employed in many theatres of the hostilities is the index and measure of the greatest of all the triumphs of naval power in the war, namely, that of establishing and maintaining essential command of the sea. Against this bulwark the enemy’s naval forces have battled in vain. The submarine may, in some degree and in some circumstances, affect command of the sea, but it cannot exercise it. It is d

From an account of the work of the British Navy in the war there must not be omitted some exposition of the gallant doings of the men of the Royal Naval Air Service. They have made their mark in the war, in every theatre of it, and no one can tell what part they will play before the struggle is at an end. Of some of their work very little is known. They render “silent” service, like that of the Navy to which they belong. They do not always carry on their duty alone. On occasions they participate

Officers and Men of the Navy No picture of the war work of the British Navy could be complete without some account of its officers and men. From what has already been said, the nature of the qualities demanded of them will have been realised. In the general direction of the Navy by the Admiralty there have been required calm reflection, profound insight, strategic imagination, sound and swift judgment as to the full use and the yet ill-understood limitations of sea-power, an abundant spring of a

Antagonism between England and Germany became the central fact in the international situation many years before the war. There seemed to be a fundamental antithesis between the ideals of the two peoples. The freedom of the Englishman, guaranteed to him by sea-power, appeared effeminate and undisciplined weakness to the German; the freedom of the German, guaranteed to him only by the military strength of his autocratic State, was regarded as feudal dependence by the Englishman. Not to bring about

THE LAND OF DEEPENING SHADOW By D. Thomas Curtin The truth about Germany-in-the-third-year-of-the-war. 12mo. Net $1.50 I ACCUSE! ( J’ACCUSE! ) By A German Facts every neutral should know. THE RED CROSS IN FRANCE By Granville Barker Delightful introduction by the late Hon. Joseph A. Choate. 12mo. Net $1.00 SOULS IN KHAKI By Arthur E. Copping (With a foreword by General Bramwell Booth.) Spiritual experiences among the lads on the firing line. BETWEEN ST. DENIS AND ST. GEORGE By Ford Madox Hueffer