LCC index
CHAPTER VII.
Royal Navy.
The fate of the countries engaged in the Great War was determined on the western
front, and the fighting there has merited the most attention, but in no other
conflict was it so true that, in the words of the Articles of War: " It is upon
the Navy that, under the good Providence of God, the wealth, prosperity, and
peace of these' islands and of the Empire do mainly depend." Without the Navy's
powerful aid our country, if not conquered by invasion, would almost certainly
have been starved into surrender, nor could our armies in France, and still less
those farther away, have been supplied with reinforcements and munitions. Its
position at the opening of the war has already been referred to. Although its
influence was felt in all our operations, it will be convenient to give here a
separate summary of its great work.
Early in 1914 a test mobilisation of the Home Fleets had been ordered for 16th
July. In the ordinary way the ships would have dispersed on the 27th, but on the
26th, three days after Austria's ultimatum to Serbia, the dispersal was
countermanded. On the 29th the British First Fleet sailed for Scapa Flow in the
Orkneys, and on 1st August our full naval forces were mobilised. Action followed
close upon the declaration of war, for on the 5th the Konigin Luise, while
laying mines some distance off the East Coast, was chased and sunk by H.M.S.
Amphion. A few hours later the latter struck one of the mines and went down with
most of her crew and some prisoners from the Luise. On the 6th H.M.S. Birmingham
rammed and sank two enemy submarines.
A brief account may here be given of the Navy's duties during the war. These
were summarised by Mr. Balfour, as First Lord of the Admiralty, in July, 1915,
as follows: —
(i) To drive the enemy's commerce off the sea. This was accomplished by
stationing strong forces in Scapa Flow and the English Channel, so as to cut off
all egress from the North Sea. The area thus enclosed was then systematically
patrolled by light craft, Harwich and Dover being two of the chief bases.
(ii) To protect British commerce. To do this it was necessary to have control in
all parts of the world. The Atlantic was the main avenue of supply, but routes
had also to be considered to and from Australia, New Zealand, India and China.
Also a northern patrol was necessary to insure the passage from Denmark, Norway,
Sweden and north Russia. Mine-sweepers and trawlers had to be provided to deal
with the mines laid by the enemy in the main traffic routes. Finally, when the
unrestricted submarine campaign against trading vessels was undertaken,
anti-submarine patrols and escorts both for ships-of-war and the mercantile
marine had to be organised.
(iii) To render the enemy's fleet impotent and (iv) to prevent the landing of
enemy troops. These were brought about by the forces and patrols referred to
under (i) and (ii) at Scapa, in the English Channel and elsewhere. Later the
battle-cruiser and other squadrons were stationed in the Firth of Forth.
(v) To enable our troops to be transported across the sea. This entailed the
escort of several millions of troops between the British Isles, France, India,
Australia, New Zealand, East, West and South Africa, Gallipoli, Egypt,
Palestine, Salonica and latterly America and Russia.
(vi) To secure supplies for troops in all theatres of war.
(vii) In fitting circumstances to assist military operations such as those at
Gallipoli and at different times on the Belgian coast.
In the space available it is not possible to do more than to give a list of the
chief actions in which the Navy was engaged.
On 28th August a sweep by destroyers and light cruisers, aided later by battle
cruisers, into the Heligoland Bight was organised. After some confused fighting
V187, an enemy destroyer, and the light cruisers Koln, Mainz and Ariadne were
sunk with the loss of over 1,000 men. Four enemy raiders were sunk, the Kaiser
Wilhelm der Grosse by H.M.S. Highflyer on 26th August at Rio de Oro on the west
coast of Africa, the Cap Trafalgar by H.M.S. Carmania on 14th September off
Trinidada Island, Brazil, the Emden by H.M.S. Sydney on 9th November at the
Cocos or Keeling Islands, in the Indian Ocean, and the Konigsberg on 11th July,
1915, by monitors in the River Rufiji, East Africa, where she had been shut up
by H.M.S. Chatham six months before. H.M.S. Audacious struck a mine on 27th
October and sank, and on 1st January, 1915, the Formidable was torpedoed off
Start Point, Devon.
Several destroyers and monitors aided the Allied left at Lombartzyde on the
Belgian coast during the first Battle of Ypres in October. On 3rd November,
Yarmouth, and on 14th December, Scarborough, Whitby and the Hartlepools, were
bombarded, while on 24th January, 1915, another attempted raid was driven off
with the loss of the Blucher and severe damage to the Seydlitz.
During September, 1915, the Royal Edward carrying reinforcements to Gallipoli
was torpedoed with the loss of 1,000 out of 1,600 officers and men. In October
the transports Ramazan and Marquette were sunk in the AEgean, on the 28th H.M.S.
Argyll ran aground on the Scotch coast, and on 30th December the Persia was
torpedoed in the Mediterranean. The German battleship Pommern was torpedoed in
the Baltic on 2nd July.
On 25th April, 1916, Lowestoft and Yarmouth were again bombarded, in June H.M.S.
Hampshire, carrying Lord Kitchener and his staff to Russia, struck a mine off
the Orkneys and sank with the loss of nearly all on board, and during the latter
part of the year several vessels of no great importance were damaged or
destroyed on each side.
On 31st January, 1917, the Germans proclaimed unrestricted action by their
U-boats. This danger was met by developing the destroyer patrols and patrols by
armed trawlers, smacks, drifters, fast motor boats, etc., by the use of
strongly-armed vessels disguised as tramps, by the arming of merchantmen, by the
use of depth charges which were constructed so as to explode at any depth
desired, and by the use of seaplanes and airships to detect submarines even when
submerged. Commanders of merchant vessels were instructed as to routes to be
taken or avoided. The vessels were grouped into convoys and many of them were
dazzle-painted so as to deceive the enemy as to their type and construction, and
even as to their course and speed. Many ships after being sunk were raised by
the salvage service; during the last three years of the war over a million and a
half tons were so raised, the value of the ships and contents being about
£50,000,000.
The opening of 1918 was marked on 14th January by the third bombardment of
Yarmouth. Ostend and Zeebrugge were of great assistance to the Germans as
submarine bases, and one object of the Passchendaele fighting was to bring them
under gunfire. On 23rd April, 1918, gallant efforts were made to seal the
entrances to the harbours. At Zeebrugge, the Vindictive, under cover of a smoke
screen, and accompanied by a flotilla of destroyers, monitors and motor
launches, was driven on to the mole to serve as a landing-stage for a storming
party. The latter, having landed, silenced a number of batteries, destroyed
hangars and store-sheds and sank a destroyer. The submarine C3 was run into the
piles of the railway and, by its explosion, caused very great damage. Three
block ships were sunk in the channel leading to the Bruges canal. The crews of
the submarine and block ships, after accomplishing their tasks, were taken off
their vessels in motor boats. The attack at Ostend on the same night was not so
successful, as the wind, changing suddenly, dispersed the smoke screen, and the
block ships were blown up in the wrong place. In a second attempt on 9th May,
the Vindictive was successfully blown up and sunk across the channel.
As 1918 advanced the U-boats, partly owing to the reduction in numbers caused by
losses and damage at sea, and partly owing to the success of our defensive
measures, became much less effective. In October, 1918, when it was clear that
the Germans had lost the war, their War Cabinet undertook that the principles of
cruiser warfare should be observed and that the lives of non-combatants would be
assured. At the end of the month their fleet, ordered out to sea in the hope
that some desperate stroke might retrieve the situation, mutinied and it was
realised that an offensive was impossible.
In accordance with the terms of the Armistice fourteen battleships, seven
cruisers and fifty destroyers surrendered on 21st November to the British Navy
and were taken as prizes to the Firth of Forth. Submarines to the number of 150
were also surrendered and taken into Harwich.
Casualties amongst the Council's staff.
The actions in which members of the Council's staff perished were as follows:
H.M.S. Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue.
On 22nd September, 1914, H.M.S. Aboukir, Cressy, and Hogue, armoured cruisers of
12,000 tons displacement, were torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea to the south
of the Dogger Bank with a loss of 60 officers and over 1,300 men. The sinking of
the Aboukir was an ordinary hazard of patrolling duty, but the Hogue and the
Cressy were sunk because they proceeded to the assistance of their consort, and
remained, with engines stopped, endeavouring to save life, thus presenting an
easy and certain target to further submarine attacks. All the men behaved
extraordinarily well, obeying orders even when in the water swimming for their
lives, and many acts of great self-sacrifice and gallantry were witnessed.
Fifteen employees of the Council lost their lives in the sinking of these ships.
They were Henry Arnold, J. E. Rawlings, A. S. Keeler, R. G. Grist, C. H. Boys,
Walter Challis and A. A. Gaiger (Tramways), E. V. White, F. J. Owen, Westly
Livingstone (L.F.B.), G. D. Davis and F. C. Chapman (Education), R. W. Medhurst
(Ch. Engr.), William Lawrence (Asylums) and J. W. Curry (Pub. Cont.).
H.M.S. Hawke.
On 15th October, 1914, H.M.S. Hawke was torpedoed and sunk in the northern
waters of the North Sea. The Hawke was a cruiser with a displacement of 7,350
tons, and carried a crew of about 500, of whom only 4 officers and 69 men were
saved. At about 11 a.m. the Hawke sighted a collier flying the Norwegian flag,
and changed her course slightly in order to investigate the character of the
vessel. The cruiser was moving through the water at a moderate speed when an
explosion occurred and part of the ship's side was torn away. One boat only was
got away and her crew pulled about endeavouring to save those in the water. Many
men clambered on to life-saving rafts, but the cold was extreme and numbers of
them fell from the rafts into the water. Three officers and forty-nine men were
saved in this boat and were picked up ultimately by a trawler. One officer and
twenty men were also picked up later from a raft.
Six employees of the Council were among those who were lost, namely G. A. B.
Allum and T. W. Jackson (Ch. Engr.), F. T. Hemming and C. W. Waite (L.F.B.), P.
W. Hepworth (Asylums) and A. W. Woods (Tram.).
Battles of Coronel and the Falkland Isles.
Towards the evening of 1st November, 1914, H.M.S. Good Hope, an armoured cruiser
of 14,100 tons and flagship of Admiral Sir C. Cradock, accompanied by H.M.S.
Monmouth, an armoured cruiser of 9,800 tons, H.M.S. Glasgow, a light cruiser of
4,800 tons, and H.M.S. Otranto, an auxiliary cruiser, came up off Coronel on the
coast of Chile with the squadron of Admiral von Spee, consisting of the armoured
cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau of 11,400 tons, and the light cruisers
Dresden, Nurnberg and Leipzig, 3,540, 3,350 and 3,200 tons respectively. The
enemy declined action until sunset, when the light gave them an important
advantage. During the action, which began about 7 p.m. and lasted for an hour,
darkness and the head sea made firing difficult. At an early stage both the Good
Hope and Monmouth caught fire, but fought on until, at 7.50 p.m., a great
explosion took place on the Good Hope, flames shooting 200 feet into the air,
and the ship foundered with the loss of all on board. The Monmouth, accompanied
by the Glasgow, hauled off at dark, but was unable to steam away. She was then
attacked by the enemy and sank, all on board perishing. The Glasgow and Otranto
escaped. The result of this action is attributed to the superior weight of metal
possessed by the enemy and to the advantages of position. The British ships
fought with gallantry but the odds were too great. F. H. Field and W. J. Brooker
(Tram.), and J. E. Blake (Parks) lost their lives on the Good Hope.
After the battle the Glasgow and the Otranto fell in with H.M.S. Canopus, of
12,950 tons, which also belonged to Cradock's squadron but had been left behind
for repairs, and the three vessels made for the South Atlantic. Meanwhile a
squadron, consisting of the battle cruisers H.M.S. Invincible and Inflexible,
each of 17,250 tons, and the three armoured cruisers H.M.S. Carnarvon of 10,850
tons, and Kent and Cornwall, each of 9,800 tons, was dispatched from England
under Rear- Admiral Sir F. D. Sturdee, and arrived on 7th December at the
Falkland Isles off the extreme south-eastern coast of S. America. Next day, just
as the combined squadrons had finished coaling, von Spec arrived expecting to
find only the remnants of Cradock's force. When he realised his error he
attempted to escape, but was compelled by the superior speed of the British
ships to give battle. His vessels were overpowered; the Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau were sunk by the battle cruisers, the Nurnberg by the Kent and the
Leipzig by the Glasgow and Cornwall. About 200 of the crews were rescued, the
rest with von Spec himself going down with their ships. The Dresden escaped for
the time being, but on 14th March, 1915, was sunk by the Kent and the Glasgow
off the island of Juan Fernandez.
Battle of Jutland.
The facts relating to the Battle of Jutland have been the subject of so much
controversy that it must suffice to say here merely that on 31st May, 1916, the
British Battle-cruiser Fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir David
Beatty, was cruising to the west of the Jutland peninsula when the
Battle-cruiser Fleet of Vice-Admiral Hipper was sighted. A fierce battle
commenced, and had lasted for nearly an hour when the main body of the German
High Sea Fleet appeared and took part in the conflict. From the first sighting
of the enemy two hours elapsed before the main British fleet could appear on the
scene of action, and during the latter part of this time Sir David Beatty's
force was engaged against overwhelming odds.
Though it successfully held the German fleet and inflicted very heavy damage on
the enemy, it necessarily sustained great losses in the unequal conflict. All
the might of the German fleet was concentrated in turn against the leading ships
of the British line. H.M.S. Queen Mary in particular received the full force of
the enemy's fire, and after a stubborn fight the vessel was destroyed as the
result of an explosion. Very few of the crew were saved and amongst those
missing were George Doling (L.F.B.) who was serving as a gunner and E. W.
Whitlock (Tram.) who was serving with the R.M.L.I. H.M.S. Tipperary formed a
unit of the fourth torpedo flotilla attached to the main Battle Fleet. On the
night (31st May/1st June, 1916) following the battle the Fourth, Eleventh and
Twelfth Flotillas delivered a series of attacks on the enemy, causing him severe
losses. In the course of these attacks H.M.S. Tipperary was sunk. Only 20 men
were saved, and among others Leading Stoker E. W. Pouting (L.F.B.) lost his
life.
The Germans claimed the battle as a victory, but the grounds on which this claim
was based are not obvious. It is difficult to estimate their losses, but they
seem to have equalled ours. Their fleet did not continue the contest, but in the
darkness of the early morning of 1st June returned to port. Our blockade was
maintained, and never again did they venture to dispute our naval supremacy.
General Casualties,
I. J. Miller (R.N., L.F.B.) was on H.M.S. Viknor when she was lost in January,
1915, and F. A. Halliday (Educ.) and W. S. Entwistle (L.F.B.) were on H.M.S.
Clan McNaughton, an armed merchant cruiser employed on patrol duty, when she
disappeared, having probably foundered in heavy weather during February. James
Waddingham (R.M.L.I., L.F.B.) was killed by a gunshot on 29th February, 1916,
when H.M.S. Alcantara was sunk by the Greif, a German raider, and Alfred Bolt
(Tram.) serving on Torpedo-boat No. II as a gunner lost his life on 7th March,
1916, when, having struck a mine off the East Coast, his vessel sank with most
of her crew.
H.M.S. Foyle struck a mine in the English Channel on 15th March, 1917, and sank
with the loss of 29 men, one of whom was Arthur Roake, D.S.M. (R.F.R,, L.F.B.).
Henry Carpenter (R.F.R., L.F.B.) lost his life on 30th June, 19 17, when H.M.S.
Cheerful, while employed on escort duty, struck a mine and foundered in the
North Sea. H.M.S. Ettrick, engaged in convoying transports, was torpedoed and
sank on 7th July, 1917, off Beachy Head, those killed including James New
(R.F.R., Tram.). C. J. C. Bastian (R.N., Educ.) was killed on 9th July, 1917,
when H.M.S. Vanguard blew up in harbour as the result of an internal explosion.
A. C. Jones (R.N.R., L.F.B.) was drowned on 30th July, 1917, when the s.s.
Besswood on which he was serving as a gunner sank in the Irish Sea after a
collision. H.M.S. Wolverine sank on 12th December, 1917, as a result of a
collision, and John Richards (R.N., Tram.) was among the very few who lost their
lives.
J. W. Helps (Educ.) lost his life in the very gallant action on 20th January,
1918, when H.M.S. Raglan, a monitor of 4,500 tons, on which he was serving,
aided by a smaller vessel of the same type, engaged the Goehen (22,640 tons) and
the Breslau (4,480 tons) off the Dardanelles. The British vessels, hopelessly
outgunned, were both sunk, but the Breslau, retreating after the engagement,
struck a mine and sank, and the Goehen also struck a mine and to avoid
destruction had to be beached in the Narrows. C. L. Pain (Tram.) was serving on
H.M.S. Eleanor when on 12th February, 1918, while carrying a cargo of 2,000
mines, she blew up with the loss of all hands. W. F. Harden (Educ.) lost his
life on i6th September, 1918, when an explosion occurred on board H.M.S. Glutton
which, having caught fire, had to be destroyed in Dover Harbour so as to prevent
damage to the shipping and the town.
Decorations.
Lieut. A. G. Dodman (R.N.R., Ch. Engr.) received the D.S.C. for the gallantry
with which, while on patrol duty in the east Mediterranean on 6th December, 916,
he went to the defence of the s.s, Camberwell, his skilful action probably
leading to the destruction of the submarine making the attack. The facts
relating to other naval decorations gained by members of the Council's staff are
described under the various fronts.