A Naval History of World War I

by Paul G. Halpern

40.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 4:81–85. The operations are the subject of Shankland, The Phantom Flotilla. See also John Mackenzie, “The Naval Campaigns on Lakes Victoria and Nyasa, 1914–1918,” Mariner’s Mirror (1985): 169–82.

  41.Jose, The Royal Australian Navy, 59–62, 70–73.

  42.This subject is covered in exhaustive detail in Mackenzie, The Australians at Rabaul.

  43.Account of the Australian-New Zealand convoy drawn from: Naval Staff, The Eastern Squadrons, 8–26; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:287, 299–302, 332, 380–81; Jose, The Royal Australian Navy, 150–64, 409–13.

  44.Details of Indian, South African, and Mediterranean convoys summarized from: Naval Staff, The Eastern Convoys; Naval Staff, The Mediterranean; and Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:155, 280–81, 378–79.

  45.Wemyss quoted in: Lady Wemyss, Lord Wester Wemyss, 178, 182.

  46.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:203–5, 210–12. The convoy arrived safely at Plymouth on 14 October after having been diverted from Southampton because of German submarine activity in the Channel.

  47.Pochhammer, Before Jutland, 106–8.

  48.Randier, La Royale 1:220–21; Pochhammer, Before Jutland, 110–12; Jose, The Royal Australian Navy, 558–59.

  49.Naval Staff, The Eastern Squadrons, 77–78.

  50.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:278.

  51.On these points, see Louis, Great Britain and Germany’s Lost Colonies, chap. 2.

  52.Naval Staff, The Eastern Squadrons, 78, 87–88.

  53.Hirst, Coronel and After, 15, 94, 97, 103–4; Hickling, Sailor at Sea, 21–22; Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, 19–21.

  54.Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, 24.

  55.A very clear discussion is in Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, 78–79, 94–98; see also Hirst, Coronel and After, 97; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:105–12.

  56.Hirst, Coronel and After, 111. Similar sentiments are in Hickling, Sailor at Sea, 46–51. Clear accounts of the battle are in Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, chap. 1, and Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations, vol. 1, chap. 25; a vivid German perspective is Pochhammer, Before Jutland, chap. 8.

  57.Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, 110.

  58.Bingham, Falklands, Jutland and the Bight, 49.

  59.United States regulations cited by Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:371–72.

  60.Naval Staff, The Eastern Squadrons, 178–86.

  61.Japanese deployments covered in Naval Staff, The Eastern Squadrons, 108–9.

  62.Jose, The Royal Australian Navy, 123.

  63.Ibid., Ill, 125–27.

  64.Details in Raeder and Mantey, Der Kreuzerkrieg 1:233–39; a synopsis is in Hirst, Coronel and After, 155–58.

  65.Raeder and Mantey, Der Kreuzerkrieg 1:253–54; Tirpitz, My Memoirs 2:83–85.

  66.Raeder and Mantey, Der Kreuzerkrieg 1:241, 270–73.

  67.Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, 135.

  68.The Admiralty later presented Mrs. Felton a gift of silver plate. Hirst, Coronel and the Falklands, 204.

  69.Detailed accounts of the action are in the respective official histories: Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations, vol. 1; Raeder and Mantey, Der Kreuzerkrieg, vol 1. An excellent general account is Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands; and for the view from individual ships, see Pochhammer (Gneisenau), Before Jutland; Bingham (Invincible), Falklands, Jutland and the Bight; Hirst (Glasgow), Coronel and After; Spencer-Cooper (Cornwall), Battle of the Falkland Islands; Dixon (Kent), The Enemy Fought Splendidly; and Buchan, Log of H.M.S. “Bristol,” 78–83.

  70.The officer was Lieutenant Canaris, the future head of Abwehr, the German intelligence organization in the Second World War. Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, 174–76.

  71.Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands, 71.

  5. THE OVERSEAS CAMPAIGNS

  1.Gilbert, Churchill 3:19–21; Mackay, Fisher of Kilverstone, 455–56; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:178–81; on a similar scheme by Churchill to seize the northern portion of Sylt, see ibid., 187–88.

  2.Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:182–84; Jellicoe, The Grand Fleet, 129–30; Jellicoe to Admiralty, 24 September 1914, in Patterson, The Jellicoe Papers 1:69, doc. 45; Patterson, Tyrwhitt, 69.

  3.Churchill to Fisher, 4 January 1915, reproduced in Gilbert, Churchill 3:236; Churchill to Jellicoe, 4 January 1915, in Patterson, The Jellicoe Papers 1:118–19, doc. 95.

  4.Gilbert, Churchill 3:225–26; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:184–87; Churchill to Fisher, 21, 22 December 1914, Marder, Fear God and Dread Nought 3:105, 107.

  5.Kaarsted, Great Britain and Denmark, 53.

  6.Gilbert, Churchill 3:241–43.

  7.Richmond Diary, 4, 19 January 1915, in Marder, Portrait of an Admiral, 134–35, 138–39; Marder, Dreadnought o Scapa Flow 2:188–90.

  8.On the battle cruisers, see Parkes, British Battleships, 608, 618–22; on monitors, see Buxton, Big Gun Monitors, 12, 26.

  9.Churchill’s remarks in Churchill, The World Crisis 2:27–28; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:191–96; and on extensive argument the Baltic was a talking point, Mackay, Fisher of Kilverstone, 456–57, 459–61, 463–65, 467–68, 472–73.

  10.Cited in James, A Great Seaman, 138.

  11.Jellicoe, The Grand Fleet, 154–55; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:197–98; Mackay, Fisher of Kilverstone, 473; Marder, Fear God and Dread Nought 3:93; Gilbert, Churchill 3:241–42, 270–71, 275.

  12.Corbett, Naval Operations 3:148–54.

  13.Described in detail in Bacon, The Dover Patrol; and for a differing view, from Bacon’s successor at Dover, see Keyes, The Naval Memoirs, vol. 2; see also Patterson, Tyrwhitt, 182–84.

  14.James, A Great Seaman, 138.

  15.David French, British Strategy and War Aims, 47; on French projects for a Syrian expedition and suspicions of the British at this time, see Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, The Climax of French Imperial Expansion, 65–70 and Tanenbaum, France and the Arab Middle East, 7–8. Turkish rail communications are discussed in Macmunn and Falls, Egypt & Palestine 1:19–21, 26–27.

  16.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:73–78; Macmunn and Falls, Egypt & Palestine 1:28, 34–36, 41.

  17.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:111–12; Thomazi, Méditerranée, 77; Macmunn and Falls, Egypt & Palestine 1:28–29. The most detailed account is in the relevant chapters of the Naval Staff monograph, The Mediterranean, 1914–1915.

  18.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:114–17; Macmunn and Falls, Egypt & Palestine 1:40–43, 48–49; Thomazi, Méditerranée, 80–81.

  19.Macmunn and Falls, Egypt & Palestine 1:63–64, 71, 89; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:366–69. On German attempts at mining, see Lorey Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:246–47.

  20.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 2:223–26; Macmunn and Falls, Egypt & Palestine, vol. 1, chaps. 7–8. Many details on the Tara episode are in Davies, The Sea and the Sand.

  21.A succinct discussion of the origins of the Dardanelles campaign is in French, British Strategy and War Aims, 68–74. More detailed accounts are in Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, vol. 2, chap. 9; Gilbert, Churchill, vol. 3, chaps. 6, 8–10; and Cassar, The French and the Dardanelles, chap. 3.

  22.On Fisher’s role, see Mackay, Fisher of Kilverstone, 480, 488–90.

  23.Vice Amiral Aubert, “Note pour le Ministre sur l’action aux Dardanelles,” 7 February 1915, SHM, Carton Ed-109. On the French role, see Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 56–60; Cassar, The French and the Dardanelles, 56–60, 62–66; Laurens, Le commandement, 75–76, 80–82.

  24.Churchill, The World Crisis 2:547–50.

  25.Souchon to his wife, 6 January 1915, BA/MA, Nachlass Souchon, N156/12; There were similar doubts at the Admiralty, see: Admiral Sir H. B. Jackson, “Note on forcing the passages of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus . . .,” 5 January 1915, PRO, Adm 137/1089; see also Richmond, “Remarks on Present Strategy,” 14 February 1915, reproduced in Marder, Portra
it of an Admiral, 142–45.

  26.Hankey to Balfour, 10 February 1915, British Library, London, Balfour MSS., Add. MSS. 49703, f.165.

  27.Gilbert, Churchill 3:288, 292–97; Cassar, The French and the Dardanelles, 73–75; Thomazi, Dardanelles, 64.

  28.Keyes to his wife, 8 March 1915, in Halpern, The Keyes Papers 1:103–4.

  29.Wemyss to Limpus, 4 March 1915, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Limpus MSS; Rear Admiral Hugh Miller, unpublished autobiography, 136. Microfilm copy at Imperial War Museum, London, PP/MCR/16.

  30.French, British Strategy and War Aims, 80–82; Gilbert, Churchill 3:320–22, 332–35. The Russians had also vetoed Greek participation in the campaign, see: ibid., 220–21, 281, 287, 315–16, 328–29; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 2:103, 123–25.

  31.Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 65, 77.

  32.Churchill to Kitchener, 20 January 1915, reproduced in Gilbert, Churchill 3:267–68; Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 66.

  33.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 2:195–200, 209–10; Naval Staff, The Mediterranean, 1914–1915, 118–24; Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 67–68.

  34.Authorities differ in their details of the (inevitably) still mysterious affair. See: Captain G. R. C. Allen, “A ghost from Gallipoli,” The Royal United Service Institution Journal 108, no. 630 (May 1963): 137–38; letter by Admiral Sir William James, 7 September 1963, in ibid. 108, no. 632 (November 1963): 374–75; see also James’s, The Eyes of the Navy, 60–64; Gilbert, Churchill 3:358–60; Beesly, Room 40, 80–82.

  35.Churchill to Carden, 11 March 1915, reproduced in Gilbert, Churchill 3:337; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:242–45, 263–65; Keyes, Naval Memoirs, vol. 1, chap. 12; Keyes to his wife, 15, 17 March 1915, in Halpern, The Keyes Papers 1:108–10.

  36.Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:245–50; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 2:213–23; Keyes, Naval Memoirs, vol. 1, chap. 13; Keyes to his wife, 21 March 1915, in Halpern, The Keyes Papers 1:110–15; Bush, Gallipoli, 51–64.

  37.For the arguments, see Keyes, Naval Memoirs 1:185–86; Churchill, The World Crisis, vol. 2, chap. 13; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:259–65; Marder, “The Dardanelles Revisited: Further Thoughts on the Naval Prelude,” in From the Dardanelles to Oran, 1–32.

  38.Souchon to his wife, 19 March 1915, BA/MA, Nachlass Souchon, N156/13.

  39.On 28 March the major batteries of the Dardanelles defenses reported 46 shells (8 modern, 38 old) for each of the five 35.5-cm cannon; 62 shells (12 modern, 50 old) for each of the three 24-cm cannon; 120 high-explosive shells for each of the thirty-two 15-cm howitzers; 230 shells (30 armor piercing, 200 practice) for each of the three British 15-cm cannon; and 140 shells for each of the five 15-cm Krupp cannon. Bachmann to Kaiser Wilhelm, 31 March 1915, microfilm copy of German naval records in NARS, T-1022, Roll 587, PG 68126.

  40.Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 69–70, 106.

  41.Ibid., 71–75, 107–8.

  42.Good accounts of the landings are in: James, Gallipoli; Moorehead, Gallipoli; Aspinall-Oglander, Military Operations: Gallipoli; Keyes, Naval Memoirs, vol. 1, chap. 17; Bush, Gallipoli.

  43.Wemyss to Limpus, 6 September 1915, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich., Limpus MSS.

  44.Keyes, Naval Memoirs 1:335–77; Churchill, The World Crisis 2:350–51; Gilbert, Churchill 3:117–18; Guépratte, L’Expédition des Dardanelles, 147.

  45.Keyes, Naval Memoirs 1:338.

  46.Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:138–44; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 2:406–8.

  47.Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:276–86, 286–91; Gilbert, Churchill 3:422–29, 433–45, chap. 14; Churchill, The World Crisis 2:380 ff.; Mackay, Fisher of Kilverstone, 496–505.

  48.Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 107–12; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:149–51; Otto Hersing, U.21 rettet die Dardanellen, 43–47.

  49.De Robeck to Limpus, 16 May 1915, reproduced in Halpern, “De Robeck,” 448–50.

  50.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:28–31; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:151–55; Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 116–17; 148–57.

  51.Bush, Gallipoli, 225; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 2:149–50; Edwards, We Dive at Dawn, 182; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 2:302–4, 374–75; 3:32–35; 75–79, 100–102, 114–19; Keyes, Naval Memoirs 1:288–89, 347–50; other accounts of the submarines at the Dardanelles are: Brodie, Forlorn Hope 1915; Shankland and Hunter, Dardanelles Patrol.

  52.On the Suvla landings, see Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:68–70, and chap. 5; Aspinall-Oglander, Military Operations: Gallipoli, vol. 2; Keyes, Naval Memoirs, vol. 1, chap. 22; James, Gallipoli, chaps. 10–11; Bush, Gallipoli, chap. 20.

  53.On the French plans and Sarrail, see Tanenbaum, General Maurice Sarrail, 56–65; King, Generals and Politicians, chap. 4; Cassar, The French and the Dardanelles, chap. 8. Numerous documents on this obscure plan may also be found in Ministère de la Guerre, État-Major de l’Armée—Service Historique, Les Armées Français dans la Grande Guerre, Tomb 8–1er vol., Annexes—1er vol. (Paris, 1924).

  54.Proposal by Keyes for a renewal of the naval attack on the Dardanelles and de Robeck’s comments, 17 August 1915, in Halpern, The Keyes Papers 1:188–92; Memorandum by Captain Godfrey, 13 September 1915, Keyes to de Robeck, 23 September 1915, in ibid., 194–204; Keyes’s memorandum of 18 October 1915 printed in Keyes, Naval Memoirs 1:440–43.

  55.Keyes Diary, 17 October-10 November 1915, in Halpern, The Keyes Papers 1:216; de Robeck to Jackson, 20 October 1915, ibid., 232–33; de Robeck to Balfour, 20 October 1915, in idem., “De Robeck,” 478–79.

  56.On Keyes in London, see Keyes Diary, 29 October-9 November 1915, in Halpern, The Keyes Papers 1:219–31; Balfour to Keyes, 1 November 1915, ibid., 234–35; Memorandum by Keyes, n.d. [6 November 1915], ibid., 235–40; Keyes to Jackson, 11 November 1915, ibid., 241–42; Jackson to de Robeck, 7 November 1915, in idem., “De Robeck,” 480. For the French role, see also Cassar, The French and the Dardanelles, 212–16.

  57.De Robeck to Limpus, 9 November 1915, in Halpern, “De Robeck,” 480–81; Limpus to de Robeck, 12 November 1915, ibid., 481–83.

  58.Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 185–87; on the argument the Ayas Bay project was a mere diversion, see James, Gallipoli, 329–31; and as a desirable alternative to other campaigns, see Barker, The Bastard War, 409–11.

  59.The decision to evacuate is discussed in Aspinall-Oglander, Military Operations: Gallipoli, vol. 2, chaps. 28–30; James, Gallipoli, 321–32; Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:309–29.

  60.Wemyss to de Robeck, n.d. (probably 29 November 1915) in Halpern, The Keyes Papers 1:257–58; Wemyss to Jackson, n.d. (late November, early December 1915), ibid. 1:268–69; Keyes, Naval Memoirs 1:473–75.

  61.On the evacuations, the very detailed account is in Aspinall-Oglander, Military Operations: Gallipoli, vol. 2, chaps. 21, 32. See also Keyes, Naval Memoirs, vol. 1, chap. 26; James, Gallipoli, 339–42, 344–47; Bush, Gallipoli, 300–306.

  62.Naval operations are covered in Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 1:375–78, 388–95; Nunn, Tigris Gunboats, chaps. 1–3; and detail on all aspects of the expedition in Moberly, The Campaign in Mesopotamia. See also Naval Staff, Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf.

  63.French, British Strategy and War Aims, 137.

  64.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 2:11–13; Nunn, Tigris Gunboats, 78–85. Operations in Persia are covered in detail in the recently released 1928 confidential publication: Moberly, Operations in Persia, chap. 2.

  65.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:15–23; Nunn, Tigris Gunboats, chap. 6; Barker, The Bastard War, 65–69.

  66.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:185–88; Nunn, Tigris Gunboats, chap. 7; Barker, The Bastard War, 69–76.

  67.Full details in Moberly, Operations in Persia, chap. 3; see also: Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:189–90; Barker, The Bastard War, 135–3
9.

  68.On the decision to advance, see French, British Strategy and War Aims, 144–46; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:181–82, 188–99; Barker, The Bastard War, 77–80, 93–99.

  69.Nunn, Tigris Gunboats, 200, 202, 211–12; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:197, n. 1.

  70.Nunn, Tigris Gunboats, chaps. 9–10; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:226–69; Barker, The Bastard War, chap. 5.

  71.Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 4:87–91; Barker, The Bastard War, 225–27; Nunn, Tigris Gunboats, chaps. 12–13.

  72.For Wemyss’s comments, see Lady Wemyss, Lord Wester Wemyss, 281–86; on the administrative reorganization, see Barker, The Bastard War, 266–70, 272–73; Moberly, The Campaign in Mesopotamia 3:31–35.

  73.A thorough discussion of British strategy is in Moberly, The Campaign in Mesopotamia 3:37–55; for a succinct summary, see Guinn, British Strategy and Politics, 157–58, 217–20.

  74.Moberly, The Campaign in Mesopotamia 3:193–96; Nunn’s vivid account is in his Tigris Gunboats, 259–67; see also Barker, The Bastard War, 310–11. The relatively small German role in Iraq is described in Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:248–60, 350–58; and Köppen, Die Überwasserstreitkräfte, chap. 18.

  75.Moberly, The Campaign in Mesopotamia 4:140–41. In July 1918 a naval party from the Moth and Mantis was sent to the Caspian in a complex effort to gain control of that sea following the Bolshevik Revolution and withdrawal of Russia from the war, a tangled subject far beyond the scope of this book. See ibid., 202, 329–30.

  76.See Thomazi, Méditerranée, 92–94, 102–3, 115–17.

  77.On the Anatolian cattle raids, see Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 290–93; documents concerning the raids are in Halpern, Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, doc. 66–69, 71, 73, 76–77, 82, 85, 87, 90, 95, 97; see also Taffrail, Endless Story, 95–100; Usborne, Blast and Counterblast, 99–100; and Myres, Commander J. L. Myres.

  78.Fremantle to Admiralty, 30 December 1917; Minutes by Naval Staff; Calthorpe to Admiralty, 21 January 1918, Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, 329–41.

  79.Marder, Portrait of an Admiral, 250–51, 388; Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 421–22.