Dover Patrol

Inasmuch as the war is worldwide and we have powerful allies, we should have expected naval influence and pressure be manifested in the oceans in the mediterranean and indeed wherever the enemy is and the seas are finally we should have expected the navy to be to the british empire what it has always been to the empire's heart its safeguard from injury and disruption and the bond that holds it together Each one of these functions has been executed by a navy with triumphant success in the war, and history should show that it is executing them now, as the sea service has accomplished them in all the wars of the past.

part five of two essays on military history strategy and tactics mountain warfare nineteen o nine a naval strategy nineteen seventeen by various this libervox recording is in the public domain part five british navy chapter two the centre of sea power of speedy victory let no man doubt our worst works past now we have found them out behold their navy does at anchor lie and they are ours for now they cannot fly andrew marvel sixteen fifty three 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 geography is there in the scales against her she rebels against british sea supremacy the freedom of the seas is therefore her claim though she is endeavouring to qualify to be the tyrant of them her only outlook towards the outer seas is from the bight of oligoland and the fringe of coast behind the east frisian islands or from the baltic if her ships pass the sound or the belt issuing into the north sea through the skagger but they cannot reach the ocean except through the north passage where the grand fleet holds the guard only isolated raiders bent upon predatory enterprise have stealthily gone that way after nightfall in the southern gate of the north sea through the straits of dover and in the channel the way is barred the guns of dover the dover patrol and certain other deterrents forbid the enemy to adventure in that direction the new engines of naval warfare the mine submarine airship and aeroplane found their first and greatest use in the north sea only by employing craft which hide beneath the water and on rare occasions by destroyers which seek the cover of darkness for local forays have the germans been able to exert their efforts in any waters outside the north sea at the beginning of the war they had raiding cruisers in the pacific and atlantic and a detached squadron in the far east but the british fleet reached out to those regions and aided by the warships of japan and france it drove every vestige of german naval power from the oceans in the north sea therefore sea power has exerted its greatest most vital and most far-reaching effect there the germans if they had possessed the power could have struck a blow which if successful for them would have proved a mortal stroke at the british empire and would have rendered useless all the efforts of the allies millions of men incalculable volumes of guns munitions and stores of every imaginable kind for the use of the greatest armies ever set in the field have entered the french ports solely because the grand fleet holds the guard in the north sea the whole face of the world would have been changed by german naval victory england would have been subjected by invasion and famine if the heart of the empire had been struck what would have been the future of its members if sea communication with the allies had been cut what would have been their fate at the hands of the victors the attacks of sallying cruisers and destroyers upon the coast towns of england the tip and run raids as they have been called and the visits of bomb dropping airships and aeroplanes are the signs of the naval impotence of germany the situation in the north sea is therefore of absorbing interest it may be studied chiefly from the two points of view of the strategy of the opposing fleets and the exercise of the blockade there is a peculiarity in naval warfare which is not found in warfare upon land that a belligerent can withdraw his naval forces entirely from the theatre of war by retaining them as with a threat or in a position of weakness behind the guns of his shore defences nothing of the kind is possible with land armies a general can always find his enemy and attack or invest him and if successful drive him back or cause him to surrender and occupy the territory he has held the germans have chosen the reticent strategy of the sea they have never come out to make a fight to a finish to put the matter to the touch to gain or lose it all the animus pugnandi is wanting to their fleet it was necessary that they should do something they could not lie forever stagnant at kiel and willemshaven they could keep their officers and men in training by making brief cruises in and outside the bide of oligoland they might with luck meet some portion of the grand fleet detached and at a disadvantage in any case they were bold enough to take their chances on occasions always with their fortified ports and mined waters and their submarines under their lee they might succeed in reducing british superiority by the attrition of some encounters such was the genesis of the dogger bank battle of january twenty fourth nineteen fifteen when that gallant officer sir david beatty inflicted a severe defeat upon admiral hipper and drove him back in flight with the loss of the blucher and much other injury the same causes brought the german high-sea fleet under admiral scheer into the great conflict first with sir david beatty and then with the main force of the grand fleet under command of sir john jellicoe on may thirty first nineteen sixteen the events of the great engagement of the jutland bank will not be related here all that it is necessary to note is that the germans had so chosen their time that they were able to avoid decisive battle with sir john jellicoe's fleet by retreating in the failing light of the day and that their adventure availed them nothing to break the blockade or otherwise to modify the impotent position in which they are placed at sea That action operated to the disadvantage of England and her allies in no degree whatever.

The superiority of the British fleet as a fighting engine had been placed beyond dispute.

The mine and the submarine have put an end to the system of naval blockade as practiced by St. Vincent and Cornwallis.

Many a trawler has been sunk by contact with her fatal captures.

Others have been sunk by hostile fire and bombing by enemy aeroplanes.

But never have the brave seamen quailed in the service of the country and the Allies, and in every port men are to be met, whose craft have been sunk under them and who have hastened to sea again hundreds of ships drawn from the mercantile marine and the fisheries steam yachts motor boats armed launches and vessels of other classes are employed in such dangerous work they share the trials of war wind and weather with the regular naval patrols sir edward carson when first lord of the admiralty directed attention to the magnificent work of the mine trawlers of these patrols the force employed at the beginning of the war numbered about a hundred and fifty small vessels but it increased to three thousand or more the whole nation should understand what minesweepers were doing the thousands of men engaged in this operation are the men who are feeding the whole population of this country from morning till night battling with the elements as well as the enemy facing dangers under the sea a minesweeper carries his life in his hands at every moment and he does it willingly later again he expressed his thanks in the thanks of the nation for the splendid work they had accomplished of all the seamen who had so deservedly earned the gratitude of the country none had had more arduous and dangerous duties to perform than the gallant fellows in the patrols they have worked in reliefs day and night at sea though sometimes driven to port by the fury of the elements and they brave every kind of weather as admiral bacon commanding the dover patrol has said with reference to the security with which thousands of merchantmen had passed through the waters in his patrol no figures could emphasize more thoroughly the sacrifice made by the personnel of the patrols and the relative immunity ensured to the commerce of their country they have trawled for mines not only in british but in distant waters their magnificent work under fire and attacked by bomb dropping aeroplanes at the dardanelles will never be forgotten An American correspondent, Mr. Gordon Brace, who sailed in a mine trawler to learn its work, concluded an article in the New York Tribune in these words, "'I looked at those men who go out day after day, who wear their life-belts continually, who take their tea on the decks while they peer over the rims of their cups for the death that lurks in those somber waters.

I thought how fine was their devotion to their duty, how great a part they are playing in the war.' out there alone where their deeds are attended with no sounding of trumpets where they give to their work the same quality of bravery as is required of the man in the trenches and as i glanced at the inscription over the cabin which read england expects every man to do his duty i knew that england would not be disappointed the practical methods by which the navy and its brave mine-trawlers conduct their services are of great interest but description cannot go too far the enemy is certainly well acquainted with all british methods previous to the war but mine-sweeping systems do not stand still but develop with the progress of armaments generally Mine trawling is developed from the system of trawling for fish, which before the war had reached a high degree of technical efficiency, and in the application of that system to their work in the war, the men have attained great proficiency and become extraordinarily successful.