THE WAR AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 252, 18 July 1919, Page 14

THE WAR AT SEA

! BRITISH DASH AND GERMAN COWARDICE THE BOTTLED-UP FLEET AND THE PIRATE WAR The national character of the two principal belligerents in the great warBritain and Germany—were in no theatre of the war more strikingly revealed than on the sea. Oil the British side, the traditional daring and cool contempt for danger which has over been the pride of the Navy revealed itself on every occa-

•sion when the signal for "Action ■ Sta. •tions". went tip. With the Germans tha same tactics which characterised then' ' operations on land marked their wartaro 011 'the seas. With one or two except tions —notably in the case of the -raide!- 1 Emtleii,' and the cqmnianderol the Ge.r- « man squadron in the enemy's - ' conduct of. iiis naval operations_• was dis- • tiiiguislipcl by a marked D'nwillingiiL'E-s to take chances or even engage: in batte. when the odds were fairly even', lie , never' fought unless the odds; gave. |hii\. an overwhelming advantage, and it was' only under these conditions, that hp wj)s able to claim a score: 'Prom the very , •first h'eMilade it'quite'clear that-IUS hau,. no'-intention, of "playing the game." .11 retired his main battle fleet behind' . i>' 'imge minefield and refused to eniergu from his base, save on isolated occasions when the coast was known to him to 1)6 clear rfnd unprotected -victims were ex. posed to attack. He sowed, tile seas ; broadcast with drifting mines, heedle&t of the fact that these were a- menace noi onCy to his enemies, but also to his -friends among the neutral nations. - ■ He raided undefended ports on the English East Coast, shelling .'the beaches, anu killing defenceless women aiid children. .But usually.one good fright was enougii. ■■The-Battle of Heligoland .Right decided him to keep his fleet- she-tered at its bxsc. The. runaway-, fight with Beatty'a • battle-cruisers, off the Dogger Bank cost , him a battle-cruiser, 'and put an .end to i lie-raids "tin the English East Coast. By the end of 1914 Germany's surface fighting, ships had disappeared from the high seas—the famous Einden had been suhk by the Australian crnieer Sydney, Von Spee's Pacific squadron had been :destroyed off the Falkland Islands, and, the enemy's n'ole weapon of ■ systematic sea .warfare .were his submarine boats. I The story of the' pirate war is familiar to all. -, From legitimate attacks the Germans gradually developed a policy of U-boat warfare that resembled nothing so much as a madman running amuck and killing indiscriminately, friend or foe. The , llboat' war was the gravest menace we "had to .face., for at its most acute stage it 'approached perilously near to a complete and effective blockade of the British Isles..- with .famine hovering uncomfortably near. The nation/had to be ra- | (foiled, a tremendous effort had to be exerted to maintain the supply of ships for the .carriage of food, and a terrific strain' was put upon the Navy to cope in various ways with the ramifications, of the menace. But the U-boat piracy cost the enemy , dear. America became an active participant in the war solely ■as the"result of the operations of the sea . nirates. and it was the intervention of America at the very crisis of the war on land, that turned the scale and opened the ivrv for tho final series of attacks in 1!)18 that culminated in the Armistice of ; November last. The great sea fight off Horn Reef, to be known in history as the Battle of Jutland, demonstrated to the Germans that as a naval power they could never hope to defeat the British, and with tiro gradual suppression of the U-boat attacks tho German Navy as a factor in the war had ceased to exist even-before the armistice, for its moral had. been, shattered, and its crews in a state of open mutiny. PRINCIPAL EVENTsIN THE WAR AT SEA ■ Battle of Heligoland Bight, August 28, 1911—German defeat. Baitlo. of Coronel—British Cruising Kouadron encountered the German Pacific Fleet off the Chilean coast. Cruiser Monmouth and Good Hope sunk. November 1, 1914. Raider Emden destroyed in Indian Ocean, November 10. German Pacific Squadron destroyed at the f'nlklands, December 8, 191-1. Fight Off Dogger Bank—Germans escaped with loss of battle cruiser Blucheiy January 2-1, .1915. German IJPboat .War Begins ("Sunk with j warning"), February 18, 1915. - j Bombardment of Dardanelles Forts. Loss of British warships Irresistible Slid Ocean, and tho French warship Houvct. March 18, 1915. T.usitania Crime—Cunarcf liner torpedoed with heavy loss of life—May 7, 1915. Three British Battleships Lost off' the Dardanelles—Goliath, Triumph, and Maiestic—May 12, 2G, 27, 1915. German Naval Defeat at Riga—Three battleships-and twelve cruisers driven off—August 8, 1915. Russian Naval Victory at Riga, August 18. 1915. Unrestricted U-boat War Begins, March 1. 1910. Rattle of Jutland, May 31, 131 G. Barred /one —U-boat Policy, "Sink at Sight.'" January 31, 1917. Britain Rationed. April 17, 1917. Tteitish Convov Disaster off the OrkneysTwo destroyers and eight merchantmen sunk, October 17, 1917. Daring Naval Raid on Zeebrugge—Ger-I'-boat and destroyer retreat destroyed, entrance blocked. April 22, 1918. "Surrender of German Fleet; and Intern- ■ merit at Cca'pa ' Flow, November 21, I 1918. . ... i

the Treaty of Peace the President of the United States of America has pledged himself-to proposu to the Senate of the "United States and the Prime Minister of Cii-e.it Britain has pledged himself to pro-, 'wise tu the Parliament of Great Britain an engagement, subject to the approval of the 'Council of the League of Nations, Jo go immediately Io the assistance of l r rance in the case, of an unprovoked attack bv Germany.". ' * . "This," adds the -"Spectator," 'is a