BEATTY IN ACTION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 666, 10 April 1952, Page 12

BEATTY IN ACTION

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF DAVID EARL BEATTY, by Rear-Admiral W. S. Chalmers; Hodder and Stoughton. English price, 25/-. ‘

(Reviewed by

S. D.

W.

T was once said of David Beatty that "in a service predominantly English, he was a temperamental Celtic anomaly." Admiral Chalmers would have us believe that Beatty was an Irish reincarnation of Horatio Nelson. None will dispute that Beatty was a bold and courageous leader; in the Royal Navy personal courage and boldness are taken for granted. But to equate Beatty and his war record with Nelson and his achievements is to do too great honour to the former and far less than justice to the latter. Admiral Chalmers, who, as a young officer, served on Beatty’s staff in H.M.S. Lion, writes in an almost passionate belief that Beatty could do no wrong. When things went amiss in action, it was always the fault of someone else. After all, a flag officer is responsible for the efficiency of his fleet or squadron. Yet over and over again the signalling organisation in Beatty’s battle-cruisers was shown to be gravely at fault and their gunnery far below the high standard of Jellicoe’s battle fleet and of the Germans. It was a tactical blunder and faulty signalling by Beatty at the crisis of the Dogger Bank action that enabled Hipper’s battle-cruisers to escape. In the afternoon of Jutland, Beatty’s signalling organisation failed again’ and he committed a_ strategical and _ tactical error by leaving the--powerful Fifth Battle Squadron far behind when he went into action. He was glad of their ponderous support later. Yet Admiral Chalmers argues that Hipper (who knew that the High Seas Fleet was approaching and did not know that the Battle Fleet was coming down) "on finding himself confronted with such a superior force, would certainly have refused action and there might not have been a battle at all." Hipper did not refuse action with Beatty, or the Fifth Battle Squadron when it got within range. Of these and many other aspects of the war at sea the author’s version is extremely partisan, but one can agree with him that "for ten years Beatty’s character was put to the test in the most trying battle of his career, the emotional conflict between his duty to the Navy

. and his love for his wife, who was suffering from a nervous affliction for which neither he nor she could find a cure."