German fleet

“ Soon life began to awaken on the waters around us. Torpedo-boats shot up, patrol boats hurried along, flag signals fluttered in the air, wireless signals rattled out their greetings, and shouting and hand-wavings commenced, and then the iron ring of the German Fleet, which keeps safe watch over yonder, closed round our little "Deutschland," and under their protection we steered on past Heligoland towards the home haven. ”

“ This whole maneuver, conceived on a large scale, was engineered for the sole purpose of hampering the development of the German fleet, while, simultaneously, in America, which had an almost negligible merchant fleet; in France, whose navy was superior in numbers to the German; in Italy, in Russia, which also had ships built abroad—vast construction programs were carried out without eliciting one word of protest from England. And Germany, wedged in between France and Russia, certainly had to be at least prepared to defend herself on the water against those nations. ”

“ The ultimate scale of the new German Fleet, as contemplated by the latest Navy Law, will be 41 battleships, 20 battle or large armoured cruisers, and 40 small cruisers, besides a proper proportion—an ample proportion—of flotillas of torpedo-boat destroyers and submarines, by 1920. ”

“ Within a few hours steaming of the lively scene, when you may count as many as fifty vessels within sight at one time, lies the magnificent German fleet, for it is magnificent, save the British the finest the world has ever seen, equipped with all the most destructive engines the heart of man could devise. Hindenburg and his devoted divisions suffer terrible things under the fire of 4,000 British guns, discharging 200,000 tons of shells within the passage of a few short weeks. ”

“ But even if it should succeed in meeting us with considerable superiority of strength, the defeat of a strong German Fleet would so substantially weaken the enemy that, in spite of the victory he might have obtained, his own position in the world would no longer be secured by an adequate fleet. ”

“ Experience has shown that German Fleet Laws are regarded as immutable and fixed when proposals in the direction of a limitation of armaments are made, but as flexible as though no Fleet Law existed when political circumstances are favourable for making a further effort towards a higher standard of naval power. ”

“ In this harbor lay the German fleet, consisting of twenty-eight vessels, aside from torpedo-boats, and the Austrian fleet of four, many yachts, tugs, and steamers chartered for the functions. While gazing at the array before us we are aroused by the 21-gun salute of the flag-ship, fired in honor of the port. We now approach the German training-ships. The men are in the rigging. Three cheers ring out from the mass in the rigging. "Stand by to cheer ship!" yells the First Lieutenant. "Lay aloft!" and our rigging is a mass of human beings. ”

“ But the German Fleet is strong. I am not one of the sort of humourists who hold it up to contempt in its inactivity. For that matter I am not any sort of humourist. Perhaps you have found that out. But the German High Seas Fleet is no fit subject for joke. That it has proved harmless is due to one thing alone—superiority.
And so the War wags. All over the high seas our merchantmen continue to inscribe their indelible furrows. ”

“ When he first advocated the construction of a big navy, the German people viewed his dreams with indifference and distrust. Shackled by a system of conscription in order to provide the Empire with its huge army, they asked what it would profit them if to the burden of a great army they added the vast expense of a fleet capable not merely of defending their coasts, but of operating on the offensive in distant seas. ”

“ The British Fleet won the War, and the British Fleet didn’t get a single thing it ought to have, excepting the everlasting stigma amongst our Allies, of being fools, in allowing the German Fleet to be sunk under our noses, because we mistook the Germans for gentlemen. ”

“ The remembrance of the famous deeds which were accomplished on the sea will henceforth preserve over the grave of the German Fleet the hope that our race will succeed in creating for itself a position among the nations worthy of the German people. ”

“ In everyday life many romances [Pg 9] culminate in tragedy, and the course of events in the present war suggest that the time may be at hand when the German people will realise the series of errors committed by their rulers in the upbuilding of German sea-power. Within the past fifteen years it is calculated that about £300,000,000 has been spent in the maintenance and expansion of the German Fleet, the improvement of its bases, and the enlargement of the Kiel Canal. ”

“ On the other hand, the German Fleet, though much smaller, can remain concentrated in European waters.
"With the increases about to be made it will be in a position to measure its strength with the ordinary British naval forces in home waters (then consisting only of the small and inefficiently manned Channel squadron) ; but it should not be forgotten that the question of numbers is far less important at sea than on land. Numerical inferiority can be compensated by efficiency, by [Pg 110] excellence of material, by the capacity and discipline of the men. ”

“ But even the best of men and ships will not make the best fleet unless trained and "tuned up" to act together; and here, in its combined manuoeuvres, lay the crowning glory of the vast Grand Fleet. One day a visitor was watching it fight a sham battle against an enemy firing big guns at long range, when up came a real enemy, in the form of a German submarine, much closer than the sham. Of course the visitor turned his glasses on the "sub" and on the destroyers racing after it, like greyhounds slipped from the leash. ”

“ Only a ship-building industry like that of Germany, which, as the German Fleet developed, produced such super-excellent ships, could have helped to supplement our Fleet during the war by the construction of a new U-boat fleet. The reliability of the material, and the manner in which the boats were built, increased the courage of the crews who, with full trust in their weapon, could dare all.
In view of England's plan of campaign, there was no alternative but to inflict direct injury upon English commerce. ”

“ I should like, however, along with the description of my war experiences, to give the assurance to the German people that the German Fleet, which ventured to boast of being a favourite creation of the nation, strove to do its duty, and entered into the war inspired only by the thought of justifying the confidence reposed in it and of standing on an equal footing with the warriors on land. ”

“ If you will observe well the spirit of the men of the Grand Fleet at a time when the German Fleet—based though it is in the Kiel Canal, where regular shore-leave is easy to arrange—is filled with unrest and threatened with mutiny, I think you will agree with me the keeping of the British sailor in a healthy state of mind and body, without once letting him verge on 'staleness,' is worthy to rank as an achievement with that of keeping the enemy off the seas. ”

“ For this our naval construction program was absolutely necessary; it was never aimed against the English fleet, four or five times as strong as ours, and assuring England's superiority and security, to equal the strength of which no sensible man in Germany ever dreamed. We needed our fleet for coast defense and the protection of our commerce; for this purpose the lesser means of defense, like U-boats, torpedo boats, and mines, were not sufficient. ”

“ Jack was among these. He relieved his radio operator for the day and took the instrument himself.
"The German fleet," ticked Admiral Beatty's flagship wireless, "will steam forth from Helgoland on November 19 and move due west toward the English coast, where the British fleet will be stationed to await its coming."
"Shall we dismantle our guns?" asked Admiral von Wimpfen.
"Yes."
"And what of the size of our crews?"
"They shall be large enough to handle the vessel. That is all. The crew of each ship shall be reduced to the minimum." ”

“ It is not disputed that through our fleet-construction a sharper note was introduced into our relations with England than would have resulted from peaceful competition alone, but it is not a just judgement, nor one going to the foundation of the German-English relations, if the disaster of the world-war or even of the unsuccessful result of the war is attributed simply to the building of the German Fleet. ”

“ The essentials of the attack are easy enough to tabulate. First, Germany would have to concentrate in the North Sea the largest force of capital ships that it was possible to equip. Her own force I have already enumerated. Had Germany contemplated war on Great Britain she would, of course, not have sent the Goeben away to the Straits. The nucleus of the German Fleet, then, would have been twenty and not nineteen ships. ”

“ It is to be remembered that, so far as we are concerned, much as we should like to have all anxiety settled by hearing of the definite destruction of the German Fleet, its continued existence is nevertheless perfectly innocuous, so long as it is unable to affect the transporting of our troops or the conduct of our trade. ”

“ German Ships, Officers, and Men
In material, in the art of constructing and equipping ships of war, Germany at the beginning of the war ranked far above most of the Great Powers, and she was little, if anything, behind even Great Britain in workmanship, rapidity and cheapness. Her personnel also stood high, for she had succeeded in translating into naval terms the professional and disciplinary codes which have raised the German Army to a position of pre-eminence. Above all she had succeeded, in a degree never before attempted by any country, in keeping ships and men in constant association. ”

“ Preparation for war was never thought of. Why should it be? The French Navy had no aggressive designs, and was much below our own, both in material strength and in personnel, while the Russian Navy was partly confined in the Black Sea, the other part being in the Baltic. And so we, both officers and men, set out to have a good time. Our ships were kept up to yacht-like perfection as regards their paintwork, while their bright work shone like gold, and the road to promotion lay not through professional efficiency, but the state of cleanliness and splendour of one's ship. ”

“ And this is what the magazine editor prints in italics in this month’s magazine—that an army of 100,000 German soldiers had been practising embarking in the German Fleet. The absolute truth is that one solitary regiment was embarked for manœuvres. That is the truth. To embark 100,000 soldiers you want hundreds and thousands of tons of transport. ”

“ As I have instructed you, the first of the German fleet will leave Helgoland on the night of November 19. By that I mean the submarines. They must steam on the surface. The first flotilla to be composed of twenty-seven vessels. ”

“ More remarkable, perhaps, than the actual terms of the Navy Act was the character of the explanatory Memorandum put forward by the Navy Department. [9] In this notable document occurs the following statement of the new naval policy of the German Empire:
"To protect Germany's sea trade and colonies, in the existing circumstances, there is only one means: Germany must have a battle fleet so strong that, even for the adversary with the greatest sea-power, a war against it would involve such dangers as to imperil his position in the world. ”

“ Our illustration, reproducing a picture from a German paper, may solve the difficulty. Says the legend: "The Prince seized the drum of a fallen soldier and led his troops, beating the charge."
TELLING THE TALE IN GERMANY!—SEARCHING FOR THE BRITISH FLEET.
One of the curious fictions about England now going round in Germany is one that Sir John Jellicoe's fleet keeps in hiding lest it should meet the German fleet. German war-ships, indeed, scour the North Sea at all hours to give the Grand Fleet battle! Our illustration, from a serious painting published in a German paper, shows them at it. ”

“ If the demand is made that the foreign service fleet shall be in a position (1) energetically to uphold German interests everywhere in time of peace, (2) to be adequate for warlike conflicts with oversea States without navies deserving of the name, an increase of at least five large and five small cruisers, as well as of one large and two small cruisers as material reserve, seems called for. The Navy Law foresees as ready for use three large and ten small cruisers, and as material reserve three large and four small cruisers. ”

“ These, in themselves, are reassuring facts; but their value is greatly enhanced by the knowledge that the British ships are much larger than the German ships, as will be seen in the following table:
TABLE V
As, however, a ship is merely a floating platform for the transport of men and guns to the scene of battle, and the displacement of this floating platform is the measure of its carrying capacity, it follows that the British Fleet in the North Sea can bring to the scene of battle a much more powerful armament than is carried by the German High Sea Fleet. ”

“ The German High Sea Fleet, at the beginning of the war, consisted of forty-one battleships, seven battle cruisers, nine armored cruisers, forty-nine light cruisers, one hundred and forty-five destroyers, eighty torpedo boats, and thirty-eight submarines. Under the direction of Von Tirpitz the navy had become democratic and had drawn to it many able men of the middle class. ”

“ Indeed, for an effective representation of our interests it would have been necessary to send out even more ships, if such had only been available. In order to form a judgment of the importance of an increase of the foreign service ships, it must be realized that they are the representatives abroad of [Pg 188] the German defence forces, and that the task often falls to them of gathering in the fruits which the maritime potency created for the Empire by the home Battle Fleet has permitted to ripen. ”