Flag and Fleet: How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the SeasWood, William
History
Flag and Fleet: How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas
Wood, William
Great Britain -- History, Naval; Sea-power
The night fighting was done by the light craft; and it was here that
Jellicoe had so much need of Tyrwhitt's flotillas from Harwich.
Harwich was very handy to the battlefield and Tyrwhitt's light craft
were as keen and ready as any one could be. But the Government were
afraid to let them go, for fear lest some Germans might raid the
English coast. There was very little chance of a raid at all. It
could not have been a bad one in any case. No mere raid can change the
course of a war. The best way to stop raids is to win the war by
destroying the enemy's means of destroying you. The best way to do
this is to smash his main force wherever it happens to be. And the
best way to smash it is to throw all your own forces against it once
you get a hold on it. But people who are scared in one place will not
think about the war as a whole, though that is the way to save these
very people as well as all the rest. So they ask for some defence they
can actually see. It was much the same as in the days of the Spanish
Armada. Drake and Jellicoe wanted to do the right thing. But Queen
Elizabeth's Council and King George's Government wanted to humour the
people concerned. The only comfort is that, with all our faults, we of
the British Empire make fewer naval mistakes than other people do.
The light craft that did reach that famous battlefield could not have
done more to guard the British battle lines and harass the flying
Germans. There was many a weird sight as scurrying cruisers and
destroyers suddenly showed up, ominously black, against the ghastly
whiteness of the searchlit sea. Hunters and hunted raced, turned, and
twisted without a moment's pause. "We couldn't tell what was
happening," said the commander of a dashing destroyer. "Every now and
then out of the silence would come _Bang! bang!! boom!!!_ as hard as it
could for ten minutes on end. The flash of the guns lit up the whole
sky for miles and miles, and the noise was far more penetrating than by
day. Then you would see a great burst of flame from some poor devil,
as the searchlights switched on and off, and then perfect silence once
more."
_Next Day_. Dawn comes early on the 1st of June at 55 degrees North.
But the mist veiled everything more than three or four miles off. At
3.30 A.M. a huge Zeppelin flew across the British battle line,
wirelessing down to any Germans still to the westward the best way to
get home. By nine the light craft had all come in after scouring the
sea for Germans. At a quarter past one it was plain that not a German
ship remained to challenge the Grand Fleet. So Jellicoe made for his
base; took in fuel, stores, and ammunition; and at half-past nine next
evening was ready for another battle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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