A Naval History of World War I

by Paul G. Halpern

  26.Naval Staff, The Baltic, 22–23, n. 4, 24–28.

  27.Ibid., 29–35; Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 53–56.

  28.Excerpts from “Denkschrift des Oberbefehlshabers der Ostseestreitkräfte” [Prince Heinrich], 25 March 1915, in Rollman, Krieg in der Ostsee, vol. 2, Das Kriegsjahr 1915 (Berlin, 1929), 26–27.

  29.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 129–35.

  30.Graf, The Russian Navy, 32.

  31.Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 62–66.

  32.The debate is given in detail in: Rollmann, Krieg in der Ostsee 2:88–94, 101.

  33.Diary of Admiral Richard F. Phillimore, 11 November 1915, Imperial War Museum, London, Phillimore MSS. 75/48/2. See also similar report from the British naval attaché in Buchanan to Foreign Office, 8 February 1916, PRO, Adm 137/1248, ff. 135–37.

  34.See the convenient summary in Norman Stone, The Eastern Front, 171–72, 184 ff.

  35.See, for example, the criticisms in Pavlovich, The Fleet, 145–47. German comments are in Rollman, Krieg in der Ostee 2:45, 48, 188–94.

  36.Cited in Waldeyer-Hartz, Hipper, 176.

  37.Hoffmann, War Diaries 1:77.

  38.See the discussion in Rollman, Krieg in der Ostsee 2:280–85.

  39.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 156. Similar charges are repeated for other occasions during the war.

  40.Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 91.

  41.Grenfell to Buchanan, 9 June 1915, and minutes by Oliver (COS), 29 June, Jackson (first sea lord), 1 July, and Balfour (first lord), 3 July, PRO, Adm 137/271, ff. 295–300; Laurence to S. S. Hall, 30 June 1915, ibid., ff. 378–80; Buchanan to Foreign Office, 17 August 1915, and minute by Oliver, 18 August 1915, ibid., ff. 353–54. See also Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 78–81.

  42.Minutes by Oliver, 28 November, H. W. Wilson (?), 29 November, H. B. Jackson, 30 November, and Balfour, 26, 29 November 1915, PRO, Adm 137/1247, ff. 31–35.

  43.Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 81–85; Corbett and Newbolt, Naval Operations 3:135–36; Rollman, Krieg in der Ostsee 2:311–12.

  44.Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 89–96.

  45.See remarks in Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1906–1921, 316.

  46.Capitaine de frégate Gallaud to Minister of Marine, 22 December 1914, 6 June 1915 (with endorsement by Paléologue, the French ambassador), SHM, Carton Ed-60.

  47.Jonquières to Fa vereau, 30 June 1915, Fa vereau to Jonquières, 13 July 1915 (with covering letter and report from Chief of flotilla division, 7 July), ibid.

  48.Jonquières, Rapport au Ministre, 20 July 1915, and Augagneur, Decision du Ministre, 26 July 1915, ibid.

  49.Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 107–8; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 162–63.

  50.Rollman, Krieg in der Ostsee 2:323–24, 329; Groos and Gladisch, Krieg in der Nordsee 4:339–45.

  51.Rollman, Krieg in der Ostsee 2:325–26.

  52.Ibid. 2:336.

  53.Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 2:417–19; Schoultz, With the British Battle Fleet, 47–53, 64–69, 357–59.

  54.Admiralty Memorandum (probably by Oliver), 26 February 1916, PRO, Adm 137/1247, ff. 192–98.

  55.The story is well told in Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 148–57, 160.

  56.Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:7–8, 54–55. On Prince Heinrich’s intervention see: Ganz, “‘Albion’—The Baltic Islands Operation,” 92.

  57.Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:29–30, 36.

  58.Cromie to S. S. Hall, letters of 29 May, 17 June 1916, 10 October 1917, reproduced in Anonymous, Letters on Russian Affairs from Captain F. N. A. Cromie (n.p., 1919), 1–2, 9, 81.

  59.Compare the tables in Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 26, 36–37, and Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:37, 46, 49–50.

  60.The Russian and German accounts differ more widely than usual. See Pavlovich, The Fleet, 193–97; Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:31–33; Graf, The Russian Navy, 83–85.

  61.Historical Section Summary, PRO, Adm 137/1248, f. 563. See also Talpomba to Minister of Marine, n.d. (c. 3 August 1916) and 17 September 1916, SHM, Carton Xk-1; Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:44.

  62.Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:130–31.

  63.Consett, The Triumph of Unarmed Forces, esp. 79–85, 97–98, 105. For an interesting survey, see also Franklin D. Scott, “Gustav V and Swedish attitudes towards Germany, 1915,” Journal of Modern History 39, no. 2 (June 1967): 113–18. On the importance of Swedish sources to the German navy, see Weir, Building the Kaiser’s Navy, 136, 159.

  64.McKercher and Neilson, “‘The Triumph of Unarmed Forces’” 178–99. See also McKercher, Esme Howard, 162–71.

  65.The Swedish prince was probably William, Duke of Södermanland (1884–1963), second son of King Gustav V. See Statements by the Masters of the Thelma (23 November 1915), F. D. Lambert (29 January 1916), and Gitano (5 February 1916). Howard to Grey, 7 February 1916, PRO, Adm 137/1125, ff. 390–92, 401–7, 417–18, 422–24; Shipping Intelligence Officer, Newcastle to Admiralty, 6 July 1916 (case of Penmount), Adm 137/1247, ff. 452–56; T. Holliday to Messrs. B. J. Sutherland & Co., Ltd. (case of Dunrobin), 11 June 1916, ibid., ff. 470–71. Norwegian torpedo boats gave similar protection in Norwegian waters.

  66.Historical Section Summary, PRO, Adm 137/1248, f. 563; Fayle, Seaborne Trade 2:334–36, 3:152; Bell, Blockade of Germany, 531–32, 534, 608; Koblik, Sweden: The Neutral Victor, 65–66, 72; and an exhaustive study on Swedish-German relations: Justus-Andreas Grohmann, Die deutsch-Schwedische Auseinandersetzung um die Fahrstrassen des Öresunds im Ersten Weltkrieg (Boppard am Rhein: H. Boldt, 1974).

  67.Attaché Navale to Minister of Marine, Paris, 1 September 1916, SHM, Carton Ea-160; Cromie to Hall, 13/26 September 1916, Letters on Russian Affairs, 18–19. See also Monastarev, Sur Trois Mers, 85.

  68.Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:92–98; Frantz Wietling, “Action des torpilleurs dans la Baltique,” in Mantey, Les Marins Allemands, 77–84.

  69.Two excellent modern studies are Saul, Sailors in Revolt and Mawdsley, Russian Revolution. For the perspective of émigré officers, see Graf, The Russian Navy and White, Survival through War and Revolution. For the Bolshevik viewpoint, see the memoir Raskolnikov, Kronstadt and Petrograd. The impressions of a British naval officer later murdered in the embassy at Petrograd are in Cromie, Letters on Russian Affairs.

  70.Tschischwitz, Conquest of the Baltic Islands, 4–5, 22. For a good short account, see Ganz, “‘Albion’—The Baltic Islands Operation,” 93–97.

  71.Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 295; Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:166–68.

  72.Ludendorff, My War Memories 2:506; Hindenburg, Out of My Life, 281–82; Hoffmann, War Diaries 2:186–87.

  73.Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:169; Görlitz, The Kaiser and His Court, 301; Hopman, Das Kriegstagesbuch eines deutschen Seeoffiziers, 240–42; Hopman to Tirpitz, 4 October 1917, cited in Holger Herwig, “The Dynamics of Necessity: German Military Policy during the First World War,” in Military Effectiveness, vol. 1, The First World War, edited by Allan R. Millett and Williamson Murray (Boston: George, Allen & Unwin, 1988), 113, n. 96.

  74.Tschischwitz, Conquest of the Baltic Islands, 34.

  75.Ibid., 52, 55, 69; Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1906–1921, 148–49; Hopman, Kriegstagebuch, 246.

  76.Tschischwitz, Conquest of the Baltic Islands, 20–21, 147.

  77.Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1860–1905, 184; Breyer, Battleships and Battle Cruisers, 389 n. 2.

  78.The operations of the British submarines are difficult to follow in the German and Russian accounts; see Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 191–98.

  79.Buchanan to Foreign Office, 17, 18 October 1917, Minute by Oliver, 18 October 1917, Memorandum by Naval Staff (Operations Division), 20 October 1917, PRO, Adm 137/1249, ff. 399, 434–36, 438, 443–44.

  80.Figures gathered from Tschischwitz, Conquest of the Baltic Islands, 239, 248–49; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 257.

  81.Herwig, “Luxury Fleet,” 236–37.

  82.Tschischwitz, Conquest of the Baltic Islands, 188.

  83
.Ibid., iv.

  84.Admiralty Memorandum for the War Cabinet, “Naval Situation in the Baltic,” 22 November 1917, PRO, Adm 137/1249, ff. 421–30.

  85.Memorandum for War Cabinet by First Lord of the Admiralty, 28 December 1917, ibid., ff. 492–96.

  86.Herwig, “German Policy,” 339–43; Gagern, Krieg in der Ostsee 3:354–61.

  87.Herwig, “German Policy,” 342–43; Graf, The Russian Navy, 175–76.

  88.Lt. Downie to Commodore (S), 5 May 1918, PRO, Adm 137/1570, ff. 369–70; Wilson, Baltic Assignment, 209–11.

  8. THE BLACK SEA

  1.For a full discussion of Black Sea war plans, see Pavlovich, The Fleet, 272–76, 279–82; on the prewar naval balance, see Halpern, Mediterranean Naval Situation, 295–303, 307–10.

  2.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 281–82.

  3.On the failure to catch the Goeben in the minefield, see Pavlovich, The Fleet, 288–90; more details were given later in the war to the British officer attached to Russian Imperial Headquarters, Phillimore to Admiralty, 6 June 1916, PRO, Adm 137/1389, ff. 280–81.

  4.Souchon to Kaiser Wilhelm, 3 November 1914, BA/MA, Nachlass Souchon N156/3.

  5.Souchon to Chef des Admiralstabes, 29 November 1914, NARS, Microfilm Publication, T-1022, Records of the German Navy, 1850–1945, Roll 788, PG 75239.

  6.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 291–92; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 46.

  7.Lorey, Der Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:62–63, 66–67.

  8.Russian and German versions of the encounter are in Pavlovich, The Fleet, 296–300; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:64–66; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 46.

  9.Souchon to his wife, 18 November, 26 December 1914, cited in Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 54.

  10.Souchon to his wife, 23 August 1914, cited in Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 49; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:67–68.

  11.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 46–47; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:70–73; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 301–5; Monasterev, La Marina Russa, 257–65. Pavlovich differs from the other accounts in a number of details, among them that Oleg was not sunk by Breslau but rather was scuttled along with the other blockships. Monasterev has Oleg damaged, but not sunk, by torpedo boats rather than the Breslau.

  12.Mäkelä, Auf den Spuren der Goeben, 76; Breyer, Battleships and Battle Cruisers, 270. Repairs to the port side were completed by the end of March, and the Goeben could then make at least 20 knots and was used for Black Sea operations in April. Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:93, 100.

  13.Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:72–73, 80–82.

  14.Grand Duke Nicholas’s memorandum is summarized in Buchanan to Grey, 25 January 1915, reproduced in Churchill, The World Crisis 2:155–56.

  15.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 318; on Russian promises to the British, see Gilbert, Churchill 3:315, 344.

  16.Lt. Comdr. G. W. Le Page (British observer with Black Sea Fleet) to Grenfell, 10 April 1915, PRO, Adm 137/754, ff. 52–53. See also Pavlovich, The Fleet, 318–19.

  17.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 318–20; Monasterev, La Marina Russa, 269–70. On British promises to Russia over Constantinople, see Gilbert, Churchill 3:217, 320–21.

  18.As usual, the German and Russian accounts differ widely. Lorey claims the bombardment was not directed at the Bosphorus fortifications and was insignificant from the military point of view, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:93. Pavlovich names the fortifications fired on and claims hits were scored; see The Fleet, 321–22.

  19.Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:93–100; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 322–24.

  20.Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 2:126–27.

  21.Ibid. 1:129–33; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 327–29; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 49.

  22.Souchon to his wife, 10, 16 April 1915, cited in Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 114.

  23.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 327.

  24.Souchon to his wife, 15 May 1915, cited in Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 114.

  25.Souchon to his wife, 16 May 1915, cited ibid., 115. On the coal problem, see Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:133–38.

  26.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 49–50; Monasterev, La Marina Russa, 279–81; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:166–67.

  27.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 50, 165; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 2:127–29; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 337–39. Pavlovich (and Monasterev) incorrectly claim the Krab’s minefield was responsible for damaging the Breslau.

  28.Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 2:174–76; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 50.

  29.Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:176–77, 193–95, 203–5.

  30.Firle, Kriegstagebuch, 5 and 9 September 1915, cited in Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 163.

  31.Le Page to Grenfell, 23 September, 7 November, 15 December 1915, with comments by DNI (W. R. Hall), 31 October, 17 December 1915, 18 January 1916, PRO, Adm 137/754; Phillimore to Admiralty, 3 November 1915, ibid., Adm 137/1389, ff. 46–47.

  32.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 338, 341.

  33.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 51; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 343–45; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:195–98.

  34.Phillimore to Admiralty, 3 November 1915, PRO, Adm 137/1389, ff. 45–47; see also Phillimore Diary, 29 October 1915, IWM, Phillimore MSS, 75/48/2.

  35.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 53; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:222.

  36.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 393–94.

  37.As usual the Russian and German accounts differ, Lorey identifying the Imperatritsa Ekaterina as the Imperatritsa Maria. See Pavlovich, The Fleet, 394–95; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:212–16; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 52–53; Monasterev, La Marina Russa, 289–90.

  38.Le Page to Grenfell, 20 January 1916 and note by NID, 16 February 1916, PRO, Adm 137/754. See also Pavlovich, The Fleet, 341–42. On coal for Turkey, see Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:217–18.

  39.Allen and Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, 550–52.

  40.The Caucasus campaigns can be studied in detail in Allen and Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields and Larcher, La Guerre Turque.

  41.Minutes by NID (W. R. Hall), 10 February, 5 March 1916, PRO, Adm 137/754; technical details from Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1906–1921, 322.

  42.The various accounts of these operations have maddening discrepancies in detail. See Pavlovich, The Fleet, 355–66; Allen and Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, 369–72; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 52–53; Monasterev, La Marina Russa, 297–304.

  43.Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:216–25.

  44.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 369. With the irritating inconsistency which bedevils Black Sea accounts, both Lorey and Greger report it was the Imperatritsa Maria.

  45.Le Page to Grenfell, 9 April 1916, PRO, Adm 137/754, f. 304.

  46.Ibid.

  47.Standard accounts, all differing in detail, are Pavlovich, The Fleet, 366–73; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 53–54; Allen and Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, 378–82; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:225–30; Monasterev, La Marina Russa, 305–14.

  48.Russian operations summarized from Pavlovich, The Fleet, 374–77; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 54–55. German operations from Lorey, Krieg in dem türkischen Gewässern 1:232–33, 236–40.

  49.The submarine also landed another five agents on the Georgian coast, sank a steamer off Suchumi, and on 8 July torpedoed and sank the small hospital ship Vpered (858 tons) off Hopa on the Lazistan coast.

  50.Pavlovich is highly critical of the handling of the fleet, The Fleet, 424–28; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 57. On German movements, see Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:260–62.

  51.Phillimore to Admiralty, 1, 22 July 1916; PRO, Adm 137/1389; Le Page to Grenfell, 9 August 1916, Minutes by DID (W. R. Hall), 2 July, 8 September, 2 October 1916, ibid., Adm 137/754.

  52.Le
Page to Grenfell, 24 July 1916, PRO, Adm 137/754, f. 381; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 377.

  53.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 421; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 59.

  54.Capitaine de vaisseau Dumesnil to Minister of Marine, 20 November 1916, SHM, Carton Ea-157.

  55.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 56; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:263–67; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 428–30.

  56.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 410.

  57.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 57–60, 65–69; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:280–86, 290, 295–96, 298.

  58.Halpern, Naval War in the Mediterranean, 247–48. The Russians acknowledge the loss to German submarines in 1916 of 6 transports, 2 hospital ships, a steamer, and 13 sail and auxiliary motor-sailing ships. Another 4 transports and 2 steamers were damaged., Pavlovich, The Fleet, 440.

  59.See especially Westwood, “The End of the Imperatritsa Marüa.”

  60.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 430, 438. Details on the journey are in Phillimore to Admiralty, 7 July 1916, PRO, Adm 137/1389. See also: Snook, “British Naval Operations” 1:40–44, 4:343–44, 355.

  61.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 481,

  62.Pavlovich, The Fleet, 483–85; Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 61.

  63.Le Page to Grenfell, 3 April 1917, PRO, Adm 137/940. Similar views were expressed by the British naval attaché in 1912. Cited in Halpern, Mediterranean Naval Situation, 301.

  64.On conditions in the Black Sea Fleet, see especially the series of reports: Le Page to Grenfell, 29 April, 7, 11, 17, 23 May 1917, PRO, Adm 137/940.

  65.For information on German minesweeping at the Bosphorus, see Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:303–4; Köppen, Die Überwasserstreitkräfte und ihre Technik, 268–69.

  66.Greger, Die Russische Flotte, 61–62; Pavlovich, The Fleet, 458–60; Lorey, Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern 1:305. Once again, accounts differ in many details. Pavlovich reports the accident occurring on the first night, with a second explosion sinking the launch after her survivors had been transferred, and the Russians returning the next night to successfully lay mines.

  67.A full account is in Le Page to Grenfell, 30 May 1917, PRO, Adm 137/940.

  68.Le Page to Grenfell, 23 June 1917, PRO, Adm 137/940. On Kolchak, see also White, Survival Through War, 150–52.