‘No historian’, wrote a great military historian of the Great War, ‘would underrate the direct effect of the semi-starvation of the German people in causing the final collapse of the “home front". But leaving aside the question of how far the revolution caused the military defeat, instead of viceversa, the intangible all-pervading factor of the blockade intrudes into every consideration of the military situation.’ The blockade, concludes Basil Liddell Hart, was ‘clearly the decisive agency in the struggle.’(27)
The effort of sustaining that blockade and the Fleet that made it possible was prodigious, demanding an incalculable toll on human ingenuity, courage, patience, spirit, and belief in the cause, and on the material and economic resources of the nation and its empire. The price paid could be seen by 1921 in tangible terms in the enforced reduction of the size of the Royal Navy to that of its ex-ally the United States, whose own naval competition with the Japanese Empire was already set on its compass course to Pearl Harbor.
NOTE ON SOURCES
THE most important source of unpublished papers on the naval war at sea 1914-18, and on the years leading up to the Great War, is the Public Record Office at Kew, London, where the Admiralty Record Office MSS are essential for any serious student of this period. Also held at the PRO are The Foreign Office MSS, the Additional (Add.) MSS, and British Documents. Other important sources are the British Library in London (e.g. Jellicoe MSS: MSS 48989-49057): Naval Library. Ministry of Defence, London (e.g. Jackson MSS); National Maritime Museum Library, Greenwich (e.g. Richmond MSS); and Churchill College, Cambridge (e.g. Drax MSS).
The most comprehensive published guide to manuscript sources is in Arthur J. Marder’s From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, v 346-61. However, this was published in 1970 and some of the addresses are out of date. For example, the highly important Beatty MSS may now be consulted at the National Maritime Museum. Greenwich. This same volume also contains an invaluable list of published works with comments, sometimes of a cryptic nature.
NOTES
CHAPTER l (pp.1-11)
1. Cadet Stephen King-Hall to his parents, 3 February 1906; My Naval Life (1952)
2. Including The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660-1783 (1890) and The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire 1790-1812 (1892)
3. Observer, 18 July 1909
4. Commander G. Lowis, Fabulous Admirals (1957) p. 35
5. Pall Mall Gazette, October 1904
CHAPTER 2 (pp. 12-21)
1. Charles Middleton, first Lord Barham (1726-1813), Controller of the Navy 1776-1806
2. Quoted by F. Lascelles to E. Grey, Foreign Secretary, 16 August 1906; British Documents, viii. 192
3. Manchester Guardian. 29 December 1907
4. The Times, 6 March 1908
5. Captain Philip Dumas RN to F. Lascelles, 12 January 1908; British Documents. vi. 124-5
6. Cabinet paper, ‘Naval Estimates 1914-15’, 10 January 1914: Asquith MSS
7. Sir Francis Knollys to Lord Esher. 10 February 1909; Esher MSS
8. Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis, 1914-19. 5 vols. (1923-9). i. 37
9. Daily Exprese, 20 March 1909
10. Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot
11. Churchill, World Crisis. i. 74-5
12. Admiral Lord Fisher to Lord Esher, 2 February 1910; Kilverstone MSS
CHAPTER 3 (pp. 22-36)
1. 3 March 1910: Lennoxlove Papers
2. Churchill. World Crisis. i. 70
3. Standard, 5 July 1911
4. Churchill. World Crisis. i. 81-2
5. J. S. Sandars to A. J. Balfour. 14 November 1911; Balfour papers
6. Admiral J. Marder. From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, 5 vols. (1961-70), i. 253
7. 21 December 1912
8. Admiral G. von Müller to Admiral F. von Tirpitz, 4 June 1914: German Ministry of Marine MSS
9. Lennoxlove Papers
10. Fisher to Churchill, 16 January 1912; Arthur J. Marder, Fear God and DreadNought: the Correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, 3 vols (1952-9). ii. 426
11. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 123
12. Churchill to Fisher. 11 June 1912; Admiralty MSS
13. Add. MSS 49694, 6 January 1912 and 9 January 1912
14. 5 June 1914
15. Randolph Churchill/Martin Gilbert. Winston S. Churchill, 27 vols., with Companion vols. of Papers (1966 – ), ii. 688. Hereafter referred to as Churchill/Gilbert
16. Lennoxlove Papers
17. Army and Navy Gazette, 17 May 1913
18. Admiral Sir William James to A. J. Marder. undated but probably 1967: Marder Papers
19. James to Marder, 21 February 1967; Marder Papers
20. James to Marder, 3 February(?) 1967: Marder Papers
21. Churchill/Gilbert, Companion ii to Churchill ii. p. 1304.
22. ibid., p. 1312
CHAPTER 4 (pp. 37-52)
1.Churchill, World Crisis, i. 37
2. Foreign Office MSS 800/87
3. Tirpitz to Bethmann Hollweg, n.d. (25 October 1911); German Ministry of Marine MSS
4. Memo on ‘Suddenness in Naval Operations’, 1 March 1905; Balfour MSS
5. 118th meeting of Committee of Imperial Defence (CID): Asquith MSS
6. Captain Hugh Watson, RN, to Sir Edward Grey, 30 June 1913; Marder Papers
7. Foreign Office MSS 800/87
8. Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Troubridge, 20 June 1912; British Documents, ix (Pt. i). 413-16
9. Foreign Office MSS 800/87
10. 23 August 1912 quoted in Churchill World Crisis, i. 112
11. 29 January 1914 Asquith MSS
12. Rear-Admiral William S. Chalmers, The Life & Letters of David, Earl Beatty (1951), p 99
13. Captain Hugh Watson. RN, to Sir Edward Goschen, 13 October 1913; British Documents, x (Pt. 2). 716
CHAPTER 5 (pp. 53-68)
1. Churchill. World Crisis, i. 190
2. Richard Hough. Mountbatten; Hero of our Time (1980), p. 27
3. Richard Hough, Louis & Victoria: the First Mountbattens (1973), p. 280
4. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 212
5. G. Callender, The Naval Side of British History (1924)
6. CID Report 54-A (PRO)
7. Beatty MSS
8. Churchill/Gilbert, Churchill. iii. 15
9. John Winton, Jellicoe (1981), p. 144
10. Sir Julian S. Corbett/Sir Henry Newbolt, History of the Great War. Naval Operations, 5 vols. (1920-31), i. 177
11. 18 August 1914; Jellicoe MSS
12. Chalmers, Beatty, p. 161
13. ibid., p. 158
14. Churchill/Gilbert, Companion iii to Churchill ii, p. 222
15. 24 October 1914; Richmond Papers
16. W. S. Chalmers, Full Cycle: the Biography of Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay (1959), pp. 20-1
17. R. Blake, The Unknown Prime Minister: the Life and Times of Andrew Bonar Law (1955). p. 232
18. Asquith MSS
19. ‘Errors, Blunders, & ‘orrible examples’; Richmond MSS
20. Beatty MSS
21. H.G. Thursfield, The Naval Staff of the Admiralty (1929), Naval Staff Monograph, p. 29
CHAPTER 6 (pp. 69-86)
1. Richard Hough, First Sea Lord: an authorized life of Lord Fisher (1969), p. 316
2. Fisher to Commander T. E. Crease, 18 August 1914; Marder, Fear God, iii. 52-3
3. Lieutenant-Commander P. K. Kemp to the author, 25 February 1982
4. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 240
5. Captain John Creswell, RN, to Marder, 17.July 1971; Marder Papers
CHAPTER 7 (pp. 87-98)
1. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 414
2. Vice-Admiral Harold Hickling, Sailor at Sea (1965), p. 50
3. Quoted in Richard Hough, The Pursuit of Admiral von Spee (1969). p. 115
4. Hickling, Sailor at Sea, p. 50
5. Quoted in Hough, Pursuit of von Spee, p. 116
6. ibid.
7. Admiral
Sydney Start to Marder, 10 November 1966; Marder Papers
8. Captain Geoffrey Bennett, Coronel and the Falklands (1962), p. 20
9. Captain C. R. 0. Burge, DSO, RN, to Marder, 21 October 1966; Marder Papers
10. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 424
11. Start to Marder, 10 November 1966; Marder Papers
12. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 419
CHAPTER 8 (pp. 99-120)
1. Beatty to Lady Beatty, 19 October 1914; Chalmers, Beatty, p. 178
2. Churchill/Gilbert, Companion iii to Churchill ii, p. 188
3. Beatty to Lady Beatty, 18 October 1914; Beatty MSS
4. 4 October 1914
5. Churchill/Gilbert, Companion iii to Churchill ii, p. 230
6. Churchill to Balfour, 17 September 1915; Balfour Papers
7. Chalmers. Beatty, pp. 160-1
8. Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, The Naval Memoirs of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, 2 vols. ( 1934-5). i. 130
9. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 427
10. Sturdee to Sir Henry Newbolt. March 1924; Sturdee MSS
11. Hough. Fisher. p. 327
12. Kilverstone MSS
13. Jellicoe to Fisher. 11 November 1914; Marder. Fear God, ii. 70
14. Hickling, Sailor at Sea, p. 66
15. Bennett, Coronel, p. 126
16. Quoted in Hough. Pursuit of von Spee, p. 135
17. Captain R. F. Phillimore (commander of the Inflexible, which rescued survivors from the Gneisenau), letter of 11 December 1914; Phillimore Papers, Imperial War Museum (IWM) 75/48/2
18. Hickling, Sailor at Sea, p. 74
19. Sturdee MSS
20. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 436
21. Rear-Admiral R. K. Dickson, letter of 11 December 1914: Marder Papers
22. Captain Hans Pochhammer. Before Jutland: Admiral von Spee’s Last Voyage (1931)
23. Hickling. Sailor at Sea. pp. 81-2
24. ibid.; quoted in Hough. Pursuit of von Spee, p. 158
25. ibid., p. 80
26. Conversation with the author. May 1968
27. Quoted in Hough, Pursuit of von Spee, p. 158
28. Commander L. Peppé, conversation with the author, September 1982
29. Rear-Admiral R. K. Dickson, letter of 11 December 1914; Marder Papers
30. Chalmers MSS
31. Crichton F. Laborde, Captain’s Clerk HMS Inflexible, to his father, Commander H.W. Laborde, 13 December 1914; IWM Ref/77
32. Kilverstone MSS
33. Sturdee MSS
34. Kilverstone MSS
35. Sturdee MSS
CHAPTER 9 (pp. 121-143)
1. Filson Young, With the Battle Cruisers (1921), p. 49
2. James to Marder, 18 March 1968; Marder Papers
3. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 467-8
4. Beatty to Jellicoe, 19 December 1914; Admiralty MSS
5. Young, With the Battle Cruisers, p. 111
6. Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, ii. 14on. (2nd corrected printing)
7. Creswell to Marder, 20 March 1966: Marder Papers
8. 21 January 1915; Beatty MSS
9. Add. MSS 49006, ff 72-3
10. Captain M. von Levetzow to Admiral von Holtzendorff 15 January 1915;
Levetzow Papers, German Ministry of Marine MSS
11. 20 December 1914
12. Churchill. World Crisis, ii. 129
13. Young. With the Battle Cruisers. pp. 175-6
14. Addendum to Diary, 24 January 1915; entry: Drax MSS
15. ibid.
16. ibid.
17. ibid p. 183
18. Downing to Marder, 6 July 1966: Marder Papers
19. Addendum to Diary, 24 January 1915 entry; Drax MSS
20. Beatty to Keyes; quoted in Captain Stephen Roskill Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty (1980), p. 114
21. Creswell to Marder, 13 March 1964: Marder Papers
22. Jellicoe to the Secretary of the Admiralty: Add. MSS 49012, ff 23-5
23. Beatty to Keyes. 10 February 1915; Keyes, Naval Memoirs, i. 163
24. Fisher to Jellicoe. 8 February 1915; Jellicoe MSS
25. Fisher to Beatty, 31 January 1915; Marder, Fear God. iii. 150-1
26. Captain H. Watson, RN, to Jellicoe, 28 February 1915; Beatty MSS
27. Jellicoe. ‘A Reply to Criticism’; Jellicoe MSS
28. Downing to Marder, 6 July l966; Marder Papers
CHAPTER 10 (pp. 144-168)
1. Beatty to Lady Beatty, 4 December 19144: Beatty MSS
2. Marder, Fear God, iii. 99-100
3. ibid., p. 91
4. ibid., p. 138
5. Captain T. Crease to Admiral Sir R. Hall, 7 November 1914; Crease MSS
6. D. Brownrigg, Indiscretions of the Naval Censor (1920), p. 12
7. Diary 12 August 1914: Richmond MSS
8. Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, The Life of Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, 2 vols. (1929). ii. 188
9. Marder. Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, ii. 177
10. ibid p. 86
11. Memorandum, 20 December 1906; Lennoxlove MSS
12. Vice-Admiral K. G. B. Dewar, The Navy from Within (1939), p. 190
13. Marder. Fear God, iii. 117-I8
14. Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, ii. 205
15. ibid.
16.M. Hankey, The Supreme Command. 1914-1918 (1961), i. 256-6
17. Jellicoe’s marginalia to his copy of Churchill. World Crisis, ii; Jellicoe MSS
18. Marder, Fear God, iii. 133
19. David Lloyd George, War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, 6 vols. (1933-6), i. 395
20. Arthur J. Marder (ed.), Portrait of an Admiral: the Life and Papers of Sir Herbert Richmond (1952), p. 140; Diary entry, 9 February 1915
21. 10 November 1915; Balfour MSS
22. Balfour to Churchill, 8 April 1915; Add. MSS 49694
23. Corbett, History, ii. 145
24. The unpublished memoirs of Group Captain H. Williamson; Marder Papers
25. ibid.
26. Captain H. C. B. Pipon to Marder, 18 October 1965; Marder Papers
27. Foreign Office MSS 800/88
28. Churchill, World Crisis, ii. 256
29. Pipon to Marder; Marder Papers
30. Keyes, Naval Memoirs, i. 209-10
31. ibid., p. 26
32. Captain A. C. Dewar, quoted in Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, ii. 243
33. Group Captain Williamson memoirs; Marder Papers
34. Marder, Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, ii. 232
35. ibid.
36. Dardanelles Commission report
37. Add. MSS 49703; Balfour MSS
38. Dardanelles Commission report
39. Churchill, World Crisis, ii. 234
40. Marder, Fear God, iii. 179
41. Churchill, World Crisis, ii. 358
42. Lennoxlove MSS
43. ibid.
44. ibid.
45. Marder, Fear God, iii. 247
46. Lennoxlove MSS
47. ibid.
48. Cynthia Asquith, Diaries 1915-18 (1968). p. 31
CHAPTER 11 (pp. 169-189)
1. Diary, 11 February 1915; Duff MSS
2. Admiral Sir Percy Scott. Fifty Years in the Royal Navy (1919). pp. 289-90
3. Jellicoe Papers
4. H. Bauer, Führer der U-boote (1956), pp. 17-18
5. P. K. Lundeteg, ‘German Naval Critique of the German U-boat Campaign,’ Military Affairs, Fall 1963
6. Die deutschen U-boote in ihrer Kriegfuhrung 1914-18; quoted in R. H. Gibson and Maurice Prendergast, The German Submarine War. 1914-18 (1931), p. 25
7. Admiral Lord Fisher, Records (1919). pp. 177-8
8. Hough, Fisher, p. 169
9. Churchill/Gilbert, Companion iii to Churchill ii. pp. 1960-1
10. Churchill, World Crisis, ii. 280
11. Corbett, History, ii. 393
12. Churchill World Crisis, ii. 292
13. A. Spindler, Der Krieg zur See 1914-18. Der Handelskrieg mit U-boote (1932-41), iii. 72
14. Lieutenant-Commander P. K. Kemp to the author, 30 November 1981
15. Corbett, History, i. 238
16. Captain Richard Phillimore to Keyes, 21 January 1916: Paul G. Halpern (ed.), The Keyes Papers, 3 vols. (1972-81). i. 333
17. Lieutenant-Commander K. Edwards, We Dive at Dawn (1939), p. 117
18. Lieutenant William G. Carr. By Guess and by God: the story of the British Submarines in the War (1930). p. 21
19. ibid, p. 30
20. Keyes Papers, i. 139
21. Sir Walter Raleigh/H. A. Jones. The War in the Air, 6 vols. (1922-8), ii. 11
22. Captain Stephen Roskill (ed.), Documents Relating to the Naval Air Service, vol. i, 1908-18 (1969), i. 310
23. Raleigh and Jones, The War in the Air. i. 487
CHAPTER 12 (pp. 190-210)
1. Earl Balfour as First Lord of the Admiralty.’ Graham Greene MSS
2. Dictionary of National Biography
3. Diary of Admiral Sir Frederick Hamilton, Second Sea Lord, 20 May 1915; Hamilton MSS
4. Hankey, The Supreme Command, ii. 335
5. Selborne to Balfour, 19 May 1915; Balfour MSS
6. N Macleod to Marder, 22 January 1966; Marder Papers
7. Jellicoe to Beatty. 7 August 1915; Beatty MSS
8. Jellicoe to Beatty, 23 March 1915; Add. MSS 49008, ff. 27-8
9. Churchill, World Crisis, i. 401-2
10. Lloyd George, War Memoirs, ii. 107
11. Jellicoe to Admiral Sir Edward Bradford, 15 September 1915; Bradford MSS
12. Jellicoe to Jackson. 9 August 1915; A. Temple Patterson (ed.), The Jellicoe Papers, 2
The Great War at Sea: 1914-1918 Page 43
