“England’s Greatest Admiral”

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 42, 13 November 1936, Page 11

“England’s Greatest Admiral”

Sir, —Your correspondent, H. Stratford, is hopelessly “at sea,” to put it as mild as possible. He makes the extraordinary statement that Von Spec's squadron was trapped in Stanley Harbour and it took four hours by Sturdee’s ships to sink the German ships. That is a complete reversal of the facts. It was the British Fleet that got into Stanley Harbour to coal before continuing the hunt for Von Spee, and the German squadron, coming in sight of the British ships lying in the harbour, turned tail and made off at highest speed. The British admiral steamed out as soon as he could get under way, but the German ships were by then far away on the horizon, and the “four hours” your correspondent mentions were taken up in “a stern chase.” When the British guns were within range, however, it took but short work to sink the German ships.

He writes with the same distortion of Jutland. He appears to get quite mixed up over the classification of warships. The Jutland battle was one between the Whole of the German High Sea Fleet and the lighter gunned British battlecruiser squadrons under Admiral Beatty, which had the concentrated fire of the whole German fleet poured into it through getting too far ahead of the British battle (big ship) fleet, which never got really into action. The German admiral took care that it didn’t, by twisting and turning in all directions to keep away from certain destruction.

Your correspondent’s extraordinary statement that the “whole British battlefleet poured their broadsides into Hipper’s battle cruisers and nothing happened” is quite silly. As stated, the British battleships—the. big-gun ships—never got a chance to engage Hipper: if they had, the German fleet would never have got. to port again. Hipper knew it too well,- and scuttled back out of danger when the light grew bad, and under the cover of his own smoke screen. On the other hand Jellicoe remained on the scene until next day waiting for the Germans to take him on.

Your correspondent also says that “the German guns could have sunk the British capital ships as they did the cruisers.” Why, then, did the German fleet never again come out, but hid during the remainder of the war in security, when it might have made a last desperate “throw” when the German army was at the last gasp and the fleet was asked to issue forth and engage the British? The crews mutinied rather than go to certain destruction. The crews knew, for they meekly allowed their ships in the end to be escorted away to British waters and ignominiously sunk beneath the waves.— I am, etc., LOYAL BRITON. Feilding, November 11. »

Sir, —I agree with H. Stratford's letter, but it is a little too hard on British naval design, Jellicoe and Beatty were both keen and energetic men, but there is no doubt as to which was the . more experienced and level-headed of the two.

For ten minutes only, in a good light, the German battle-cruisers were under fire from 21 Grand Fleet battleships. If you had asked the men of the German battle-cruisers if “nothing happened” during that ten minutes, was it all quiet on the high seas? they would have replied, in effect, “Not like as you’d notice it.” The two after-turrets of the Derfflinger went up in flames, and there were many other hits.

The British magazines were not then properly flash-proof, and several blew up. In the numerous British ships that survived Jutland, great attention was given to improvements in this vital matter. All German magazines were not torpedo-proof, for the Pommern blew up and sank with 840 men when hit by a British torpedo. The British ships most frequently hit by shells were the Warspite, the Lion, and the Warrior, and they did not blow up. The Marlborough got home with a huge hole on the water-line from a torpedo hit. The Seydlitz could not hare steamed as far as the English coast. The Lutzou could not steam as far as the German coast, so was sunk by German torpedoes to prevent the chance of her falling into British hands. If only modern battleships are counted as “capital ships,” then the British did not Jose a single capital ship, but the Lutzou was the most modern ship put out of action in the battle, being larger and more heavily armoured than many British capital ships, though herself a battle-cruiser. During the war, British warships of all types and sizes kept afloat and were repaired after very heavy damage from shells and torpedoes and mines. The Germans felt they could not rely upon the British magazines always blowing up, and the German ships always refusing to sink, or surely they would have hastened to another sea fight—the prize, command of the sea, was sufficiently glorious and decisive. Before the war, Mr. H. C. Bywater lived in Germany and did his best to warn us of the high quality of German ships, guns, and gunnery.—l am, etc., R. H. FITZ-HERBERT. Havelock North, November 11.