THE SKETCHED

Otago Witness, Issue 3382, 8 January 1919, Page 54

THE SKETCHED

THE REAL SECRET GF OUR VICTORY W TH3B WAR. " The Grand Fleet has filled the North Sea and its influence lias pervaded all the oceans of the world"—a stupendous achievement. Seven Days with the Grand Fleet.— Mr Archibald Hurd—the naval expert who can write!—has just been to see Admiral Beatty, and in the Daily Telegraph he gives a fascinating and illuminating picture of that Grand Fleet which has protected us for four Jong years from the terror which threatened us by day and night. It is a brilliant summary of what the Grand Fleet has achieved for us and for the world and for Liberty in all the days to come. A Sword of Justice.— "It was late in the evening, the sun having long since sunk to rest, and before me and around me lay the Grand Fle_et in all its unparalleled strength," writes Mr Hurd, who was seven days with the fleet. " I had just been seen over the side of the battleship Warspite by Captain Hubert Lynes, C.M.G., whose name will always rise to memory when the Ostend and Zeebrugge raids are recalled, and had dropped into the barge of the vice-admiral, which was to take me, a lonely stranger; to the shore, eventually to join the train which nightly tears its way southwards.The Fleet at Night,—

" The moon, shining through a gossamer "veil of mist, cast a great beam of light on the oily waters; it resembled nothing so much as the burnished blade of some majestic Sword of ''Justice', to be picked up, as chance may come,-by British seameir, and used against the enemy of the human race with relentless vigour. Great hills on every side shut in the vast anchorage; to right and to left lay battlesnips, battle-cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, dim and menacing shapes looming out of the darkness. "Here and there were gap 3 which spoke of ships making their furrows in the North Sea. Mile succeeded mile, and the panorama of ghostly sentinels appeared as though it had no ending. On the one hand the eye strained through the murky night to catch the distinctive forms of a line of battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class, the apotheosis of the design of the heavy gun ship for which men had been searching for generations; on the_ other, the sky-line was broken by the curious and unfamiliar trellis masts of American battleships; there lay a group of light cruisers, with razor-like bows; and over there, in the distance, one remembered seeing in the daylight, snuggling up against their depot ship, a number of submarines at least as large,, as ewift, and as devilish as anything "of which the Germans can boast. " One was conscious that around one, in the various steel hulls, was a population any city might be proud to claim, so numerous are the officers and men, the supporters of great traditions; and yet not a human being could be seen, and no sound broke the stillness. But the aweinspiring spectacle reminded one that 300 or 400 miles away that other great fleet was in prison, having hardly dared to breathe for a period of four and a-half years lest it should be pounced upon and annihilated. That Fleet in Prison.— "In a sense this midnight review—if the term may be used—of the many wargrey ships of the main fleet of the Eng-lish-speaking peoples was more impressive, far more impressive, than any formal inspection' held in the past at Spithead, when guards were mounted, ships were dressed over all with fluttering flags, and yachts and pleasure boats crowded with sightseers skimmed the face of the waters. And it leaves memories far more deeply engraved.

" At the outset let one misconception be removed. The popular impression of the Grand Fleet, shut up in some vast anchorage, never or seldom going to sea, but waiting for the signal of battle, is a myth—a dangerous,, pernicious invention, which is unfair to British seamen. It has not to-day, and it never has had, any reality. A Sea-going Force.— "It is an injustice to the officers and men of the force, which is the main support of the Allied cause, to think of the Grand Fleet as spending a long, unending period of inactivity waiting in patience for the coming of the Day. It may be generally said that no battleship under the supreme orders of Sir David Beatty is ever at anchor anywhere for a long period. That applies to all the battle squadrons, British and American; the battle-cruisers and light cruisers, for reason which need not be explained, spend even more time at sea; and as to destroyers and submarines, the life of officers and men would be an unhappy one indeed in these cold months were they not seamen of the. first calibre, and young at that. " On a single afternoon I watched one fleet put to sea which would raise the prestige of many European Powers j and within a shore period J witnessed the return from the sea of another fleet, consisting of ships of different characteristics; and, to crown all. early and late, destroyers moved in and out in long sir.ao'js lines, while overhead aeroplanes buzzed like giant wasps. My experience was n-jt singular. I was reminded by a hundred and one incidents during my visit of the ceaseless activity of the Grand Fleet. It is a sea-going force; by frequent exercise its guns' crews become increasingly efficient 5 it is continually practising torpedo tactics; never before were the signal staffs of the ships so proficient. An Enemy Lie.— " The conception of the North Sea as a small area of water from which the enemy has expelled the Grand Fleet rests on no

foundation; it is an enemy lie, which should be nailed to the counter with every nail we possess. The belief that the German High Seas Fleet, remaining itself in hiding behind powerful shore guns, has thrust out ordinary submarines and minelaying submarines, and that the British fleet seldom or never moves in consequence of that action, is a complete misconception. The Grand Fleet 'fills the North Sea,' sweeping it periodically to the north and to the south and right up to the enemy's lairs.

"It is perhaps hardly realised that in these four and a-half years of war the Gferman High Seas Fleet, inferior in strength only to the Grand Fleet, and probably stronger than all the other navies of Europe, has hardly ever stirred from its own protected waters without suffering defeat. There has never been a time when the Grand Fleet did not dominate the North Sea from the Shetland Islands down to the Straits of Dover. It has done so with such completeness that the German seamen, as a corporate body, have scarcely dared to breathe. Will There be a Battle?— " And will the war close without a naval battle? That is the question which I submitted to Admiral Sir David Beatty, as, keen and alert, he walked up and down his cabin in the fleet-ship Queen Elizabeth. The Commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet is a man who commands, and in his person he embodies to-day the spirit of the navy; he has realised his responsibilities, and he has spared no effort to rise to their full height. It goes without saying that he has passed in review all the incidents, great and small, of the naval war in the hope of piercing to the innermost mind of the enemy. He. is not unconscious of the immobility which the Grand Fleet. has imposed upon the High Seas Fleet. And vet he has not abandoned hope that some day and in some circumstances which cannot be foreseen the enemy, in spite of the odds against him, will come forth. That is his attitude, as he explained, and, whatever may be the probabilities, it is the right attitude. The Trafalgar of This War.— "The battle of Jutland will not rank with the battle of the Nile, but rather with the battle of Quiberon Bay; but a British victory it incontestably was, and it may be —who can tell?—that it will prove the decisive victory. The moral effects of action have always been greater than the material effects, as our naval history attests. Within 10 years of the battle of Trafalgar the material strength of the enemy of that day was greater than it had been on the morning of October 21, 1805, and he was stronger in personnel, but there- was ho second fleet action, and ' they were -the ships of Nelson,' as a French, writer once observed, 'which won the battle of Waterloo.' " The battle of Jutland may be the Trafalgar of this war—not, it may be, a great victory, judged by material results, but indubitably a victory comparable to many victories in British history which have projected their influence through succeeding years, winning peerages for com-manders-in-chief, baronetcies for the other admirals, knighthoods for the senior captains, as after Quiberon Bay. " The Grand Fleet is a fighting fleet, and, supported by confidence as to the issue of battle, it still believes that the battle will come. Who are the students of history that they should oppose to this belligerency of mind and body the precedents which may be dug with much labour from the nages of the past? The Grand Fleet refuses to surrender the hopes: the Grand Fleet is right; and the knowledge of that assurance may well give to the nation an increased sense of security, if that be possible. Has the Grand Fleet Failed?— " But if there is no further battle will the Grand Fleet have failed? Will the -historian of the future sav that the German navy was not defeated? Assuredly, no. ■*■ "The Spanish Armada and the Dutch were not defeated, in the sense that the Spanish and Dutch fleets were annihilated. The same line of argument "applies in varying measure to the long naval war of the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. But there is this marked difference: The triumph of sea-power witnessed by former generations in these islands has never been so complete and wide in its influence as during the struggle which is apparently drawing to a close. There is a temptation to forget that this is a unique war, not only by reason of the number of nations engaged and the vast forces employed by land and by sea, as well as in the air, but by reason of the character which it has assumed. " The ordinary newspaper reader has been impressed, as he well may have been impressed, with the clash of armies on the battlefields of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but-this has not been a Continental war; it has been an amphibious war. Sixteen million soldiers have been carried by sea in face of two of the greatest fleets of Europe, which thought to defeat the old sea-power by the new sea-power residing in the mine and the submarine. The main naval burden in the two naval wars, the surface war and the under-surface war, has fallen upon the British fleet, which has exhibited a competent belligerency which will move posterity to admiration. Sea-power Supreme.— " In spite of all that the enemy has attempted, with his raiders, submarines, destroyers, and mines, the Grand Fleet has ' filled' the North Sea, and its influence haw pervaded all—mark well! all — the oceans of the world. The real secret of victory in this war, as the historian will record, has been hidden from the eyes of the multitude, but it will be revealed in after years, spelled oiit in eight letters -SEA-*POWEE, " Every army has been dependent upon the sea,' and every army has been consistently and successfully supported from the sea, acting as the spearhead of the

compelling influence which, more than any* thing else, has forced the enemy to seek peace. And, perhaps, the most significant and refreshing .-memory which one brings back from the Grand Fleet is the recollection that, in spite of all talking across the Atlantic, it still maintains its active watch and ward with at least as much competency as, if not more than, it did in the early days of August, 1914. It has learnt many lessons in the hard sea-school, where it is disciplined by elemental forces, incalculable, fierce, and changeful, and if the opportunity offers these lessons will be applied. " That is the dominant feeling that one brings away from the admiral's cabin of the Queen Elizabeth, and it reflects the often-unspoken, but, nevertheless, very real, sentiments of all those anonymous admirals and captains, worthy inheritors of great sea traditions, and cheerful to boot, who support the Commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet. Panorama of Power. —

“In making this attempt to reflect the memories of a week’s visit to the Grand Fleet, I feel, and none better, how difficult is the task 'Of conveying any conception of this great force,” adds Mr Hurd. " When it moves out, always in the direction of the enemy fleet, it covers an area of water approximating to the area of the whole of the County of London. That is not a precise statement, but may serve to convey some impression of the vast scale upon which it is now organised. And when it is said that it moves, it must be remembered that it does so at the speed of what in these days would pass as that of an express train. Month by month, as it has passed since the early days of the war, has added to it numerical strength, and added in even more marked degree to its fighting strength. “ There are elements represented in the North Sea to-day which were undreamt of four and a-half yars ago; there are ships whose appearance might well endanger the sanity' of the sailors of the last great war; there are submarines which can travel further than many battleships without replenishing stores or fuel—submarines, looking like nothing so much as giant caterpillars when they lie awash; there are other mysteries which may not even be hinted at. And the marvellous thing is that all these varied elements, old and new, have been patiently fitted into the. great design. Hie result is that to-day the Grand Fleet, vast as its size and varied as are the characteristics of its units, constitutes one instrument of war. The Fine Edge of Efficiency.— “When it sweeps the North Sea, it does so in exact order, and yet it preserves its freedom of movement. It is huge and yet it is not unwieldy; it consists of many elements arid yet its unity is preserved. One may look at it from the deck of a battleship in the noontide, or watch it from* some eminence on shore as the sinking sun gilds it with its rays, or thread one’s way in the darkness up and down the long lines ; but the Grand Fleet, in all conditions of light and weather, presents the outstanding and conspicuous spectacle which this world-war has conjured up. It is not a thing immobile, merely watching for a day which may never dawn. It is, on the contrary, a great vertebrate machine, which, week by week, confronts the elemental forces, practising, training, and rehearsing, and thus putting a finer edge on its efficiency. Future of the Grand Fleet.— “ Who among the wisest of us can tell what may be the future of the Grand Fleet, or any fleet? “But this at least is certain—that no one who has been privileged to watch and study from day to day this supreme instrument will ever regard it as anything but the finest manifestation of the character of a people who live by and on the sea, and without the sea, free to them beyond a peradventure, in war as in peace, cannot exist. “ And so,' concludes Mr Hurd, “in leaving the Grand Fleet, one raises one’s hat in admiration to the officers and men who, by long and patient training, have converted this monstrous collection of ironmongery into a great sentient force which embodies to-day the spirit of Nelson and his band of brothers, and stand, as he and they stood, the undaunted champions of civilisation and the sentinels of freedom bv land as bv sea.”