|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 50
In the great Naval victory now known as the Battle of Jutland, on the
other hand, we have a fresh demonstration on a greater scale than ever
before, of that old, that root fact, without which indeed the success of
the Allied effort in other directions would be impossible--i.e., _the
overwhelming strength of the British Navy_, and its mastery of the Sea.
In a few earlier pages of this book, I have described a visit which the
British Admiralty allowed me to make in February last to a portion of the
Fleet, then resting in a northern harbour. On that occasion, at the
Vice-Admiral's luncheon-table, there sat beside me on my right, a tall
spare man with the intent face of one to whom life has been a great arid
strenuous adventure, accepted in no boyish mood, but rather in the spirit
of the scientific explorer, pushing endlessly from one problem to the
next, and passionate for all experience that either unveils the world, or
tests himself. We talked of the war, and my projected journey. "I envy
you!" he said, his face lighting up. "I would give anything to see our
Army in the field." My neighbour was Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot,
commanding the First Cruiser Squadron, who went down with his flagship
_H.M.S. Defence_, in the Battle of Jutland, on the 31st of May last, while
passing between the British and German fleets, under a very heavy fire.
"It is probable," said Admiral Jellicoe's despatch, "that Sir Robert
Arbuthnot, during his engagement with the enemy's light cruisers, and in
his desire to complete their destruction, was not aware of the approach of
the enemy's heavy ships, owing to the mist, until he found himself in
close proximity to the main fleet, and before he could withdraw his ships,
they were caught under a heavy fire and disabled." So, between the fleets
of Germany and England, amid the mists of the May evening, and the storm
and smoke of battle, my courteous neighbour of three months before found,
with all his shipmates, that grave in the "unharvested sea" which England
never forgets to honour, and from which no sailor shrinks. At the same
luncheon-table were two other Admirals and many junior Officers, who took
part in the same great action; and looking back upon it, and upon the
notes which I embodied in my first Letter, I see more vividly than ever
how every act and thought of those brave and practised men, among whom I
passed those few--to me--memorable hours, were conditioned by an intense
_expectation_, that trained prevision of what must come, which, in a
special degree, both stirs and steadies the mind of the modern sailor.
But one thing perhaps they had not foreseen--that by a combination of
mishaps in the first reporting of the battle, the great action, which has
really demonstrated, once and for all, the invincible supremacy of Great
Britain at sea, which has reduced the German Fleet to months of impotence,
put the invasion of these islands finally out of the question, and enabled
the British blockade to be drawn round Germany with a yet closer and
sterner hand, was made to appear, in the first announcements of it, almost
a defeat. The news of our losses--our heavy losses--came first--came
almost alone. The Admiralty, with the stern conscience of the British
official mind, announced them as they came in--bluntly--with little or no
qualification. A shock of alarm went through England! For what had we paid
so sore a price? Was the return adequate, and not only to our safety, but
to our prestige?
There were a few hours when both Great Britain--outside the handful of men
who knew--and her friends throughout the world, hung on the answer.
Meanwhile the German lie, which converted a defeat for Germany into a
"victory," got at least twenty-four hours' start, and the Imperial
Chancellor made quick and sturdy use of it when he extracted a War Loan of
�600,000,000 from a deluded and jubilant Reichstag. Then the news came in
from one quarter after another of the six-mile battle-line, from one unit
after another of the greatest sea-battle Britain had ever fought, and by
the 3rd or 4th of June, England, drawing half-ironic breath over her own
momentary misgiving, had realised the truth--first--that the German Fleet
on the 31st had only escaped total destruction by the narrowest margin,
and by the help of mist and darkness; secondly--that its losses were,
relatively far greater, and in all probability, absolutely, greater than
our own; thirdly--that after the British battle-fleet had severed the
German navy from its base, the latter had been just able, under cover of
darkness, to break round the British ships, and fly hard to shelter,
pursued by our submarines and destroyers through the night, till it
arrived at Wilhelmshaven a battered and broken host, incapable at least
for months to come of any offensive action against Great Britain or her
Allies. Impossible henceforth--for months to come--to send a German
squadron sufficiently strong to harass Russia in the Baltic! Impossible to
interfere successfully with the passage of Britain's new armies across the
seas! Impossible to dream any longer of invading English coasts! The
British Fleet holds the North Sea more strongly than it has ever held it;
and behind the barbed wire defences of Wilhelmshaven or Heligoland the
German Fleet has been nursing its wounds.
Some ten weeks have passed, and as these results have become plain to all
the world, the German lie, or what remained of it, has begun to droop,
even in the country of its birth. "Do not let us suppose," says Captain
Persius--the most honest of German naval critics, in a recent
article--"that we have shaken the sea-power of England. That would be
foolishness." While Mr. Balfour, the most measured, the most veracious of
men, speaking only a few days ago to the representatives of the Dominion
Parliaments, who have been visiting England, says quietly--"the growth of
our Navy, since the outbreak of war, which has gone on, and which at this
moment is still going on, is something of which I do not believe the
general public has the slightest conception."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|