Description: The Navy in Battle by Arthur Hungerford Pollen This is the 1918 Second Impression* * Curiously, the printing history on the reverse of the Title-Page gives a precise date of “Dec. 11, 1918”; however, the Title-Page gives the date as 1919. Front cover and spine Further images of this book are shown below Publisher and place of publication Dimensions in inches (to the nearest quarter-inch) London: Chatto & Windus 5½ inches wide x 8½ inches tall Edition Length Second Impression Dec. 11, 1918 [First published Nov. 28, 1918] Curiously, the printing history on the reverse of the Title-Page gives a precise date of “Dec. 11, 1918”; however, the Title-Page gives the date as 1919. [vi] + 371 pages Condition of covers Internal condition Original blue cloth gilt. The covers are scuffed and rubbed, with evidence of old staining on the front cover and surface scratching on the rear cover. There is also a discoloured patch on the front cover from the removal of a "Boots Library" shield. The most obvious defect, however, is the fact that the cloth is lifting quite extensively, and particularly on the rear cover. For some reason, this appears to be a common issue with this Edition. The spine ends and corners are bumped and frayed, with some minor splits in the cloth. The inner hinges are cracked and there is a "Boots Library" lending schedule on the rear pastedown, which indicates that the book was purchased from the Library in 1919, having been loaned out only once previously. The end-papers are browned and foxed and the fore-edge of the front free end-paper is creased. The text is clean throughout on tanned paper with some pages having grubby marks (including the Title-Page). There is separation between the inner gatherings (please see the image below). The edge of the text block is grubby, dust-stained and foxed. The folding charts at the end are chipped and creased around the edges. Dust-jacket present? Other comments No The internal condition is generally quite clean but the covers suffer from extensive lifting of the cloth. Illustrations, maps, etc Contents There is a portrait frontispiece in colour [shown above] and various diagrams and charts, including a folding set of sketch charts at the end. Please see below for details Post & shipping information Payment options The packed weight is approximately 800 grams. Full shipping/postage information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. Payment options : UK buyers: cheque (in GBP), debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal International buyers: credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal Full payment information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. The Navy in Battle Contents I. A Greeting by Way of Dedication II. A Retrospect The First Crisis The Second Crisis The Third Crisis The Fourth Crisis The New Era III. Sea Fallacies : A Plea for First Principles IV. Some Root Doctrines V. Elements of Sea Force VI. The Actions VII. Naval Gunnery, Weapons, and Technique Fire Control The Torpedo in Battle VIII. The Action that Never was Fought IX. The Destruction of Koenigsburg The First Attempt Success A Problem in Control X. Capture of H.I.G.M.S. ' Emden ' XI. The Career of Von Spee (I) Coronel XII. Battle of the Falkland Islands (II) : The Career of Von Spee (II) (A) Preliminary Movements XIII. Battle of the Falkland Islands (II) : (B) Action with the Armoured Cruisers XIV. Battle of the Falkland Islands (III) : (C) Action with the Light Cruisers (D) Action with the Enemy Transports XV Battle of the Falkland Islands (IV) : Strategy, Tactics, Gunnery British Strategy The Tactics of the Battle A Point in Naval Ethics XVI. The Heligoland Affair The North Sea XVII. The Action off the Dogger Bank (I) XVIII. The Dogger Bank (II) XIX. The Battle of Jutland : I. North Sea Strategies XX. The Battle of Jutland (continued) : II. The Urgency of a Decision XXI. The Battle of Jutland (continued) : III. The Distribution of Forces The Action : First Phase XXII. The Battle of Jutland (continued) : IV. The Second Phase XXIII. The Jutland Battle : The Three Objectives The Tactical Plans : Admiral Scheer Sir David Beatty's Tactics Sir John Jellicoe's Tactics XXIV. The Jutland Battle : The Course of the Action The German Retreat The Night Actions and the Events of June 1 XXV. Zeebrugge Strategical Object Sir Roger Keyes' Tactics Attack on the Mole Moral Effect The Navy in Battle The Destruction of Koenigsburg The story of the destruction of Koenigsberg by the twin monitors Severn and Mersey, in the Rufigi Delta, has an interest that far transcends the intrinsic military importance of depriving the enemy of a cruiser already useless in sea war. For the narrative of events will bring to our attention at once the ex- treme complexity and the diversity of the tasks that the Royal Navy in war is called upon to discharge. It is worth examining in detail, if only to illustrate the novelty of the operations which officers, with no such previous experience, may at any moment be called upon to undertake, and the extraordinary combination of patience, courage, skill, and energy with which, when experience at last comes, it is turned to immediate profit. The incident possesses, besides, certain technical aspects of the very highest importance. For it gives in its simplest form perfect examples of how guns should not and should be used when engaged in indirect fire, and by affording this illuminating contrast, is highly suggestive of the progress that may be made in naval gunnery when scientific method is universally applied. The incident, then, is worth setting out and examining in some detail, and there is additional reason for doing this, in that the accounts that originally appeared were either altogether inaccurate or so incomplete as to be misleading. First, then, to a narrative of the event itself. Konigsberg was a light unarmoured cruiser of about 3,400 tons displacement, and was laid down in December 1905. She carried an armament of ten 4'1-inch guns, and was protected by a 2-inch armoured deck. The Germans had begun the construction of vessels of this class about seven years before with Gazelle, which was followed in the next year by Niobe and Nymphe, and then by four more, including Ariadne, destroyed by Lion in the affair of the Heligoland Bight, which were laid down in 1900. Two years later came the three Frauenlobs, and the Bremen class — five in number — succeeded these in 1903-4. In 1905 followed Leipzig, Danzig, and finally the ship that concerns us to-day. All these vessels had the same armament, but in the six years the displacement had gone up 1,000 tons. The speed had increased from 21½ knots to about 24, and the nominal radius of action by about 50 per cent. Koenigsberg was succeeded by the Stettins in 1906-7, the two Dresdens in 1907-8, the four Kolbergs in 1908-9, and the four Breslaus in 1911. Karlsruhe, Grodenz, and Rostock were the only three of the 1912-13 programmes which were completed when the war began. The process of growth, illustrated in the advance of Koenigsberg over Niobe, was maintained, so that in the Karlsruhe class in the programme of 1912, while the unit of armament is preserved, we find that the number of guns had grown from ten to twelve, the speed had advanced from 23| to 28 knots, and the displacement from 3,400 to nearly 5,000 tons. As we know now, in the Battle of Jutland we destroyed light cruisers of a still later class in which, in addition to every other form of defence, the armament had been changed from 4.1-inch to 6.7 guns. Koenigsberg, on the very eve of the outbreak of war, was seen by three ships of the Cape Squadron off Daar-es-Salaam, the principal port of German East Africa. She was then travelling due north at top speed, and was not seen or heard of again until, a week later, she sank the British steamer City of Winchester near the island of Socotra. There followed three weeks during which no news of her whereabouts reached us. At the end of the month it was known that she had returned south and was in the neighbourhood of Madagascar. At the end of the third week in September she came upon H.M.S. Pegasus off Zanzibar. Pegasus was taken completely unawares while she was cleaning furnaces and boilers and engaged in general repairs. It was not possible then for her to make any effective reply to Koenigsberg' s sudden assault, and a few hours after Koenigsberg left she sank. Some time between the end of September and the end of October, Koenigsberg retreated up one of the mouths of the Rufigi River, and was discovered near the entrance on October 31 by H.M.S. Chatham. From then onwards, all the mouths of the river were blockaded and escape became impossible. Her captain seemingly deter- mined, in these circumstances, to make the ship absolutely safe. He took advantage of the high water tides, and forced his vessel some twelve or more miles up the river. Here she was located by aeroplane at the end of November. Various efforts had been made to reach her by gun-fire. It was asserted at one time that H.M.S. Goliath had indeed destroyed her by indirect bombardment. But there was never any foundation for supposing the story to be true, and if in the course of any of these efforts the ship suffered any damage, it became abundantly clear, when she was finally engaged by the monitors, either that her armament had never been touched, or that all injuries had been made good. The problems which the existence of Koenigsberg propounded were, first, Was it a matter of very urgent moment to destroy her ? Second, How could her destruction be effected ? The importance of destroying her was great. There was, of course, no fear of her affecting the naval position seriously if she should be able to escape ; but that she could do some, and possibly great, damage if at large, the depredations of Emden in the neighbouring Indian Ocean, and of Karlsruhe off Pernainbuco, had proved very amply indeed. If she was not destroyed then, a close blockade would have to be rigidly maintained, and it was a question whether the maintenance of the blockade would not involve, in the end, just as much trouble as her destruction. Then there was a further point. Sooner or later, the forces of Great Britain and Belgium would certainly have to undertake the conquest of German East Africa. While Koenigsberg could not be used as a unit for defence, her crew and armament might prove valuable assets to the enemy. Finally, there was a question of prestige. The Germans thought that they had made their ship safe. If the thing was possible, it was our obvious duty to prove that their confidence was misplaced. If the ship was to be destroyed, what was to be the method of her destruction ? She could not be reached by ship's guns. For no normal warship of superior power would be of less draught than Koenigsberg, and unless the draught were very materially less, it would be quite impossible to get within range, except by processes as slow and laborious as those by which she had attained her anchorage. Was it worth while attempting a cutting-out expedition ? It would not, of course, be on the lines of the dashing and gallant adventures so brilliantly drawn for us by Captain Marryat. The boats would proceed under steam and would not be rowed ; they would not sally out to board the enemy and fight his crew hand to hand, but to get near enough to start a torpedo at him, discharged from dropping gear in a picket boat. To have attempted this would have been to have faced a grave risk, for not only might the several entrances be mined, but the boats clearly would have to advance unprotected up a river whose banks were covered with bush impenetrable to the eye. The enemy, it was known, had not only considerable military forces in the colony, but those well supplied with field artillery. And there were on board Koenigsberg not only the 4*1 -inch guns of her main armament, but a considerable battery of eight, or perhaps twelve, 3-inch guns — a weapon amply large enough to sink a ship's picket boat, and that with a single shot. An attack by boats then promised no success at all, for the excellent reason that it would be the simplest thing on earth for the enemy to defeat it long before the expedition had reached the point from which it could strike a blow at its prey. There was then only one possible solution of the problem. It was to employ armed vessels of sufficient gun-power to do the work quickly, and of shallow enough draught to get to a fighting range quickly. If the thing were not done quickly, an attack from the masked banks might be fatal. If the guns of such a vessel were corrected by observers in aero- planes, they might be enabled to do the trick. Fortunately, at the very opening of the war, the Admiralty had purchased from the builders three river monitors, then under construction in England for the Brazilian Government. They drew but a few feet. Their free board was low, their centre structure afforded but a small mark ; the two 6-inch guns they carried fore and aft were protected by steel shields. They had been employed with marked success against the Germans in their first advance to the coast of Belgium. When the enemy, having established himself in the neighbourhood of Nicuport, had time to bring up and emplace long-range guns of large calibre, the further employment of these river monitors on this, their first job, was no longer possible. For the moment, then, they seemed to be out of work, and here was an undertaking exactly suited to their capacity. It was not the sort of undertaking for which they had been designed. But it was one to which, undoubtedly, they could be adapted. Of the three monitors Mersey and Severn were therefore sent out to Mafia Island, which lies just off the Rufigi Delta, and had been seized by us early in the proceedings. The first aeroplanes available proved to be un- equal to the task, because of the inadequacy of their lifting power. The atmosphere in the tropics is of a totally different buoyancy from that in colder latitudes, and a machine whose engines enable it to mount quite easily to a height of 4,000 or 5,000 feet in Northern Europe, cannot, in Central Africa, rise more than a few hundred feet from the ground. New types of machines, therefore, had to be sent, and these had to be tested and got ready for work. For many weeks then, before the actual attack was undertaken, we must picture to ourselves the Island of Mafia, hitherto unoccupied and indeed untouched by Europeans, in the process of conversion into an effective base for some highly complicated combined operations of aircraft and sea force. The virgin forest had to be cleared away and the ground levelled for an aerodrome. The flying men had to study and master machines of a type of which they had no previous experience. The monitors had to have their guns tested and their structural arrangement altered and strengthened to fit them for their new undertaking. And, indeed, preparing the monitors was a serious matter. The whole delta of the Rufigi is covered with forest and thick bush — nowhere are the trees less than sixty feet high, and in places they rise to nearly three times this height. To engage the Koenigsberg with any prospect of success, five, six, or seven miles of one of the river branches would certainly have to be traversed. There was, it is true, a choice of three mouths by which these vessels might proceed. But it would be almost certain that the different mouths would be protected by artillery, machine- guns, and rifles, and highly probable that one or all of them would be mined. The thick bush would make it impossible for the monitors to engage any hidden opponents with sufficient success to silence their fire. And obviously any portion of the bank might conceal, not only field-guns and riflemen, but stations from which torpedoes could be released against them. It was imperative, therefore, to protect the monitors from such gunfire as might be encountered, and to take every step possible to preserve their buoyancy if a mine or torpedo were encountered. The Trent had come out as a mother ship to these two unusual men-of-war, and from the moment of their arrival she became an active arsenal for the further arming and protection of her charges. Many tons of plating were laid over their vulnerable portions — the steering gear, magazines, navigating bridges, &c, having to be specially considered. The gun shields were increased in size, and every pre- caution taken to protect the gunners from rifle fire. Where plating could not be added, sandbags were employed. By these means the danger of the ship being incapacitated, or the crew being disabled by what the enemy could do from the bank, wer_e reduced to a minimum. These precautions would not, of course, have been a complete protection against continuous hitting by the plunging fire of Koenigsberg's artillery. The more difficult job was to protect the ships against mines and torpedoes. Their first and best protection, of course, was their shallow draught. But it was not left at that ; and most ingenious devices were employed which would have gone a fair way to keep the ships floating even had an under-water mine been exploded beneath the bottom. At intervals, between these spells of dockyard work, the monitors were taken out for practice in conjunction with the aeroplanes. Mafia Island, which had already served as a dockyard and aerodrome, was now once more to come in useful as a screen between the monitors and the target. The various operations necessary for indirect fire were carefully studied. Gunlayers, of course, cannot aim at a mark they can- not see. The gun, therefore, has to be trained and elevated on information exteriorly obtained, and some object within view — at exactly the same height above the water as the gunlayer — has to be found on which he is to direct his sight. The gun is now elevated to the approximate range, a shot is fired and the direction of the shot and the distance upon the sight are altered in accordance with the correction. At last a point of aim for the gunlayer, and a sight elevation and deflection are found, and his duty then is to fire away, aiming perhaps at a twig or a leaf a few hundred yards off, while the projectile he discharges falls upon a target four, five, or even six miles off. The First Attempt At last all was ready for the great attack. The crew had all been put into khaki ; every fitting had been cleared out of the monitors : they had slipped off in the dark the night before and were anchored when, at 3.30 in the morning, all was ready. I will now let a participant continue the story : ' I woke up hearing the chatter of the seedy boys and the voice of the quarter-master telling someone it was 3.20. I hurried along to my cabin and was dressed in three minutes, khaki shirt, trousers, shoes, and socks. A servant brought me a cup of cocoa and some biscuits, and I then gathered the water- bottle and a haversack of sandwiches, biscuits, brandy flask, glass phial of morphia, box of matches, cigarettes, and made my way up to the top. ' It was quite dark in spite of the half-moon partly hidden by clouds, and men wandering about the docks putting the last touches. It was impossible to recognise anyone as all were in khaki and cap and helmet. By 3.45 all were at general quarters, and at we weighed and proceeded. Both motor-boats were towing, one on either side amidships. Two whalers anchored off Koino Island, and, burning a single light each, acted as a guide to the mouth. We soon began to see the dim outline of the shore on the right hand, and declared he could distinguish the mouth. There were four of us in the top. We arranged ourselves conveniently, and taking a side each to look out. The Gunnery Lieu- tenant took the fore 6-inch and starboard battery. I had the after 6-inch and port battery. I dozed at first for about ten minutes, but as the island neared woke up completely. We had no idea what sort of reception we should have, and speculated about it. It was quite cold looking over the top. The land came nearer and nearer. We were going slow sounding all the way. On the starboard side it was quite visible as the light grew stronger and stronger. Suddenly when we were well inside the right bank we heard a shot fired on the starboard quarter, but could not see the flash. Then came another, but only at the third did we see where it came from. It was a field-gun on the right, but we had already passed it, and both it and the pom-pom were turned on the Mersey astern of us. ' At least nothing fell near us. It was still not light enough for us to judge the range, but as the alarm had been given we opened fire with the 3-pounders, starboard side, at the field-gun. As we came up to the point on the port side I trained all the port battery on the foremost bearing, and opened firing as soon as the guns would bear. We were now going pretty well full speed. Some snipers were hidden in the trees and rushes, and let us have it as we went past. The report of their rifles sounded quite different from ours, but we were abreast before they started, and were soon past. It was just getting light. We were inside the river before the sun rose, and went quite fast up. It was just about dead low water as we entered, neap tides. The river was about 700 yards broad. The banks were well defined by the green trees, mangroves probably, which grew right down to the edges. The land beyond was quite flat on the left, but about four miles to the right rose to quite a good height — Pemba Hills. Here and there were native huts well back from the river ; we could see them from the top though they were invisible from the deck. On either side as we passed up were creeks of all sorts and sizes at low tides, more of them on the port side than on the starboard. As we passed, or rather before, we turned the port or starboard batteries on them and swept either side. The gunlayers had orders to fire at anything that moved or looked suspicious. We controlled them more or less, and gave them the bearings of the creeks. was in charge of those on deck, and the crews themselves fired or ceased fire if they saw anything or had sunk anything. We checked them from time to time as the next creek opened up. We were looking ahead most of the time, but I believe we sank three dhows and a boat. Whether they were harmless or not, I don't know, but it had to be done as a precaution. We made a fine noise, the sharp report of the five 3-pounders and one 4- 7 and the crackle of the machine guns (four a side) must have been heard for miles. The Hyacinth, the tugs, the Trent, the Weymouth, and other odd craft were demonstrating at the other mouths of the Rufigi, and we could hear the deep boom of their 6-inch now and then. I believe, too, that there was a demonstration by colliers, &c, off Dar-es-Salaam at the same time. ' I had thought that the entry would be the worst part, but it was not much. A few bullets got us and marked the plates or went through the hammocks, but no one was hit, and as our noise completely drowned the report of their rifles I doubt if many knew we were being sniped. The forecastle hands knew all about it later on. As they hauled in the anchor or let it go they nipped behind any shelter there was, and could hear the bullets zip-zip into the sandbags. The Mersey astern was blazing away into the banks just as we were. There was probably nothing in most of the creeks — but we did not know it then. ' It was 6.30 o'clock by the time we reached " our " island, where the river branches into three, at the end of which we were to anchor. We were steering straight up the middle of the stream, and then swung slowly round to port, dropped the stern anchor, let out seventy fathoms of wire, dropped the main anchor, went astern, and then tightened in both cables, so that we were anchored fast bow and stern. As soon as we steadied down a bearing was taken on the chart and the gun laid — about eight minutes' work. It was then found that, thanks to the curious run of the current, the fore 6-inch would not bear, and we had to take up the bow anchor and let it go again to get us squarer towards the Koenigsberg. ' We could see the aeroplane right high up, and received the signal " open fire." We were not quite ready, however. From the moment when we turned to port to take up our firing position to the time we were finally ready and had laid both guns, occupied about twenty minutes. The Koenigsberg started firing at us five minutes before we were ready to start. Their first shot (from one gun only) fell on the island, the next was on the edge of it, and very soon she was straddling us. Where they were spotting from I don't know, but they must have been in a good position, and their spotting was excellent. They never lost our range. The firing started, and for the next two hours both sides were hard at it. I don't believe any ship has been in a hotter place without being hit. Their shooting was extra- ordinarily good. Their salvoes of fire at first dropped 100 short, 50 over, 20 to the right — then straddled us — then just short — then all round us, and so on. We might have been hit fifty times — they could not have fired better ; but we were not hit at all, though a piece of shell was picked up on the forecastle. ' The river was now a curious sight, as dead fish were coming to the surface everywhere. It was the Koenigsberg's shells bursting in the water which did the damage, and there were masses of them every- where — mostly small ones. ' We were firing all the time, of course. I attended to the W/T, and passed the messages to the Gunnery Lieutenant, who made the corrections and passed them to the guns. watched the aeroplane and the banks as far as possible. attended to the conning tower voice pipe. We got H.T. fairly soon, and the Koenigsberg's salvoes were now only four guns. We heard the boom ; then, before it had finished, came whizz-z-z-z or plop, plop, plop, plop, as the shells went just short or over. They were firing much more rapidly than we, and I should think more accurately, but if I had been in the Koenigsberg I should, probably, have thought the opposite ! All this time the 3-pounders had occa- sional outbursts as they saw, or thought they saw, something moving. Occasionally, too, the smoke and fumes from our funnel drifted across the top, and it was unpleasant for a minute or two. We could see now where the Koenigsberg was, and the smoke from her funnels, or that our shells made. She was firing salvoes of four with great rapidity and regularity, about three times a minute, and every one of them close. Some made a splash in the water so near that you could have reached the place with a boat-hook. ' At 7.40 (so I am told, as though I tried I lost all count of time) a shell hit the fore 6-inch of the Mersey and a column of flame shot up. Four were killed and four wounded. Part of the shield was blown away. Only one man remained standing, and after swaying about he fell dead. One had his head completely blown off. Another was hang with his arm torn out at the shoulder, and his body covered with yellow flames from a lyddite charge which caught. The R.N.R, Lieutenant in charge was knocked senseless and covered with blood, but had only a scratch on the wrist to show for it. The gunlayer had an extraordinary escape, and only lost three fingers. Two men escaped as they had just gone forward to weigh the anchor. A burning charge fell into the shell room below, but was fortunately got out. Another shell burst in the motor-boat along- side the Mersey and sank it. One burst in the water about a foot from the side, and we thought she was holed. The Mersey captain then wisely moved and went down river, taking up a position of 1,000 yards down, by the right bank (looking at the Koenigsberg). She started in again with her after-gun, the other being disabled. For an hour and twenty minutes we went on, and the Koenigsberg' s salvoes came steadily and regularly back, as close as ever. It seemed as if it could not go on much longer. We registered four hits, and the salvoes were reduced from four to three, and later to two, and then to one gun. Whether we had reduced them to silence or whether the Koenigsberg'' s crew left them and saved ammunition it is impossible to say. ' The aeroplane spotting had been fair, but now someone else started in and made the signals unintelligible. Then we got spotting corrections from two sources — both differing widely. Finally, the aero- plane made " W.O." (going home). We weighed and took up station again by the Mersey. She moved to get out of our way, and when another aeroplane came we started it again. The replies from the Koenigsberg were not so frequent, and nothing like so accurate. It was as if they could not spot the fall of shot. The aeroplane soon disappeared, and as we could see the mast of the Koenigsberg (I could only see one, personally) and a column of smoke which varied in thickness from time to time, we tried to spot for ourselves. It was useless as, though we saw the burst (or thought we did) in line with the masts, we did not know whether they were over or short. Finally, we moved up the river nearer, still keeping on the right side, and set to work again . . . Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the text and a shadow on the inside edge of the final images. Colour reproduction is shown as accurately as possible but please be aware that some colours are difficult to scan and may result in a slight variation from the colour shown below to the actual colour. 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Non-Fiction Subject: History & Military
Year Printed: 1918
Binding: Hardback
Author: Arthur Hungerford Pollen
Language: English
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Place of Publication: London
Special Attributes: Ex-Library
