A History of the Royal Navy: World War I

Mike Farquharson-Roberts

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781780768380
• eBook ISBN: 9780857735423
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

For many years the naval warfare of World War I has been largely overlooked; yet, at the outbreak of that war, the British Government had expected and intended its military contribution to the conflict to be largely naval. Britain was not simply defending an island; it was defending a far flung empire. Without the navy such an undertaking would have been impossible. Following the naval arms race in the early 20th century, both Britain and Germany were equipped with the latest naval technology, including revolutionary new vessels such as dreadnoughts and diesel-powered submarines. Although the Royal Navy's operations in World War I were global, most of the fleet's strength was concentrated in the Grand Fleet, which confronted the German High Seas Fleet across the North Sea. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916 the Royal Navy, under the command of Admiral Jellicoe, fought an iconic, if inconclusive battle for control of shipping routes. 43, 244 Royal Navy personnel lost their lives fighting on the seas in World War I. This book tells their story and places the navy back at the heart of the British war effort.

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Mike Farquharson-Roberts holds a PhD in Maritime History from the University of Exeter. He previously had a long and distinguished career in the Royal Navy.

‘This book is essential and enjoyable reading for anyone who wants to understand the nature of the truly global war fought beyond the trenches of the Western Front. Insightful, authoritative and digestible, it opens a window onto the Royal Navy’s vital but largely unseen work: from executing the strategic economic blockade which tied a noose around the neck of the Kaiser’s Germany, to the little known but significant contribution of the Royal Naval Division in the land war. It also shines a penetrating spotlight on the Royal Navy’s innovation, people and organisation, as well as the unfolding revolution in its battle space, as submarines and aircraft emerged to transform warfare at sea, and from the sea.’

Admiral Sir George Zambellas KCB DSC ADC DL
First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff

Published in 2014 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com

Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

Copyright © 2014 Mike Farquharson-Roberts

The right of Mike Farquharson-Roberts to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

ISBN: 978 1 78076 838 0
eISBN: 978 0 85773 542 3

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Typesetting and eBook by Tetragon, London

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Contents

• List of Illustrations
• Series Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Europe on the Brink of War
• 2. The Royal Navy at the Outbreak of World War I
• 3. Towards Armageddon
• 4. The Amphibious Navy
• 5. The Battle of Jutland
• 6. The Navy and New Technologies
• 7. The British and German Wars against Trade
• 8. The Royal Navy in World War I
• Notes
• Select Bibliography

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‌List of Illustrations

• Tables
• 7.1. American cotton exports to neutral countries trading with Germany
• 7.2. Allied merchant tonnage losses during 1917
• Figures
• 1.1. A known unknown at the outbreak of war: how much of a threat was a submarine to a warship? (Picture courtesy of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum)
• 1.2. HMS Aboukir with HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy (NMRN)
• 1.3. A 1912 picture of cadets at the Royal Naval College, Osborne (NMRN)
• 1.4. German submarine U-9 (NMRN)
• 1.5. HMS Audacious sinking after hitting a mine (NMRN)
• 1.6. HMS Warrior (NMRN)
• 1.7. HMS Devastation (NMRN)
• 1.8. A Dumaresq fire control calculator
• 1.9. The torpedo, another known unknown (NMRN)
• 2.1. HMS King Edward VII (NMRN)
• 2.2. HMS Dreadnought (NMRN)
• 2.3. John ‘Jacky’ Fisher as a vice admiral (NMRN)
• 2.4. HMS Malaya firing a broadside (NMRN)
• 2.5. The wireless experimental ship HMS Vindictive (NMRN)
• 2.6. Winston Churchill in 1915 as First Lord of the Admiralty (NMRN)
• 2.7. The royal review of the fleet, 20 July 1914 (NMRN)
• 2.8. HMS Lion (NMRN)
• 3.1. The SMS Goeben in the Turkish navy as the Yavuz Sultan Selim (NMRN)
• 3.2. The German minelayer SS Königin Luise (NMRN)
• 3.3. HMS Lance (NMRN)
• 3.4. HMS Arethusa (NMRN)
• 3.5. HMS Good Hope (NMRN)
• 3.6. HMS Monmouth (NMRN)
• 3.7. HMS Canopus (NMRN)
• 3.8. The memorial to the battle of the Falklands in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands (NMRN)
• 3.9. One of the results of the German bombardment of Scarborough. A British propaganda picture (NMRN)
• 3.10. Page 41 of the signal book in use in 1915 (Courtesy of the Naval Historical Branch)
• 3.11. SMS Blücher sinking (NMRN)
• 4.1. The memorial to the Royal Naval Division on Horse Guards Parade in London (NMRN)
• 4.2. Major-General Sir Archibald Paris, Royal Marine Artillery (public domain)
• 4.3. HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine (NMRN)
• 4.4. A solid silver model of a naval cutter, presented to HMS Euryalus by the Lancashire Fusiliers in gratitude for her support efforts on 25 April 1915 (Fusilier Museum, London)
• 4.5. River Clyde ashore on ‘V’ beach (NMRN)
• 4.6. Three midshipmen going ashore for a picnic on Limnos after the landings (Imperial War Museum Q 13406)
• 4.7. Lieutenant Commander Boyle and the crew of E14 (NMRN)
• 4.8. Ratings and marines of the Royal Naval Division behind the lines in France (NMRN)
• 4.9. Map showing the deployment of the Royal Naval Division at the opening of the battle of the Ancre
• 4.10. Zeebrugge harbour showing the mole and the viaduct. HMS Vindictive’s position and the final positions of the three blockships are shown
• 5.1. Clarkson cases recovered from the wreck of HMS Audacious (Courtesy of ‘Irish Technical Diver’)
• 5.2. The initial moves by the two opposing forces. At this point it had been planned for Beatty to turn north in order to join the rest of the Grand Fleet
• 5.3. The Grand Fleet at sea (NMRN)
• 5.4. The start of the ‘run to the south’ at about 14:10 (from Richard Hough, The Great War at Sea 1914–1918)
• 5.5. Battlecruiser Fleet initial fire distribution during the ‘run to the south’ (after Oscar Parkes, British Battleships, p. 637)
• 5.6. HMS Lion at the moment of being hit on ‘Q’ turret (NMRN)
• 5.7. The 5...

Table of contents

• List of Illustrations
• Series Foreword