A Naval Candidate’s Essay.
I give here an essay written on 20th February, 1908, by a candidate for entry at Osborne as a Naval Cadet. His age was 12½; his height four foot nothing. The subjects were suddenly set to the candidates by the Interview Committee, and they were allowed only ten minutes to write the essay in. The original of this essay I sent to King Edward.
What Nation ought we to protect ourselves most against—and why?
“In my opinion we should protect ourselves most against Germany.
“The most important reason is that they have the second largest Navy in the world; to which (their Navy) they are rapidly adding. They are also building three ships equal to our ‘Dreadnought.’ Their Army also is very formidable; though they are suffering from flat-feet. It is also rumoured that the present German Emperor has a feud against King Edward; namely, when they were young, King Edward punched the German Emperor’s head; how far that is true, I don’t know.
“I always think that Englishmen and Germans are, more or less, natural enemies. One of the reasons for this is, I think, that Englishmen and Germans are so different; for most of the Germans I’ve met in Switzerland were not quarter so energetic as our English friends. They (the Germans) would never go much above the snow line. Also I think we rather despise the Germans, because of their habit of eating a lot. The Germans also would like a few of our possessions.”
CHAPTER XI
SUBMARINES
I begin this chapter with a letter written to me on April 18th, 1918, by Colonel Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary to the War Cabinet:—
My Dear Lord Fisher,
Last night I dined with Lord Esher. He showed me letters of yours dated 1904 describing in detail the German Submarine Campaign of 1917. It is the most amazing thing I have ever read; not one letter only, but several.
Also some astonishing remarks of yours about the Generals who ought to man the War Office in case of war. All men who have come to the top were your nominees. Finally, General Plumer (whom few people knew about) you picked out for Quartermaster-General, with this remark: “Every vote against Plumer is a vote for paper boots and insufficient shells!”[8]
Priceless, the whole thing! Neck-busy though I am, I have come to the Office early to pay this tribute of my undying admiration, and to beg you to get hold of these astounding documents for your Memoirs. But anyhow, they will appear in Lord Esher’s Memoirs, I suppose.
Yours ever,
(Signed) M. P. A. Hankey.
Now follows a letter which I wrote to a High Official in 1904, and which I had forgotten, until I came across it recently. It’s somewhat violent, but so true that I insert it. I went as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty shortly after—very unexpectedly—and so was able to give effect (though surreptitiously) to my convictions. Not only Admirals afloat, but even Politicians ashore, dubbed submarines as “playthings,” so the money had to be got by subterfuge (as I have explained in Chapter V. of my “Memories”).
Admiralty House,
Portmouth.
April 20th, 1904.
My Dear Friend,
I will begin with the last thing in your letter, which is far the most important, and that is our paucity of submarines. I consider it the most serious thing at present affecting the British Empire!—That sounds big, but it’s true. Had either the Russians or the Japanese had submarines the whole face of their war would have been changed for both sides. It really makes me laugh to read of “Admiral Togo’s eighth attack on Port Arthur!” Why! had he possessed submarines it would have been one attack and one attack only! It would have been all over with the whole Russian Fleet, caught like rats in a trap! Similarly, the Japanese Admiral Togo outside would never have dared to let his transports full of troops pursue the even tenor of their way to Chemulpo and elsewhere!
It’s astounding to me, perfectly astounding, how the very best amongst us absolutely fail to realise the vast impending revolution in naval warfare and naval strategy that the submarine will accomplish! (I have written a paper on this, but it’s so violent I am keeping it!) Here, just to take a simple instance, is the battleship “Empress of India,” engaged in manœuvres and knowing of the proximity of Submarines, the Flagship of the Second Admiral of the Home Fleet nine miles beyond the Nab Light (out in the open sea), so self-confident of safety and so oblivious of the possibilities of modern warfare that the Admiral is smoking his cigarette, the Captain is calmly seeing defaulters down on the half-deck, no one caring an iota for what is going on, and suddenly they see a Whitehead torpedo miss their stern by a few feet! And how fired? From a submarine of the “pre-Adamite” period, small, slow, badly fitted, with no periscope at all—it had been carried away by a destroyer lying over her, fishing for her!—and yet this submarine followed that battleship for a solid two hours under water, coming up gingerly about a mile off, every now and then (like a beaver!), just to take a fresh compass bearing of her prey, and then down again!
Remember, that this is done (and I want specially to emphasise the point), with the Lieutenant in command of the boat out in her for the first time in his life on his own account, and half the crew never out before either! why, it’s wonderful! And so what results may we expect with bigger and faster boats and periscopes more powerful than the naked eye (such as the latest pattern one I saw the other day), and with experienced officers and crews, and with nests of these submarines acting together?
I have not disguised my opinion in season and out of season as to the essential, imperative, immediate, vital, pressing, urgent (I can’t think of any more adjectives!) necessity for more submarines at once, at the very least 25 in addition to those now ordered and building, and a hundred more as soon as practicable, or we shall be caught with our breeches down just as the Russians have been!
And then, my dear Friend, you have the astounding audacity to say to me, “I presume you only think they (the submarines) can act on the defensive!”... Why, my dear fellow! not take the offensive? Good Lord! if our Admiral is worth his salt, he will tow his submarines at 18 knots speed and put them into the hostile Port (like ferrets after the rabbits!) before war is officially declared, just as the Japanese acted before the Russian Naval Officers knew that war was declared!
In all seriousness I don’t think it is even faintly realised—
The immense impending revolution which the submarines will effect as offensive weapons of war.
When you calmly sit down and work out what will happen in the narrow waters of the Channel and the Mediterranean—how totally the submarines will alter the effect of Gibraltar, Port Said, Lemnos, and Malta, it makes one’s hair stand on end!
I hope you don’t think this letter too personal!
Ever yours,
J. A. Fisher.
Note made on January 5th, 1904:
Satan disguised as an Angel of Light wouldn’t succeed in persuading the Admiralty or the Navy that in the course of some few years Submarines will prevent any Fleet remaining at sea continuously either in the Mediterranean or the English Channel.
Some Shells for 18-inch Guns.
The shells for the 20-inch guns to be carried by H.M.S. “Incomparable” would have been far bigger, and would have weighed two tons.
Now follows a paper on “The Effect of Submarine Boats,” which I wrote while I was Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, October, 1903.
These remarks can only be fully appreciated by those who witnessed the Flotilla of Submarine Boats now at Portsmouth practising out in the open sea.
It is an historical fact that the British Navy stubbornly resists change.
A First Sea Lord told me on one occasion that there were no torpedoes when he came to sea, and he didn’t see why the devil there should be any of the beastly things now!
This was à propos of my attracting the attention of his serene and contented mind to the fact that we hadn’t got any torpedoes at that time in the British Navy, and that a certain Mr. Whitehead (with whom I was acquainted) had devised an automobile torpedo, costing only £500, that would make a hole as big as his Lordship’s carriage (then standing at the door) in the bottom of the strongest and biggest ship in the world, and she would go to the bottom in about five minutes.
Thirty-five years after this last interview, on September 4th, 1903, at 11 a.m., the ironclad “Belleisle,” having had several extra bottoms put on her and strengthened in every conceivable manner that science could suggest or money accomplish, was sent to the bottom of Portsmouth Harbour by this very Whitehead automobile torpedo in seven minutes.
This Whitehead torpedo can be carried with facility in Submarine Boats, and it has now attained such a range and such accuracy (due to the marvellous adaptation of the gyroscope), that even at two miles’ range it possesses a greater ratio of power of vitally injuring a ship in the line of battle than does the most accurate gun. This is capable of easy demonstration (if anyone doubts it).
There is this immense fundamental difference between the automobile torpedo and the gun—the torpedo has no trajectory: it travels horizontally and hits below water, so all its hits are vital hits; but not so the gun—only in a few places are gun hits vital, and those places are armoured. It is not feasible to armour the bottoms of ships even if it were effectual—which it is not.
But the pith and marrow of the whole matter lies in the fact that the Submarine Boat which carries this automobile torpedo is up to the present date absolutely unattackable. When you see Battleships or Cruisers, or Destroyers, or Torpedo Boats on the horizon, you can send others after them to attack them or drive them away! You see them—you can fire at them—you can avoid them—you can chase them—but with the Submarine Boat you can do nothing! You can’t fight them with other Submarine Boats—they can’t see each other!
Now for the practical bearing of all this, and the special manner it affects the Submarine Boat and the Army and the Navy—for they are all inextricably mixed up together in this matter:—
As regards the Navy, it must revolutionise Naval Tactics for this simple reason—that the present battle formation of ships in a single line presents a target of such a length that the chances are altogether in favour of the Whitehead torpedo hitting some ship in the line even when projected from a distance of several miles. This applies specially to its use by the Submarine Boat; but in addition, these boats can, in operating defensively, come with absolute invisibility within a few hundred yards to discharge the projectile, not at random amongst the crowd of vessels but with certainty at the Admiral’s ship for instance, or at any other specific vessel desired to be sent to the bottom.
It affects the Army, because, imagine even one Submarine Boat with a flock of transports in sight loaded each with some two or three thousand troops! Imagine the effect of one such transport going to the bottom in a few seconds with its living freight!
Even the bare thought makes invasion impossible! Fancy 100,000 helpless, huddled up troops afloat in frightened transports with these invisible demons known to be near.
Death near—momentarily—sudden—awful—invisible—unavoidable! Nothing conceivable more demoralising!
It affects the existence of the Empire, because just as we were in peril by the non-adoption of the breech-loading gun until after every Foreign nation had it, and just as we were in peril when Napoleon the Third built “La Gloire” and other French ironclads, while we were still stubbornly building wooden three-deckers, and just as we were in peril when, before the Boer War, we were waiting to perfect our ammunition and in consequence had practically no ammunition at all, so are we in peril now by only having 20 per cent. of our very minimum requirements in Submarine Boats, because we are waiting for perfection! We forget that “half a loaf is better than no bread”—we strain at the gnat of perfection and swallow the camel of unreadiness! We shall be found unready once too often!
In 1918 I wrote the following letter to a friend on “Submarines and Oil Fuel.”
You ask for information in regard to a prophecy I made before the War in relation to Submarines, because, you say, that my statement made in 1912 that Submarines would utterly change Naval Warfare is now making a stir. However, I made that same statement in 1904, fourteen years ago.
I will endeavour to give you a brief, but succinct, synopsis of the whole matter. I have to go some way back, but as you quite correctly surmise the culmination of my beliefs since 1902 was the paper on Submarine Warfare which I prepared six months before the War.[9]...
In May, 1912 (I am working backwards), Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, and Mr. Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, came to Naples, where I then was, and I was invited to be Chairman of a Royal Commission on Oil Fuel for the Navy, and on Oil Engines. What most moved me to acceptance was to push the Submarine, because oil and the oil engine had a special bearing on its development.
Continuing my march backwards in regard to the Submarine, there was a cessation in the development of the Submarine after I left the Admiralty as First Sea Lord on January 25th, 1910. When I returned as First Sea Lord to the Admiralty in October, 1914, there were fewer Submarines than when I left the Admiralty in January, 1910, and the one man incomparably fitted to develop the Submarine had been cast away in a third-class Cruiser stationed in Crete. No wonder! An Admiral, holding a very high appointment afloat, derided Submarines as playthings!
In one set of manœuvres the young officer commanding a Submarine, having for the third time successfully torpedoed the hostile Admiral’s Flagship, humbly said so to the Admiral by signal, and suggested the Flagship going out of action. The answer he got back by signal from the Admiral was: “You be damned!”
I am still going on tracing back the Submarine. In 1907, King Edward went on board the “Dreadnought” for a cruise and witnessed the manœuvres of a Submarine Flotilla. I then said to His Majesty: “The Submarine will be the Battleship of the future!”
In February, 1904, Admiral Count Montecuccoli, the Austrian Minister of Marine, invited himself to stay with me at Portsmouth, where I was then Commander-in-Chief. He had been Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Navy at Pola when I was Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. We became very great friends out there. The Austrian Fleet gave us a most cordial reception. He also was an ardent believer in the Submarine. That’s why he invited himself to stay, but I refused to let him see our Submarines at Portsmouth, which were then advancing by leaps and bounds. Admiral Bacon was then the admirable Captain in charge of Submarines, and he did more to develop the Submarine than anyone living. The Submarine is not the weapon of the weak. Had it only been properly used and developed, it’s the weapon of the strong, if you use your Naval Supremacy properly, and
seize the exits of the enemy, and make a blockade effectual by Submarines and Mines, which our predominant and overwhelming naval superiority renders feasible.
All that was required to meet a German Submarine Menace was the possession of Antwerp, the Belgian Coast, and the Baltic. We could quite easily have accomplished these three objects.
Nearly three months before the War, before the meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence held on May 14th, 1914, I sent the Prime Minister the following Memorandum which I had written in the previous January; and added:—