The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916

by John Rushworth Jellicoe

IV.—The Training of the Fleet

Inseparable from the question of the management of the Fleet before and during action was that of the working together of its units at sea by day and at night. This matter was, of course, one to which great attention had been devoted by Sir George Callaghan, who, when he handed over the Fleet to me, gave me a fighting machine trained to a very high pitch of perfection by an officer who was a past master in fleet training.

But it was inevitable that war conditions should make even greater demands on the skill of the personnel than had previously been necessary, and in no direction was this more necessary than at night, the number of ships in company being far greater than had previously been usual; and the necessity of abstaining from signalling added to the difficulties. Further, under peace conditions, fleets cruising on dark, stormy nights without showing any lights, did so for comparatively short periods, during which the more experienced officers could, to a certain extent, remain on deck.

Under war conditions no ships at sea ever showed more than a very dim light at the stern, and frequently not even that, adding greatly to difficulties of fleet cruising. Consequently provision had to be made for ensuring safety whilst cruising under these conditions, and considerable foresight and great skill on the part of officers was necessary.

Single ships and squadrons that might by any possibility pass close to one another during hours of darkness were warned beforehand of the danger, and arrangements made so that they should be aware of each other’s positions. Destroyers, especially, were given directions so as to enable them to keep clear of larger vessels which otherwise might open fire upon them. Patrol craft of all sorts were similarly warned so far as this was possible, but in their case the conditions, owing to difficulties of communication, were frequently much more embarrassing.

Finally, the methods of disposing the Fleet at night had to be such as to reduce to a minimum the necessity for signals, whilst giving freedom of action in an emergency. What applied to conditions of darkness applied equally to fog. The ordinary means adopted for ensuring safety in a fog at sea, the use of the steam syren, could not as a rule be employed, since the blasts might give warning to the enemy and place the Fleet open to attack by enemy destroyers or submarines. On the other hand, the necessity for our destroyers being in close company with the larger ships for screening purposes against submarines led, in the case of sudden fog, to a difficult situation, as, before the Fleet could safely carry out any manœuvre, it was essential to get the destroyers clear. The sudden descent of fog during zigzagging by the large ships was also embarrassing. Orders were issued to meet all these conditions, and the best testimony to the training of the Fleet prior to the War was the remarkable freedom from accident during the early months after the opening of hostilities. The manner in which newly commissioned ships (in many cases ships which were by no means handy vessels in a fleet) fell into the organisation, was also a source of great gratification to me, and must have been most satisfactory to the officers and men concerned.

The gradual increase in the size of the Fleet, particularly in light craft, the higher speeds attained by its units, the extreme importance of reducing signalling by wireless at sea to an absolute minimum, except in the presence of the enemy, all tended to concentrate attention on the question of the efficiency of our signal arrangements. Wireless signalling by ships at sea had to be stopped, because by means of directional wireless stations the positions of ships using wireless telegraphy could be determined by the enemy. As time went on, we felt that the enemy might be able to ascertain the class and in some cases even the name of the ship so signalling. This we deduced from the fact that we ourselves made progress in this direction. The fact of a German fleet being at sea, for instance, could hardly be disguised if much use was made of wireless signals. We naturally concluded that the enemy could similarly locate any of our squadrons using the same means of communication. That was an inevitable inference.

The foregoing considerations made it necessary, in the first place, to endeavour, by means of carefully compiled and elaborate orders, to reduce the amount of signalling that would ordinarily be required after the Fleet had left its bases. Printed orders were prepared for the Fleet leaving its bases under all the varying conditions that could be anticipated, and whilst this made the orders somewhat lengthy so as to meet every possibility, the object was achieved.

Similarly, when the Fleet was in cruising order at sea in daylight, arrangements were made to pass signals in and out between the most advanced cruisers and the Fleet Flagship by searchlight, except in the presence of the enemy, and good organisation gradually reduced the time occupied in this process very considerably. All Fleet manœuvring when much to the southward of the latitude of Kinnaird Head, on the coast of Aberdeen, was also carried out by visual signalling.

Owing to the danger of disclosing the position of the Fleet to enemy submarines or destroyers, it was not possible to use visual signalling at night, except with carefully shaded lamps which were only visible at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, and then only by the ship addressed, and this problem thus became complicated at night, in fogs or in very thick weather. Occasional resort had then to be made to wireless, but by signalling before dark all expected movements during the night, and by arranging the course of the Fleet so that few alterations were necessary, we succeeded in keeping almost absolute wireless silence. It had to be used, however, when important information from the Admiralty and elsewhere was to be transmitted to the Fleet-Flagship, or to senior officers of squadrons, or to single ships when at sea engaged in operations, etc., and early in the War we had to devise a method by which this could be done without calling up the ships in question by wireless, thus necessitating a reply from them, and thus possibly acquainting the enemy of their position.

After a time a satisfactory and ingenious system of communicating the required information without causing the ship herself to divulge her position was devised by the Fleet Wireless officer, Lieutenant-Commander R. L. Nicholson. This plan worked excellently and gradually was greatly extended during the later stages of the War.

It must not be thought that, because wireless signalling at sea was restricted, it was not intended to make full use of it when necessary and when silence was no longer required, such as when the fleets were within sight of one another. On the contrary, a great advance was made during the War in the use of wireless telegraphy for manœuvring the Battle Fleet, as well as in every other direction. So proficient did the ships become under the organisation introduced by Lieutenant-Commander Nicholson, assisted as he was by the very efficient wireless officers and wireless personnel, that in 1916 I could handle the Battle Fleet by wireless with as much ease and rapidity as by visual signals. At the beginning of the War ten minutes to a quarter of an hour would elapse before I could be sure that all ships had received a manœuvring wireless signal addressed to the whole Battle Fleet. In 1916 the time rarely exceeded two to three minutes. This great improvement was due to new methods introduced, as well as to incessant practice in harbour.

Our advance in the use of wireless telegraphy was very considerable indeed, and I owed a great debt of gratitude to Lieutenant-Commander Nicholson, the other wireless officers of the Fleet-Flagship, and the wireless officers and personnel of the whole Fleet. The progress was the more remarkable since, owing to extreme shortage of wireless personnel for the expanding Fleet and the large number of auxiliary vessels commissioned, we were forced to discharge many of the best operators in the Fleet as the War progressed and to replace them by boys trained in the Wireless School established by the Fleet at Scapa Flow.

A point which war experience brought into considerable prominence was the difficulty of distinguishing, with sufficient rapidity, enemy vessels from our own ships both before, and, more particularly during, action. The difficulty applied to all classes of vessels, but was greatest in the case of torpedo craft and submarines. Steps were taken to deal with it, and satisfactory arrangements made for certain distinguishing marks visible at long distances to be worn during daylight by our own surface vessels. The question of identification at night was more difficult, and although we effected improvement in this respect also, the results were not so satisfactory.

Of the original experimental work carried out by the Fleet at Scapa Flow none was more important than that connected with the safety of ships from mines. Early in the War it had become obvious that there was danger of a serious weakening of the Grand Fleet by successful mine attack, and no safeguard existed beyond the work of the mine-sweepers; these vessels could not work far afield, and in bad weather could not work even close to their bases, whereas the Fleet might be required to proceed to sea when mine-sweeping was impracticable.

A solution of this difficulty was required. Commander Cecil V. Usborne, of the Colossus, in these circumstances proposed to me the trial of an apparatus which he suggested should be towed from the bows of ships; it was intended to fend off any mine encountered, provided the ship did not strike it absolutely “end on.” I ordered immediate trials; all the necessary matériel was provided with Fleet labour and appliances, and starting with trials in a picket boat, they were continued until a series of experiments commenced in large ships, battleships and cruisers. I placed Rear-Admirals A. L. Duff and A. C. Leveson in charge of the experiments and great progress was made, although absolute success was not obtained.

Lieutenant Dennis Burney, the son of Admiral Sir Cecil Burney, visited the base at this juncture, and, knowing his inventive turn of mind, I discussed the matter with him at considerable length. Lieutenant Burney soon afterwards put forward proposals for effecting the required object. His idea was to utilise apparatus which he had devised earlier for other purposes. His scheme was of a more elaborate nature than that devised by Commander Usborne, and necessitated the manufacture of appliances by outside manufacturers. I urged the Admiralty to take up the question at once; this was done, and the experiments, started at Portsmouth, were transferred to Scapa Flow as soon as preliminary success had been obtained.

The two devices were then tried over a considerable period at Scapa Flow, still under the immediate direction of Rear-Admirals Duff and Leveson, who threw themselves wholeheartedly into the task, Rear-Admiral E. F. A. Gaunt taking up this work in their occasional absence. After many disappointments the Burney system was proved to be successful, and I at once requested that manufacture on a large scale should be proceeded with. The device was of an elaborate character, and many persons at first were sceptical as to its value, owing partly to early difficulties in manipulation. But Rear-Admirals Duff and Leveson rendered the greatest assistance in overcoming objections, and gradually it came to be seen in the Fleet that we had become possessed of a most valuable safeguard. By the time I relinquished the Command a very large number of battleships, battle-cruisers, and cruisers, and some light cruisers had been fitted, and the gear was working well. Owing to Lieutenant Burney’s efforts, improvement was constantly being effected, with the result that during 1917 the fitting was universal. During that year it was instrumental in saving several warships from damage by mines, and in 1918 the number of ships saved was also considerable.

The initial idea was that of Commander Usborne, and both he and Lieutenant Burney displayed much energy in working out their respective devices. But it was through Lieutenant Burney’s ingenuity that final success was achieved. Rear-Admirals Duff and Leveson eventually brought the appliance to perfection, with the result that it was generally adopted. A modified arrangement of the same nature was fitted to merchant ships during 1917 and 1918, and proved of very great value.

As was inevitable, my thoughts turned at an early stage of my Command to the necessity for constant improvement in the fighting efficiency of the Grand Fleet. My knowledge of the German Navy, which was considerable, left me under no delusions as to its character. I had made it my business to keep myself very fully acquainted with German progress. I had first been brought into close touch with the modern German Navy during service in China from 1899 to 1902, which included the Boxer campaign, when I saw a great deal of its officers and men. I had then formed a high estimate of its efficiency, and subsequent touch on many occasions with the German Fleet had convinced me that in matériel the Germans were ahead of us, and that the personnel, though lacking the initiative and resource and seamanlike character of the British, was highly disciplined, and well educated and trained. I knew also that the German Fleet was in no way short of officers; this was the case with us owing to the constant political pressure in the years before the War, and I expected that this shortage of officers would be a great handicap to us as the War progressed. The branch of the German Navy from which I expected very good work was the destroyer service. I had seen German destroyers manœuvring.

Finally I knew, perhaps better than most of our officers, how efficient was the gunnery and torpedo work of the High Sea Fleet, and how rapid had been its advance in the year or two before the War. A great increase had been made in the allowance of ammunition for practice. Before the War this was much higher than our own, and there was no doubt in my mind that the German allowance would be well expended. Indeed, we had obtained information which placed this beyond question.

I was well acquainted personally with many of the flag officers and captains in the German Navy and had some idea of their views on naval warfare. Amongst those whom I knew best were Admiral von Ingenohl, the then Commander-in-Chief of the High Sea Fleet, Vice-Admiral von Lans, commanding a Battle Squadron, Admiral von Pohl, the Chief of the Naval Staff, who later succeeded Admiral von Ingenohl, Grand-Admiral von Tirpitz, Admiral von Holtzendorff, a former Commander-in-Chief of the High Sea Fleet, who succeeded Admiral von Pohl as chief of the Naval Staff, and Admiral von Usedom, who did conspicuous work in the shore batteries during the Dardanelles operations. My knowledge of these officers led me to expect good work in the High Command, and I also expected that they would be well supported.

It is interesting to record that I took part in a Conference of Allied naval officers in a pagoda at the end of the Great Wall of China in company with Admiral von Holtzendorff (the then German Flag Captain in China) after the capture of the Shan-hai-Kwan forts, in 1900, and that Admiral von Usedom succeeded me as Chief of the Staff to Admiral—afterwards Admiral of the Fleet—Sir Edward Seymour, when I was wounded during the international expedition for the relief of the Peking Legations. I had met both these officers on several subsequent occasions, as well as Admiral von Lans, who was in command of the Iltis at the capture of the Taku forts by the Allies in the Boxer campaign.

My knowledge of the German Navy was a strong reason, had no others existed, for making me desirous of doing all that was possible to increase our own gunnery and torpedo efficiency.

The Germans possessed an excellent practice ground in Kiel Bay, with every appliance for carrying out gunnery exercises, and I felt sure that they had rendered it safe from any hostile attack, and that the German Fleet would be able to maintain and improve its efficiency as time progressed.

We were not in so fortunate a position. There had been no recent opportunity for carrying out gunnery and torpedo exercises and practices; Scapa Flow had not been used as a base for such work in peace time, except for destroyers, and consequently no facilities existed there, although the proximity of Cromarty, which had been a Fleet practice base, neutralised this disadvantage to a certain extent at a later period. But there was no protected area outside the harbour where practices could be carried out in safety, and the harbour itself was not at first secure against submarine attack. Much use, however, was made of the Moray Firth outside Cromarty later when submarine obstructions had been provided, and the Germans had obligingly laid a mine-field which protected the practice area from seaward. At the commencement of the War, then, it was necessary to depend on fleet resources for the provision of targets for gunnery practices, and the practices themselves were carried out under conditions which laid the ships open to submarine attack. This was most unsatisfactory, and the work suffered considerably as the result. The opportunity provided by constant sea work in the first months of the War was, however, utilised to carry out such gunnery practices as the conditions admitted.

At first the custom was for the Fleet to use small targets which the ships carried with them. These were unsuitable; their small size rendered them frequently invisible at even moderate ranges in any sea, and I felt that the Fleet could not make progress under such conditions.

Practice at rocks or small islands was next resorted to, but no really suitable rocks existed, and, in any case, practice at them eventually involved too much risk of submarine attack, as the German submarines began to find their way to the westward of Scotland. Towards the end of 1915 it became possible, owing to the increase in the number of destroyers attached to the Fleet, and to the provision of submarine obstructions at Cromarty, to carry out gunnery practices at long ranges at targets in the Moray Firth, and real improvement dated from that period.

Later still, battle practice targets were brought to Scapa Flow, and the long-range firing was carried out in the Pentland Firth, a still more convenient place.

Meanwhile Scapa Flow itself had been developed for all the preliminary gunnery practices which could be carried out with guns up to 6-inch in calibre, and also for night firing and for torpedo work. The fine stretch of water was secure from submarine attack after the obstructions had been provided, and ships could practise by day and night without danger of attack. The Flow was simply invaluable for this purpose. Ships were firing, running torpedoes, practising fire control exercises, carrying out experiments and exercising in dealing with attacks by destroyers, day after day, from daylight until dark.

After dark, night firing was frequently carried out, and occasionally a division of battleships was exercised in steaming in company, without lights, in order to give the officers of watches practice. When the constant sea work of the earlier months of the War gave place to occasional cruises, the seagoing and fighting efficiency of the Fleet was maintained at a remarkably high standard as a result of the work in Scapa Flow.

During the period 1914–16 a marked advance was undoubtedly made in gunnery efficiency. At an early period of the War a memorandum was issued pointing out the necessity for increased attention to drill and organisation. Absolute perfection was insisted upon, and it was obtained, by the strenuous efforts of officers and men. I knew that we had to deal with an enemy who would be as perfect as constant drill could ensure.

A great extension of the system of Director Firing, by which one officer or man could lay and fire all the guns, was made. The situation in this respect before the War was that a few ships had been fitted for the system, which had been devised by Admiral Sir Percy Scott. But a very large number of officers were sceptical as to its value compared with the alternative system; there was considerable opposition to it, and the great majority of the ships were not fitted. In some cases the system was not favoured even in the ships provided with it.

It had fallen to my lot in 1912 to carry out competitive trials of the Director System and the alternative system already in use, and the results of these trials had fully confirmed me in my previous opinion of the great value of the Director System. I was able to press these views on my return to the Admiralty at the end of 1912 as Second Sea Lord, and it was then decided to provide all the later ships with the arrangement. Little progress had, however, been made when the War broke out, only eight battleships having been fitted.

Early in 1915 arrangements were made, with the assistance of Sir Percy Scott and the warm support of Lord Fisher, then First Sea Lord, by which the battleships and battle-cruisers were supplied with this system, without being put out of action or sent to a dockyard for the purpose. The necessary instruments were manufactured at various contractors’ shops, and the very laborious task of fitting them, and the heavy electric cables, on board the ships was carried out by electricians sent to the various bases. The complicated work naturally took a considerable time, and many vexatious delays occurred; but gradually all ships were fitted, Sir Percy Scott rendering invaluable assistance at headquarters.

As a first step, the system was fitted to the heavy guns mounted in turrets, and by the date of the Battle of Jutland there were few ships that were not supplied with the system, although six of those last fitted had not had much experience with it.

The conditions under which that action was fought converted any waverers at once to a firm belief in the Director System, and there was never afterwards any doubt expressed as to its great value.

Further efforts were made later to accelerate the work, and the system was extended to smaller vessels. This had been the intention even before the action, but there were then still many who were unconvinced. However, during the remainder of 1916 and 1917 the work was pressed forward, and the system became universal for all guns and in all classes of ships.

The improvement in what may be termed the application of existing methods of fire control may now be mentioned. Throughout the War we had gradually, as the result of practice, increased greatly the effective range at which ships could engage, and stress had been laid on the necessity for bringing the fire rapidly on to the target in order to obtain early hits. Improvement was perhaps most rapid in the five or six months following the Jutland action. In this action the Fire Control Instruments, as adopted in the Service, which were the outcome of the work of naval officers, were found to meet the gunnery requirements most successfully. The only important improvement that was made was the provision of additional means for keeping the observation of Fire Instruments trained on the correct enemy ship. Various committees were formed immediately after the battle in order that full advantage might be taken at once of our experience. The result was the introduction of new rules for correcting gunfire; these, in addition to greatly increasing the volume of fire from a ship, also rendered it difficult for the enemy vessels to evade punishment by dodging tactics.

SMOKE SCREEN MADE BY DESTROYERS

A DUMMY BATTLESHIP, MARCH, 1915

In order to cope more successfully with the latter development, more experiments were ordered, having as their object the determination of the inclination of the enemy vessel to the line of bearing from us, and various methods of obtaining this inclination were recommended to the Fleet. The most promising at the time that I relinquished command of the Fleet was that proposed by Lieutenant J. W. Rivett-Carnac, R.N., the range-finding expert of the Grand Fleet, who had investigated this inclination problem for some years. A great increase in the rapidity with which the fall of shot were “spotted on” to a target resulted from all this work. It is not too much to say that the interval between opening fire and the moment at which the salvoes began to “straddle” the target was certainly halved, and the rapidity of fire when the enemy was “straddled” was very greatly increased. The new firing rules, by standardising the system of correcting fire, produced a marked increase in the efficiency of the methods by which the fire of two ships was concentrated on to one target and generally paved the way for the solution of many gunnery problems which the Fleet had previously been unable to solve completely.

The use of smoke screens was closely investigated as a result of our experience of the German use of this device. Prolonged experiments were carried out at Scapa Flow to ascertain the possibilities and the best method of using smoke screens, and they were also used during battle tactics and during range-finder exercises. The trials included the use of smoke shell as well as funnel and artificial smoke.

In another direction efforts were made to increase efficiency. The Jutland battle convinced us that our armour-piercing shell was inferior in its penetrative power to that used by the Germans, and immediately after the action I represented this with a view to immediate investigation. A Committee sat to consider the matter. In 1917, as First Sea Lord, I appointed a second Committee.

With one of the old type of armour-piercing shells of a particular calibre as used at Jutland the shell would, with oblique impact at battle range, break up whilst holing a certain thickness of plate, and the shell could not, therefore, reach the vitals of the enemy’s ships. A shell of the new type, as produced by the 1917 Committee, of the same calibre would at the same oblique impact and range pass whole through a plate of double the thickness before exploding and could therefore with delay action fuse penetrate to the magazines of a capital ship. Had our ships possessed the new type of armour-piercing shell at Jutland, many of the enemy’s vessels, instead of being only damaged, would probably not have been able to reach port. The manufacture of these new type shells for the Fleet was well advanced before the end of 1917.

The value of the torpedo as a fighting weapon in action, from ships, from destroyers, and from submarines, was also greatly increased. The torpedo practices at Scapa Flow, which were of a realistic character, were of the greatest possible use.

The real cause underlying the improvement was the great keenness displayed by officers and men. Their one idea was to strive for the highest efficiency, and there was never apparent the least sign of weariness or staleness in repeating time after time exercises and practices with which they were so familiar. No tribute that I can pay to the personnel of the Grand Fleet in this connection could be sufficiently high. I know that under my successor the improvement in fighting efficiency continued.

Owing to the collapse of the moral of the personnel of the German Navy, culminating in the surrender for internment of the majority of their capital ships, the Grand Fleet was given no opportunity of testing in action the methods adopted as a result of our experience during the first two years of war, and perfected by two years’ further training. Had the German fleet come out to battle a terrible punishment awaited it!

Mention has been made of the development of aircraft during the War. The possibilities resulting from the use of the air for reconnaissance work, for assisting in the direction of gunfire, and, finally, for offensive operations, were fully recognised in the Grand Fleet; but for a considerable period the lack of suitable machines hindered development. The first decisive step taken was the fitting out of the Campania, a passenger ship of the Cunard Line, as a sea-plane carrier to be attached to the Battle Fleet. Prior to that, the Harwich Force and, later, the Battle Cruiser Fleet had been provided with smaller vessels, the Vindex and Engadine, carrying a few sea-planes. They had been used in operations in the Heligoland Bight, but without much success, owing to the difficulty experienced in getting sea-planes to rise from the water except in the finest weather.

With the arrival of the Campania at Scapa, we were able to investigate the difficulties attending the use of aircraft from ships as then fitted and to indicate the direction in which improvement was desirable and possible. It was apparent that little improvement could be expected so long as we were dependent on the machines rising from the water. The first step, therefore, was to improve the arrangements for flying off from the deck of the Campania. The ship returned to Liverpool at the end of 1915 in order that the necessary alterations might be effected; these were not completed until the late spring of 1916; during the alterations, the Campania was also, at my request, fitted to carry a kite balloon.

The advantages to be obtained from the use of kite balloons had been demonstrated during the Dardanelles operations, and the Menelaus, kite balloon ship, was sent to the Grand Fleet. But it was soon obvious that we could not make profitable use of kite balloons in a fleet action unless they were flown from the ships themselves, and experiments were carried out, under the direction of Vice-Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee, commanding the 4th Battle Squadron, having as their object the best method of fitting and using kite balloons from warships. Many difficulties were experienced, the principal one being that of providing wire of sufficient strength to stand the tension of the balloon during strong winds. The Kite Balloon Section at Roehampton gradually solved the difficulties, and by the end of 1916 the majority of the flagships leading divisions of the Fleet were provided with kite balloons, and were experiencing their utility. From this beginning, great developments took place in providing vessels of all classes, including light cruisers, destroyers, P boats, and trawlers, with kite balloons; the balloon was used in the case of the smaller vessels for anti-submarine reconnaissance work, whilst in the heavy ships it was used for observation and correction of fire.

Meanwhile, the development of the air-craft carrier had proceeded, but not with the same rapidity. It was evident to me in 1916 that for anti-Zeppelin work we should look towards the aeroplane flying from the deck, rather than to the sea-plane, although it also could rise from the deck; but I gathered the time was hardly ripe for the step, owing to the landing difficulty, and the first efforts of the Royal Naval Air Service lay in the direction of providing a type of sea-plane that would fly well off the deck and climb quickly. These efforts were fairly successful, but the development of the heavier-than-air craft machine for use with the Fleet did not begin until the aeroplane was adopted for the work; and this took place in 1917, when progress became rapid, and continued until the end of the War.

There remains the question of the airship, which was also being developed during the period 1914–16, but as this matter was not within the province of the Fleet, it is unnecessary to touch upon it here.