“Submarines are only playthings!” was the official remark of our Chief Admiral afloat only a little while ago, and yet now submarines are talked of as presently ousting Dreadnoughts.
The above texts, extracted from comparatively modern naval history (history is a record of exploded ideas!), should make anyone chary of ridiculing the writer when he repeats:
THE SUBMARINE IS THE COMING TYPE OF WAR VESSEL FOR SEA FIGHTING.
And what is it that the coming of the submarine really means? It means that the whole foundation of our traditional naval strategy, which served us so well in the past, has been broken down! The foundation of that strategy was blockade. The Fleet did not exist merely to win battles—that was the means, not the end. The ultimate purpose of the Fleet was to make blockade possible for us and impossible for our enemy. Where that situation was set up we could do what we liked with him on the sea, and, despite a state of war, England grew steadily richer. But with the advent of the long-range ocean-going submarine that has all gone! Surface ships can no longer either maintain or prevent blockade, and with the conception of blockade are broken up all the consequences, direct and indirect, that used to flow from it. All our old ideas of strategy are simmering in the melting pot! Can we get anything out of it which will let us know where we are and restore to us something of our former grip? It is a question that must be faced.
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Sea-fighting of to-day, or at any time, entails the removal of the enemy’s sea forces. If, as is maintained, the submarine proves itself at once the most efficient factor for this purpose and also the most difficult sea force to remove, let us clear our minds of all previous obsessions and acknowledge the facts once and for all.
Hostile Submarines.
It has to be freely acknowledged that at the present time no means exist of preventing hostile submarines emerging from their own ports and cruising more or less at will.
It is, moreover, only barely possible that, in the future, mining and other blocking operations on a very extensive scale may so develop as to render their exit very hazardous; but it is plain that such operations would require a large personnel, unceasing energy and vigilance, and an immense quantity of constantly replaceable materials.
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