The Germans seemed unable to make an effective reply, and even an aeroplane sent up to signal the ranges by smoke-balls proved a failure. By the end of the day the Germans had lost 4000 men and had been driven from the coast, where nothing was visible but dense masses of black smoke and lurid patches of flame. The British fire was extremely rapid, some of the guns firing no less than fourteen rounds a minute at times. A few casualties were suffered by the British, but no material damage of a serious nature was sustained, although exposed both to gun-fire and, it is stated, to submarine attacks, which were warded off by the attendant destroyers.
The British Navy continued to do valuable work on the Belgian coast for a considerable time. The Venerable, a pre-Dreadnought battleship, did great execution with her big 12-inch guns, which outranged the German batteries. In November, Zeebrügge, where the enemy had established a submarine station, was heavily bombarded and considerable damage done. The British casualties during these coastal operations were but slight. The destroyer Falcon, however, received one very destructive shell, which killed 1 officer and 8 men and wounded 1 officer and 15 men.
CHAPTER XVIII
In the Outer Seas
"The idea that an inferior power, keeping its battleships in port and declining fleet actions, can, nevertheless, bring the trade of an enemy to a standstill, has no basis either in reason or experience."
Sir George Sydenham Clarke.
It had been generally understood that the German programme of hostilities against this country—when the "selected moment" arrived—was to deliver a sudden blow with the full force of their fleet against ours, before the declaration of war and during a time of "strained relations". The first move would probably have been made by submarines and destroyers, and it was hoped that after a successful surprise attack, before war was declared, the German High Seas Fleet would be stronger than the residuum of our own.
For various reasons, which we have not room to discuss here, the Germans had made up their minds that in August, 1914, Great Britain would not fight, and that they would be able to carry out their programme against France, Russia, and Belgium, after which they would decide exactly their selected moment to attack us. At the outbreak of war their High Seas Fleet was apparently lying in different deep fiords on the Norwegian coast. What it was doing there, goodness only knows; but we may be sure it was not for anybody's good, except, possibly, Germany's.