With reference to the operations of this division the Secretary of the Navy in his annual report made the following statements:
Assigned one of the two places of honor and importance in the battle line, this American division did its full share of the Grand Fleet’s work, including patrol search for the enemy, protection of convoys, mining, and other forces, and, most important of all, in the repeated attempts to engage the German High Seas Fleet, for which the ships of the Grand Fleet were kept in the highest state of efficiency and readiness. Our battleships were attacked six times by submarines. On one occasion, off the Norwegian coast, four torpedoes were fired at the Florida and two at the Delaware, and at another time three were fired at the New York. Not one of our vessels was hit, and the only damage done was to the New York, which while leading the division into Pentland Firth, was rammed by a submerged submarine. Two blades of her propeller were broken off, but officers and crew were convinced that the blows from the propeller sank the U-boat.
SURRENDER OF THE GERMAN HIGH SEAS FLEET.
The American battleships occupied a prominent position in the north column of the Grand Fleet on the occasion of the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet, on November 21, 1918, off the mouth of the Firth of Forth and assisted in escorting it into that port where the German vessels were searched and later dispatched under guard to Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, for internment.
The American vessels did not accompany the surrendered German war vessels to Scapa, but were detached from the British Grand Fleet on December 1, 1918, and sailed from Rosyth for Portland (Weymouth). The day after the surrender of the German Fleet the Nevada, which had been serving with Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet in Bantry Bay, Ireland, joined Division 9, at Rosyth and proceeded with it to Portland.
AT CASTLETOWN BEREHAVEN, BANTRY BAY, IRELAND.
The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy makes the following remarks concerning Division 6:
Division 6, composed of the Utah (flagship), Nevada, and Oklahoma, was based on Berehaven, Bantry Bay, Ireland, its principal duty being to protect our convoys from possible enemy raiders. This division made two trips into the Channel, escorting convoys when enemy submarines were reported in the vicinity.
Maj. Leon W. Hoyt was the division Marine officer of this division during its entire stay in European waters.
The Nevada joined the American battleships of Division 9 the day after the surrender of the German Fleet off Rosyth, near Edinburgh.