The main difficulty in providing a Flag officer afloat with a suitable staff is that of accommodation, and this difficulty was somewhat serious when I doubled the staff on board the Iron Duke. However, it was successfully overcome. The Staff was organised into two branches—Operations and Matériel—the former directly under the Chief of the Staff, the latter immediately under the Captain of the Fleet. On proceeding to sea, however, the work of the Captain of the Fleet became, of necessity, very largely reduced, and he joined the operational side, arrangements being made by which either he or the Chief of the Staff was always on the bridge in my absence, as we soon found under the new conditions, consequent on the advent of the submarine as an important factor in naval warfare, that it was essential that an officer should be constantly on the bridge who could take immediate action in moving the Fleet, or any portion of it, as might be required.
Even so, the presence of the Commander-in-Chief was so frequently required, at a moment’s notice, owing to the swiftness with which a modern fleet moves, that I never left my sea cabin, which was under the bridge, to go to the after part of the ship when the Fleet was at sea.
The duties of my Staff afloat were separated, as already stated, under two headings. This division, as is clear from the above remarks, affected their duties in harbour more than when at sea. In the latter case the two branches combined, and the whole staff became “operational.”
The Staff work under these conditions was carried out in the war-room, situated under protection, below the conning tower. Here the movements of our own ships were recorded, as well as those of the enemy until we were nearing contact. All intelligence was sent from the bridge to this centre by the Signal officers, and the situation at any moment could be seen by a glance at the charts kept by the War Staff officer on duty.
When we were nearing enemy vessels or enemy waters, the work was shifted from the war-room to the Admiral’s shelter on the bridge, so that the situation could be seen by me more readily; and finally, when, as on May 31st and August 19th, 1916, the two fleets were nearing touch with one another, the “plot” of the movements as reported was continually under my observation.
At ordinary times, in harbour, the Staff officers engaged on the operational side were following the movements of such enemy vessels (chiefly, of course, submarines) as were known to be at sea, as well as those of our own vessels. (In the latter case frequent orders to ships were necessary to ensure that they did not meet each other at night—when risk of collision would be incurred owing to ships not carrying lights, or in thick weather.) They put into execution the orders given by myself or the Chief of the Staff, and were engaged in elaborating plans of future movements and drawing up the necessary orders for such movements as I had in contemplation. They were also engaged in arranging all gunnery, torpedo and other practices and exercises, and in the constant work of the production, revision and issue of orders for the organisation and tactical working of the Fleet.
On the matériel side, the Staff work comprised that of storing, provisioning and fuelling the Fleet, all questions of instruction, training, personnel, discipline, mails, refits and repairs, etc.
In action each member of the Staff had his own particular duty allotted to him. The secretaries took notes and recorded proceedings; certain officers had as their sole duty that of watching and reporting to me every movement of enemy vessels; one officer was detailed to attend solely to torpedo attacks made by the enemy, keeping me informed of their progress and of their possibilities; another dealt with all questions relating to concentration or distribution of fire, bringing to my notice any signals required to give effect to our preconceived arrangements; each signal officer had his own special duty, one being responsible that all signals for tactical movements made visually were also made by “short distance” wireless telegraphy. One wireless officer worked in the main office and one in the auxiliary office. The Staff was so organised as to leave the Commander-in-Chief free to take a comprehensive survey of the whole position, whilst ensuring that nothing that should be done was left undone. It must, however, be realised that the rapidity of movement of fleets is so great that, at critical moments, the Commander-in-Chief of a fleet, or the Flag Officer Commanding a Squadron, must of necessity make instant decisions; there is no time for consultation or for advice.
III.—Preparation of Cruising Orders
One of the earliest steps taken in organising the Grand Fleet after the declaration of War was to lay down definitely the various cruising orders for the Battle Fleet and its “look-out” screen of battle-cruisers, cruisers and light cruisers. There had been much discussion for some years before the War as to the best disposition of cruisers ahead of a Battle Fleet. None of the arrangements that had been under discussion was adopted as a whole, but war experience led to a series of diagrams being drawn up giving the cruising stations of all the various classes of cruisers and other light craft under the different conditions that might exist. These included diagrams showing the cruiser disposition with the fleet moving towards enemy waters, under conditions of ordinary visibility, by day, or in low visibility by day, both with the Battle Cruiser Fleet in company and without it; a similar diagram when moving away from enemy water by day (this being to meet the possible case of an attempted attack by destroyers as the fleet steered away from enemy waters); diagrams were got out for steering towards or away from enemy waters at night; and, finally, diagrams were prepared, both for day and night, for the dispositions of the cruisers and other light forces after an action.