TIME TABLE
0.8 A.M., 5th. MILNE LEAVES MALTA FOR MERIDIAN OF 10°E. 1.15 A.M., 5th. ORDERS RECEIVED TO COMMENCE HOSTILITIES AGAINST GERMANY 5.0 A.M., 5th. GOEBEN ARRIVED MESSINA. 11.0 A.M., 5th. INFLEXIBLE, INDEFATIGABLE, INDOMITABLE, DUBLIN, WEYMOUTH, CHATHAM RENDEZVOUS OFF PANTELLARIA. DUBLIN SENT TO MALTA TO COAL AND THEN TAKE 2 DESTROYERS TO TROUBRIDGE; INDOMITABLE SENT TO BIZERTA TO COAL. MILNE WITH INFLEXIBLE, INDEFATIGABLE, WEYMOUTH AND CHATHAM STEERS FOR MERIDIAN 10°E. 3.35 P.M., 5th. GLOUCESTER REPORTS GOEBEN AT MESSINA. 7.30 A.M., 6th. MILNE LEAVES HIS PATROL LINE AND STEAMS EAST. 5.0 P.M., 6th. GOEBEN LEAVES MESSINA. 10.45 P.M., 6th. GOEBEN TURNS SOUTH-EAST. 0.8 A.M., 7th. TROUBRIDGE RESOLVES TO INTERCEPT HER AND STEERS SOUTH. 3.51 A.M., 7th. TROUBRIDGE TURNS INTO ZANTE. NOON, 7th. MILNE ARRIVES MALTA. 4.40 P.M., 7th. GLOUCESTER OFF MATAPAN, GIVES UP, BY ORDERS, HER TENACIOUS CHASE.
At 1 a.m. on August 8 Sir Berkeley Milne, having collected and coaled his three battle cruisers at Malta, set out at a moderate speed on an Easterly course in pursuit of the Goeben. At this juncture the Fates moved a blameless and punctilious Admiralty clerk to declare war upon Austria. The code telegram ordering hostilities to be commenced against Austria was inadvertently released without any authority whatever. The mistake was repaired a few hours later; but the first message reached Sir Berkeley Milne at 2 p.m. on August 8 when he was half-way between Sicily and Greece. His original war orders, had prescribed that in the event of a war with Austria he should in the first instance concentrate his fleet near Malta, and faithful to these instructions he turned his ships about and desisted from the pursuit of the Goeben. Twenty-four hours were thus lost before orders could reach him to resume it. But the Goeben herself had come to a standstill. Admiral Souchon was cruising irresolutely about the Greek islands endeavouring to make sure that he would be admitted by the Turks to the Dardanelles. He dallied thirty-six hours at Denusa and was forced to use his tell-tale wireless on several occasions. It was not till the evening of the 10th that he entered the Dardanelles and the Curse descended irrevocably upon Turkey and the East.
From the 9th to the 22nd of August the Army was crossing the Channel. This was a period of great anxiety to us. All the most fateful possibilities were open. We were bound to expect a military descent upon our coasts with the intention of arresting or recalling our Army, or a naval raid into the Channel to cut down the transports, or a concentrated submarine attack upon these vessels crowded with our troops. The great naval battle might begin at any moment, either independently or in connection with any of these operations. It was a period of extreme psychological tension.
In continued anxiety lest some capital mistake should be made through a different sense of proportion prevailing in the Fleet and at the Admiralty, I drew up the following appreciation which with the concurrence of the First Sea Lord was sent officially to Sir John Jellicoe.
Admiralty to Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleets. August 8, 1914. Sent 10.15 p.m.
1. To-morrow, Sunday, the Expeditionary Force begins to cross the Channel. During that week the Germans have the strongest incentives to action. They know that the Expeditionary Force is leaving, and that the mobilisation and training of the Territorial Army is incomplete. They may well argue that a raid or raids now upon the East Coast would interrupt, confuse and probably delay the departure of the Army, and further that it might draw the Grand Fleet rapidly South to interfere with the landing.
2. Alternatively, or simultaneously, they may attempt to rush the Straits and interrupt the passage of the Army. It seems in the last degree improbable that if they did so they would use their modern Battle Fleet. Their principle has been, according to all we know about them, to aim at a general battle with the British Fleet when by attrition and accident our margin of superiority has been reduced. They may be assumed to know our general dispositions in the South, and the strong and numerous Submarine flotillas of which we and the French dispose. They must apprehend that the Straits are mined. Since the distance across the Channel can be covered in 6 to 8 hours, 3 hours’ notice of their approach would enable every transport to reach safety. To force the Straits and enter the Channel with their best ships means the certain loss of units which it is vital to them to preserve if they are ever to fight a general battle. And this sacrifice, with all its hazards, would lead them only into an Anglo-French lake, lined with fortified harbours and infested with torpedo craft, at the end of which lies the Atlantic Ocean, and the Grand Fleet—wherever it is—certainly between them and home. If this plan were followed by the Germans, we should mine the Straits of Dover heavily behind them, and leave you to engage them at your convenience.
3. A far more probable German plan would be (A) to send a fast division to rush the Straits and attack the transports, while at the same time (B) making raids on the East Coast to create a diversion. Our dispositions in the Channel and its approaches provide fully for (A). With regard to (B), it is not considered that more than 10,000 men can be spared from Germany at present for raids. Such raid or raids would inconvenience the military arrangements, but the Army is ready to meet the raiders if they land. Their Lordships would wish to emphasise that it is not part of the Grand Fleet’s duty to prevent such raids, but to deal with the enemy’s Battle Fleet. The enemy’s older ships will possibly be used to cover either one or more raids. Their main Battle Fleet may be in rear to support them. They may expect you to come direct to prevent the raid, and therefore may lay one or more lines of mines across your expected course, or use their Submarines for the same purpose. Whereas if you approach from an Easterly or North-Easterly direction, i.e. behind them, you would cut the German Battle Fleet from its base, the landed raiders from all reinforcements, and you would approach by a path along which the chance of meeting mines would be sensibly reduced. In our view therefore you should ignore the raid or raids, and work by a circuitous route so as to get between the enemy’s fleet, or covering force, and home. It would seem undesirable to come South of latitude 57° until news of a raid has been actually received; and even then the possibility of the German Battle Fleet being still in the Heligoland Bight, i.e. behind you, cannot be excluded.