The Washington herald., 1919-03-23

fleets equal instead of nearly two to
one against Won Tirpitz.
These things the world believed.
That was British propaganda. The
truth was this:
In actual lighting strength when
war broke out, and for many months
thereafter. the German high seas
neet was superior to the British grand
neet by . margin estimated by high
British naval authorities at from .
to 2S per cent. There was not q man
on the Board of Admiralty In August,
1914. who did not admit that the en-
emy on paper had at least q shade
the best of it.
For example. on October /. 1874 af-
Ter the sinking of the superdread-
naught Audacious. the secret figures
at the Admiralty showed that the ef-
fective strength OF the two navies
was seventeen British dresdnaught
battleships against fifteen German,
five battle cruisers against Ave. ana
forty-two British destroyers against
eighty-elght Germans. In addition,
the Germans had an uncertain but
considerable number of submarines
able to accompany the fleet to battle,
the British had none; they had better
light cruisers; they had Zeppelins for
scouting. the British lacked any ma
val air service.
Hun Fleet Protected.
But the German feet was protected
by impregnable mine fields and shore
batteries against surface attack, by
ingenious devices OF many kinds
against submarines. The British bases
in the Firth of Fourth and at Scapa
Flow in the Orkneys when war began
had no protection Of any sort, either
against submarine or surface irrup-
tion.
Not only had the Germans more
than twice as many destroyers, but
their destroyers, ship for ship. were
much better than the British. They
were faster. they carried six torpedo
tubes against the British four.
Ship for ship, the German Dread
naushts were superior to the British.
The lower caliber of their guns was
projectiles, which burst inside the
ship after penetrating, instead of ex-
ploding on contact with the enemy's
armor. as did the British shells.
BY system of bulk-heads the
German ships were me de almost un-
sinkable by torpedoes or by shells
striking below the water-line; the
British had no such protection.
British light cruisers, although
more heavily gunned, were older
and much slower than the German
and hence could not be counted up
on in a feet action.
The German capital ships were
better gun-platforms. because they
had a broader beam: the narrowed
beam of the British vessels was nee
essary so they could enter the older
British docks, which had not been
widened as ships grew in size during
the decade before the war.
The German ships were more ef-
fectively armored: the British were
especially efficient In deck-armor
needed to resist piunging fire COM
ing from extreme ranges.
Only eight British battleships whsn
war began were fitted with a system
of director firing In August, 1914; all
the Germans had 1t; and even at
Jutland nearly two years later when
British hre-control had been much i'm
proved. the Germans range-fnders
proved more accurate.
The British navy lacked almost en-
tirely proper searchllghts and star
shells for night fighting; with these
the German feet was abundantly pro-
vided.
The importance OF mining in naval
warfare cannot be exaggerated: the
Germans in 1914 had excellent mines
and plenty of them, the British mines
were scarce and most of them re-
fused to explode. so that for months
British mine-felds were solemnly an
nounced to shivering enemies and
neutrals and either not laid at all or
laid with a few duds.
II Hun should Win.
I am not fool enough to set down
these things, even though 1 have
known them for years, without be-
ing able to adduce authority. The
skeptic is referred to the book just
published on The Grand Fleet" by
Admiral Jellicoe., in which every
statement made above is either ex-
plicitly or implicitly confirmed.
No German in 1914 needed to be
told what would happen II his High
Seas Fleet swept the ocean of the
British Invasion and destruction