The War at Sea [First World War]

Hi Viewers,
This post is a continuation of our last post  The Year 1916 of the First World War. We really hope that this topics really does throw some light on the basic condition of the War and you are able to get a clear picture of what events actually happened.

The mobs in Germany and England expected a series of naval attacks between the rivals. Something like the past (Battle of Trafalgar- 21 October 1805). But this time both the sides were cautious this time, so none of the sides dared not risk an action which might result any harm to their main fleets.

John Rush-worth Jellicoe (1859-1935), British Admiral, was very cautious as Winston Churchill quoted 'was the only man on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon'. The Germans also were quite cautious because they had developed only 16 of the latest Dreadnoughts (Type of Battleship which was introduced in the early 20th century. It was larger and faster than its predecessors and was equipped with large calibre guns.) against 27 British.

HMS Dreadnoughts

As usual as always during a war, strategies, plans, theories, everything is taken into account. So the Allies also aimed to use their navies in three ways:

• to blockade the Central Powers, preventing goods from entering or leaving which ultimately will result in starvation.
• to keep trade routes open between Britain, her empire and the rest of the World, so that the Allies themselves would not starve; and 
• to transport British troops to the contingent and keep them supplied via the Channel ports.

The British were successful in carrying out the naval aims. They also fought the Battle of Falkland Islands in which they went into action against the Germany's Imperial navy units stationed abroad, result being the demolition of one of the main German squadron led by Admiral Garf. By the end of 1914 nearly all the German units stationed abroad were destroyed except being their main fleet which did not venture outside Heligoland Bight and the squadron blockading the Baltic to cut off supplies to Russia.

We will continue this post in our next one where we will be discussing the problems caused by the Allied Blockade and Retaliation of Germans with mines and submarine attacks.