Sea.—Until the break up of Russia, sporadic fight ing took place between the Turko-German naval forces and the Russian Black Sea fleet, in which the Russian dreadnoughts domi nated the situation. After the mutiny of the Black Sea fleet, a danger arose that one or more of the battleships might fall into the hands of the Germans as potential fighting units. The Allied Aegean squadron was therefore strengthened in 1918 by 4 French battleships and 2 British dreadnoughts. It was one of the latter ("Superb") that on Nov. 12, 1918 led the Allied fleets up the Dardanelles and subsequently to Constantinople.
As the months of 1918 drew on the menace of the submarine waxed less and less and during May, June and July over 600,000 American troops were safely carried across the Atlantic and landed in France. It was the beginning of the end. In August the German Western Front began to crack under the blows of the French and British armies: Austria was breaking up: Sep tember saw the Bulgarian front give way and, in October, Ger many, racked by internal troubles, was forced to her knees.
Scheer, who had relinquished the command of the High Sea Fleet to von Hipper on being called to Headquarters in August as Chief of the Naval Staff, received orders late in September to be prepared to leave the Flanders Coast. In October the retire ment began, hastened from the sea by the ships of the Dover Patrol. Ostend was clear of German troops on Oct. 17 and two days later they were in full retreat from Zeebrugge. Eighteen destroyers and torpedo boats escaped to the Bight but a number of submarines were left behind and blown up.
Af ter its futile sortie in April the High Sea Fleet made no move and signs were not want ing that its fighting spirit had departed. As early as May 1917 there had been unrest amongst the personnel and outbreaks of mutiny occurred in the battleships "Westfalen," "Kaiser," "Kai serin" and "Konig Albert." In the spring and early summer of 1918 further outbreaks called for stern repressive measures. The continued inactivity of the fleet and the withdrawal of the best of its personnel for service in the submarines and in the flotillas, so undermined its morale that when called upon to make a final effort it failed.
Scheer had planned a last raid into the Channel by the whole High Sea Fleet, whilst a concentration of submarines in the North Sea attacked the Grand Fleet on its way south. The submarines
were recalled from their war upon commerce at the end of October and were stationed off the Scottish coast, but, when, on Oct. 29, the signal was made to prepare for sea, open mutiny broke out and the fleet refused to sail. From that moment the High Sea Fleet ceased to exist as a fighting machine and the war at sea was over. Most of the crews of the destroyer and submarine flotillas remained loyal until the end and one of the latter inflicted the last casualty of the war upon the British navy when, on Nov. io, the old battleship "Britannia" was torpedoed off Cape Trafalgar.
Under the terms of the Armistice, Germany agreed to surrender io battleships, 6 battlecruisers, 8 light cruisers, 5o destroyers and all submarines. These terms were enforced without delay and two scenes followed that will be forever memorable in the long sea history of Britain. On Nov. 20, Rear Admiral Tyrwhitt, with the Harwich flotillas, met the surrender ing submarines off the Essex coast and escorted them into Har wich. Slowly, the long line of 129 submarines passed into the harbour, watched, in dead silence, by great crowds on either shore. Thus was the greatest menace to Britain's sea power laid to rest. The next day, Nov. 21, Admiral Beatty with the Grand Fleet, met the German Fleet off the Firth of Forth. Between two long lines of British ships the High Sea Fleet steamed to its anchorage below the Forth Bridge and there, at sunset, the Ger man flag was hauled down and was not hoisted again. Thus the proud fleet of Germany surrendered to its enemy, who for over four years had watched and thwarted its every move.
In June 1919 the naval conditions of the Peace terms were signed. They were drastic and reduced Germany at a blow from the position of a great sea power to that of a minor one. The maximum strength of the German navy was fixed at 6 small battleships, 6 cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 torpedo boats and no submarines, with a personnel not to exceed 15,000 officers and men.
Within two months of the signature, the remaining 8 dread noughts with 8 light cruisers and 92 of the latest destroyers and torpedo boats were surrendered, disarmed but with their guns on board, and, within one month, all submarines, either built or building, were either surrendered or broken up.