11. NAVAL OPERATIONS. Resources and Problems.— In the beginning of the World War Great Britain was the greatest sea power and Germany the second. As to what rank should be assigned to the navies of France, Italy, Russia and Austria-Hungary opinions differ. Taicing the battleship as a means of comparison the available statistics would have ranged the great nations thus : Great Britain 60, Germany 33, the United States 30, France 22, Japan 15, Italy 11, Austria-Hungary 9 and Russia 7. In submarines the announced statis tics were: Great Britain 75, France 64, the United States 30, Russia 30, Germany 27, Italy 19, Japan 13 and Austria-Hungary 6. So many of these boats were of old type that the statis tics are not as valuable as they seem. The total tonnage of the British navy in 1914 was 2,714,106 and the tonnage of the Gertnan navy was 1,306,577.
Incrluly 1914, 216 ships, about half the stren of the British navy, assembled in a w-an review in British home waters and passed before the king. When the international situ ation became threatening the governtnent, 26 July, ordered the fleet to remain assembled. The re.sult was that when Great Britain declared war on 4 August, the vessels were at their assigned station, stripped for action and well supplied with stores. From that moment the ships dis appeared, so far as the civilian population of Great Britain could see. Admiral Sir John Jel licoe, who had seen many years of service, was commander of the fleet and Mr. Winston Churchill was first Lord of the Admiralty. The French and Russian fleets were considerable, but they did not compare in strength with the British forces, which at once assumed the lead in the naval defense of the Allies. As Germany had the chief naval strength on the side of the Central allies, it was left mostly to the British fleet to hold her navy in check and to fight whatever battle would have to be fought against this great antagonist. The French fleet had its main naval base at Toulon, on the Mediter ranean, and its chief duty would lie in that sea. Here, also, was the Austrian fleet, with its main base at Pola, on the Adriatic. It became the first purpose of the French fleet, with the help of such British ships as served in these waters, to keep the Austrians shut up in this port. Later on Turkey came into the war and it was necessary to see that her ships did not come out of the Dardanelles. On 24 May 1915,
Italy entered the war against Austria-Hun,gary, and her fleet, which contained some excellent new ships, was a further aid in keeping the Mediterranean free of the ships of the Teutonic allies. As for Russia, her navy was divided into two fleets, each in a land-locked body of water. One was in the Baltic, the natural entrance to which, the sound, was treated as territorial water by Denmark and mined. The other was in the Black Sea, the entrance to which was closed by Turkey. With the aid of two strong German ships, the Goeben and the Breslau, the Turkish fleet was able to dispute the Black Sea with the Russian forces there. In the Baltic Germany was vastly stronger than Russia, so that she controlled the sea and maintained uninterrupted communication across it with Sweden and through Sweden with Norway.
These tasks were all of minor importance compared to that assumed by the British navy in the North Sea. This was a triple task. Pri marily it was to watch for the German fleet, and encounter and defeat it if opportunity offered. It was also to establish and enforce such means of interference with Germany's foreign trade as would reduce her ability to carry on the war. When the British ships dis appeared from view at the beginning of the war they were ranged in three &ets; the first, second and third. In each of them there were general squadrons of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, with submarines and mine-sweepers. The first fleet was made up of the most power ful ships, dreadnoughts, superdreadnoughts and powerful battle-cruisers. The three fleets taken together were called the Grand Fleet, or the Home Fleet, and it was cherished by the British people as the first line of defense. Outside of the North Sea when the war began were several fast German cruisers which started immediately to attack British merchantmen, and it became the duty of the British navy serving on the high seas to chase down and destroy these ships, or force them to intern in neutral waters. While on this service the British men-of-war also sunk German merchantmen, with the result that Ger man commerce was driven from the seas. In the two first months of the war 10 per cent of the German and Austrian merchant ships were sunk at sea.