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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1921)
THE BKE: OMAHA. WEDNESDAY. MAY !. 1921. Biggest Naval Error. Allies. Committed During War Was Failure to Erect Sub Barrage in North Sea, Says Daniels The ehUf alMM naval irttir of tha war-On both alrtre of the Allintto In torn thlnn hlnd aunt prt.rad ntlrr Uian tureanht I'nliMl Hutu ahoulri hare oonrmtra'nt on fonitructlon or de i aimyma In 1915 -la onilrlim of Jflllixw JuMif Inl f Outatandlna failure of the war waa not to 1it abut Uia aubmarlnee up In Uirlr diiU aarllcr. By JOSEPHUS DANIELS. Frmar Setratary of the Navy. Coiyrltht. 1921. by Johi F. Coayrloht by National Nawiaaxr Sarvlaa. CoeyrigM In flraet Britain, Canada and throughout Cvrapa. All rlghti reiamd. Including transition lata foralaa laniuaaia. Including tha Scaadanavla. Uaauthorlied raprlntlni tar any lurnoia lorblddan. A-f:.-; very war one can look back and sec that somewhere there was Km o! foresight, somewhere there was wanting vision translated into ac 3bn, somewhere there was failure to grasp a new and daring plan which anight have turned defeat into victory or have hastened the day of peace. ; '" When one reflects upon the zeal, courage and success of the British ;navy in freeing the seven seas from German traffic, one is filled with ad miration for its spirit and achievements. But it made mistakes, as we, and all the other navies, did. what was our chief naval error? -It was that we lacked the forc sKht in 1915-16, largely because we , did not have the information which was kept from neutrals, to concen trate, upon the building of destroy ers "jo the exclusion of larger ships. To bf sure, we were utilizing before the United States entered the war 'evfrjr available facility for the build in;pf destroyers. "AMore Destroyers Needed. 1 The great three-year .program proposed by mc in 1915 and voted byv'congtcss in 1916 embraced 50 destroyers to be constructed in lhK$ years. along with 16 capital slypj iiirtd ;10 scout cruisers. looking' back upon that program it is clear now, taking advantage "of what ,wc learned during the war, that it would have been wiser to have dHayed contracting for so many capital ships, and built hun dreds of .destroyers, the craft most effective against submarines. Our ship construction program during the war , included approximately 1,000 vessels. This In addition-to the 147 ships converted for naval purposes. Thcra : was; no delay in pressing work on . destroyers. Immediately alter congress authorized the three year program, contracts were made for the-20 ' uthorued the first year, as well fts' for 27 submarines, four battle ships, four battle cruisers and other-Vessels. In March, 1917, be fore fiye entered the war, as soon as funds were-available, 24 more were ordered; additional orders were given as rapidly as the contracts could be placed and by the middle of October we were building or had contracted for 270. . f All Records Broken. Millions had to be spent for new facilities to ' build them enlarge ment of old ship yards, building of giant new plants. It was a great job,, but . .we broke all records in rapid construction when we struck our .gait. ,. The house naval commit tee," after" thorough investigation, siid in its report made March 4, 1?18:. . V WhfrV it carnj to building addi tional destroyers, especially those of the large program, it was found that the ship-building facilities of the country were fully absorbed with the vessels then under construction and it would be necessary to create new facilities. The plans adopted required more than doubling the capacity available last summer for (gilding destroyers, and that capac ity was materially greater than be fore the war. In spite of speed m TAILORED B I - S W I N G HE. WEARS THE VARSWING SUIT, A NORFOLK, STYLE RECOMMENDED BY OUR TAILORS AT FASHION PARK. THE COMFORTABLE BI-SWING EXPANDING SLEEVE IS COPYRIGHTED SUroofiae SEE OUR WINDOWS TODAY JOHN A VAMSONjvc WH I MQtXfMN.1 construction, these vessels arc not being slighted in workmanship or appliances.' Experts Didn't See It. Looking back, I wished every day during the war that when we began the big naval expansion in 1915, we had asked congress for the money to build 300 destroyers at that time. By concentration in 1915-16 we would have had most of them ready in the first months of the war. It is a fact, however, that no naval expert and nobody in congress suggested omitting the capital ships and push ing the big destroyer program we began in the stress of war. Across the seas what was the great naval error of our allies? . Some of the ablest writers declare that it was the tactics of Admiral Jellicoe at the battle of Jutland. The admiral has written a most interesting book undertaking to show that his method of fighting the battle was right when all the conditions arc considered. The admiral is a brave and learned officer, and a gentleman of charm and real stuff, but he made the mistake of his life when he wrote his story of the grand fleet. "Confession and Avoidance.'' I read it on my way to Europe in March, 1919, and began it with a feeling that Admiral Jellicoe had been harshly and unjustly treated by the critics. But, when I had read the last chapter, my feeling was the same as that of a distinguished Britisher whom I met a few weeks later and who said to me: "For his own reputation Jellicoe ought not to have written that book. At the best it is a plea of confession and avoidance." The basis for this opinion lies in the fact that the admiral charges his failure to win a decisive victory to the superiority of the Germans in certain material (and to the low visi bility that prevailed); whereas the admiralty had told the world that in this very material Great Britain excelled all other nations and Jelli coe had direct, its material division. Commander 3iairs. M. P., may be too severe in his efiticism of Ad miral Jellicoe, but all who are inter ested in the naval history of the war should read both Jellicoe and Bellairs and I hope we will be able to read some day Jellicoe in rejoinder to Bellairs. Point to Controversy. The crux of the battle is: Should Jellico have turned the whole fleet away at 7:10 because "a flotilla of enemy destroyers supported by a AT PASHIQM PARK CUSTOM SBtRriCR fflTHOUT THE ANNOYANCE OF A TRY-ON READY-TO-PUT-ON CORRECT APPAREL FOR MEN AND WOMEN cruiser was observed on a bearing S 50 degrees W. from Iron Duke?" Bellairs says: "It was to avoid this attack of 11 'destroyers that 27 battleships turned away." "It is im possible," Bellairs continues, "to imagine a more definite break from the whole spirit of naval tradition, or from its practice, united to mod' em inventions, of the golden rule that once an enemy is sighted he must be cut off. closely engaged and annihilated. Our cruisers and de stroyers, who could have pressed home their own attacks on the en emy line, were by this time in the van." Finally, after an elaborate dis cussion, Bellairs says: It suffices here to remark that no turn ought to have presented itself to a British admiral but the turn toward the en emy." Admiral Jellicoe went in command of the British grand fleet after long and honorable service in the admir alty. Is that the reason why he placed prudence above daring? The doctrine of "a fleet in being" had long ago been upheld by the admir alty. Admiral Jellicoe felt that the safety of the world depended upon the ability of the British navy to preveut the escape of the German fleet to the high seas. If he failed in dashing after the enemy fleet un der conditions he deemed adverse, was it not due to his long shore ex perience and his intense conviction that he must, at all hazards, preserve British superiority in ships on the sea? On Shore Too Long. I remember some years ago that a certain -naval officer, who stood high in the service, went in com mand of a battleship after three years of shore duty. "How is Captain Y getting on?" I asked Admiral Fletcher, then commander-in-chief of the fleet. "He has been on shore too long," replied Admiral Fletcher. "There is but one way to be a successful, readv and quick captain of a ship, and that is to practice all the duties afloat." Afterward that officer, highly esteemed, was plucked. uen the time came tor the United States navy to enter active war service, even before the declara tion of war, I gave the positions of greatest importance afloat to men of the. longest and latest experience at sea Mayo in command of all our forces at home and abroad; Rodman in command of our dreadnaughts in the North sea; Wilson first in charge of the patrol squadron and COMPARE OUR VALUES ALWAYS X CHOCOLATES . INNER-CIRCLE CANDIES huh later in command off the French coast, protecting our transports; Cleaves in command of the cruiser and transport force, safeguarding and carrying our soldiers overseas; Rogers in command of dread naughts watching for German raid ers off the British and, French coasts, and others of long seagoing experience. Greatest Error of Allies. , What was the biggest naval error of the war committed by the allies? I think the answer is plain and easily understood now by both ex pert and layman: It was the failure to erect, at the beginning of subma rine warfare, back in 1914-15, cf fectial barrages across the North sea and the English channel, in the Mediterranean and at the entrance to the Adriatic sea. If efforts had been directed to this end sinking by submarines would have been greatly lessened and ended long before the combined naval forces were equal to the big job of making U-boat war fare unsafe. The "deeds of the destroyers and other naval craft glorify the world war. 4Jut if the day war was de clared, as the first naval offensive in that area the French and British had made the channel from Dover to Calais impossible of passage by an enemy submarine that would have been supreme and effective strategy. If barrages, such as we afterward laid across the North sea, had been erected there and across the Straits of Otranto, the U-boats would have been so hemmed in that Germany would have realized early in the struggle that it could not hope to win the war by their use. Minions of tons of shipping would have been saved, and it would have changed the whole trend of the war at sea. There were plenty of errors navy UY lTsMITH scfuicc riMi; v 2S63 Farnam St. Phone Douf. 1970 Our USED CARS Have a Conscience Troup Auto Supply Co. 2027-29 Farnam St. Phone Dotiflaa 5230 OMAHA A complete stock of Quality Accessories , for all cars. WM. PEPERK0RN Auto Service Station MIS No. 30th St. Omaha Phone Kenwood 0112 GENERAL AUTO REPAIRING ELECTRICAL SERVICE MACHINE WORK Colfax Garage 30th and Ann. Phone Kenwood 1907 General Carafe Service i Acceaaorica, Auto Repaira and . 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It may be said that the result was good enough with such methods; but was it? We have surely no right to continue to rely on improvisations. We in the navy know well our defects and it is our business to face them, to leave no stone unturned to avoida repetition of the mistakes from which we have suffered in the past." Copyright, 1921. by John P. Pllle. Copyright by National Nawnpaper Service. Copyright in Groat Britain, Canada and throughout Frame. All rights renorvod, Including tranplation Into foreign language. Including the Scandinavian. Unauthorized reprinting tor any purpose forbidden. (Another article by former Secretary Daniels will be printed tomorrow.) Flag Day to Be Observed Here By Nebraska Elks Flag day will be celebrated by Nebraska Elks June 12, according to invitations being sent out to Ne braska lodges and members of the Nebraska Elks to hold their annual convention in Omaha June 12-13. Plans for the convention and observ ance of Flag day are under way. J. G. 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