Germany's attempts to build a battleship fleet to match that of the
United Kingdom, the dominant naval power on the 19th-century and an
island country that depended on sea born trade for survival, is often
listed as a major reason for the enmity between those two countries that
led to the outbreak of war in 1914.
Indeed, German leaders had expressed a desire for a navy in proportion
to their military and economic strength that could free their overseas
trade and colonial empire from dependence on Britain's good will, but
such a fleet would inevitably threaten Britain's own trade and empire.
Despite this backdrop of large standing navies, naval warfare in the
First World War was mainly characterized by the efforts of the Allied
powers, with their larger fleets and surrounding position, to blockade
the Central Powers by sea, and the efforts of the Central Powers to
break that blockade or to establish an effective blockade of the UK with
submarines and raiders. Indeed, the use of the former saw naval conflict
enter a new era, one that affected every member of the British
population and, in 1917, raised the specter of a German victory.
This unique collection of original documents will prove to be an
invaluable resource for historians, students and all those interested in
what was one of the most significant periods in British military
history.
Dispatches in this volume include those relating to the events at
Antwerp in 1914, Royal Navy armored car squadrons, the Battle of Dogger
Bank, the Battle of the Falklands, the Battle of Heligoland Bight,
minesweeping operations, Royal Naval Air Service operations and attacks,
and, of course, the Battle of Jutland.
