Before the war had even started, Germany was jealously eying the superior naval fleet of Britain. The King of the Seas, so to speak, had always been in the way of Germany's trade and served as a rival. It was around this time that Britain conjured up the 'Dreadnoughts'.
It was first proposed by First Sea Lord, Jackie Fisher. Fisher wanted to have possession of better, faster, stronger ships that would make every ship obsolete. Heedless to say, he succeeded. The HMS Dreadnought was, and still is, an iconic British ship. Its birth sparked the fuse for the Naval Build-up Battle. Every country wanted one in their infinate envy. Especially Germany.
The Dreadnought was the fastest ship at the time. It had steam turbine engines. She carried 10 guns whereas other competitors had only four. Despite this, they did not use her in the war. She guarded the English Channel. Still, she was the first and only ship to sink a submarine. She rammed into the SM U-29 when it spontaneously broke the surface to fire a torpedo at another dreadnought in 1915.
-Side note Side note: Britain tended to have heavily gunned ships with less armor to be fast and Germany had less guns with more armor.
A lot of the Naval battles were between Germany and Britain. A lot of the battles also took place around Britain so Germany wouldn't to rely on the Sea Lord's good graces in terms of trading.
The North Sea was the hotspot for surface action. Most if not all of the battles were between the British Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet, Germany. The Grand Fleet maintained the blockade that kept the Germans starving. The High Seas Fleet stayed mostly in port behind their sea mines. The would occasionally play cat and mouse with the Grand Fleet in hopes of luring them close enough to weaken the blockade... And while they were never successful, they were enough of a threat to keep a lot of Britain's attention on them.
The major battles that took place here are the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first naval battle resulting in a British win and a loss of heavy casualties of Germany in people and ships, the Battle of Dogger Bank, a tactical battle on Britain's part and almost a thousand Germans killed, The Battle of Jutland, which never had a conclusive winner but Britain lost the most but still maintained North Sea dominance, and the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, which ended indecisively with only one ship damaged.
The English Channel was a vital stretch of water to the British Expeditionary Force fighting in France. If left unguarded, the High Seas Fleet could sail down destroy any ship there- including the meager six lightly armored old slow cruisers there.
The Atlantic Ocean was vastly important to Britain, who as an island island, greatly depended on sea trade. So while Britain was cutting of Germany's trade, Germany used their U-boats that ineffective against warships anyway to attack merchant ships. This would eventually lead to neutral powers to lean toward the Allied Powers as the submarines sunk there ships, either deliberately or because identification was difficult underwater.
The Mediterranean experienced limited warfare. It was mostly just the navies of France, Britain, Japan, and Italy blockading and Austria-Hungary's and Germany's submarine combat. The biggest movement was an attack on Istanbul to knock out the Ottoman Empire that resulted in a loss for the Allies.
The Black Sea was mainly Russia against Germany, which is weird because I though the Russia was with Germany, not against them...? Oh well. The two navies played numerous cat and mouse games trying to figure out who was the big boy. Russia started to loose their hold against the dominate beast that was the German ship, SMS Goeben. Russia got headway when the SMS Goeben started to experience frequent engine failure after being in service for two straight years. Then to top it off, the Russians got two new dreadnought ships. Power came into Russia's hands and stayed there until the the collapse of Russian resistance.
The Baltic Sea was the main battleground for Russia against Germany. There were Britain ships and other Allied ships, but they seemed content to let the Russians and the Germans to fight it out. Russians were key in defense there. The biggest win there was when the Germans ship, SMS Magdeburg ran aground in a heavy encompassing fog. They tried to scuttle her or destroy but at the approach of the Russians, they had to leave her and all the secrets she carried. Including the vital German Naval Codebook which contributed masterfully to success in the North Sea.
Sadly, I had no sarcastic thoughts to contribute. I was certainly interesting. Both sides showed a different take on sea-warfare but did what was best for them and it was simply naval intelligence and the right circumstances that determined the winner. Or simply who had the bigger stick. Upon that note, my blog has reached its close.
http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/ (not used much)
Comments
Excellent job!!