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Abstract
The article examines for the pre-First World War period: the developments in gunnery techniques; the gunnery practices and especially the firing ranges; and the tactical games and exercises conducted in the Grand Fleet, with their emphasis on the perceived threats from mines dropped from destroyers and from torpedoes from submarines. It concludes, contrary to Professor Sumida’s currently accepted interpretation, that at no time was ‘the development and maintenance of the capability to outfight the German battle fleet at medium range … the primary objective of British tactical preparation’.
Notes
1 Jon Sumida, ‘Expectation, Adaptation and Resignation. British Fleet Tactical Planning, August 1914–April 1916‘, Naval War College Review 60/3 (Summer 2007), 102, 105, 116–18 and 120 (n. 36).
2 Jon Sumida, ‘A Matter of Timing: The Royal Navy and the Tactics of Decisive Battle, 1912–1916’, Journal of Military History 67 (Jan. 2003), 94–6 and 100–2.
3 John Brooks, Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland (London: Routledge 2005), 95–8, 159–63, 166 and 211–12. The rates changed most rapidly during an action on opposite courses.
4 Sumida, ‘Timing’, 101.
5 [Cambridge, Churchill College] DRAX 1/9, [Home Fleets General] Order No. 14, [5 Nov.] 1913, 3. [Portsmouth, Admiralty Library, Admiralty, Gunnery Branch], Manual of Gunnery [for His Majesty’s Fleet,] 1915, 10–11. For independent firing interfering with rangetaking, see [Kew, UK, The National Archives], ADM[iralty papers] 1/8346, F.C. Dreyer, Captain Orion to VAC 2nd Battle Squadron, 11 Nov. 1913 in ‘Gunnery Practice at Sea: Sinking of HMS Empress of India’.
6 Brooks, Dreadnought, 204-11; the prototype Argo clock was purchased later (p. 136, n.204).
7 Sumida, ‘Timing’, 103–4.
8 Brooks, Dreadnought, 50–1, 155–6 and 159–61; Randal Gray (ed.), Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1906–1921 (London: Conway Maritime Press 1985), 28 and 30.
9 Admiralty Library, P. 1024, Commanders F. C. Dreyer and C.V. Usborne, Pollen Aim Corrector System Part I. Technical History and Technical Comparison with Commander F.C. Dreyer’s Fire Control System (Gunnery Branch 1913), 47.
10 DRAX 1/9, Order No. 14, 1913, Enclosure I: ‘… rangefinder control … has been very largely introduced and developed by the 2nd Battle Squadron [which has] many more rangefinders than any other’. Admiralty Library, ‘Important Questions dealt with by DNO Copies, Precis, etc.’ Vol. III, 1914 C-in-C Home Fleet, ‘Practices of Ships fitted with Director firing’, 15 May 1914; Brooks, Dreadnought, 167–8.
11 Stephen McLaughlin, ‘Battlelines and Fast Wings: Battle Fleet Tactics in the Royal Navy, 1900–1914’, Journal of Strategic Studies, this issue, <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2015.1005444>
12 John Brooks, ‘Grand Fleet Battle Tactics’, in Robert Blyth et al. (eds), The Dreadnought and the Edwardian Age (Farnham: NMM & Ashgate 2011), 185.
13 [TNA,] ADM 116/1341 [also 186/595, Grand Fleet] Battle Orders [Vol.] I [Before Jutland], Addenda No. 1 (31/8/14) and No. 5 (12/9/14), ff. 6 and 26.
14 Matthew Seligmann, ‘A German Preference for a Medium Range Battle? British Assumptions about German Naval Gunnery, 1914–1915’, War in History 19/1, (2012), 38–41 and 44; Brooks, Dreadnought, 220.
15 [London, British Library, Jellicoe MSS,] Add. 49012, [Frederic] Dreyer, ‘A Few Notes [on the Determination of the Most Advantageous Range…’, nd but Sept. 1915], f. 85.
16 ADM 116/1341, Battle Orders I, revised March 1915, VI. 4, 10 and 11, f. 84.
17 [TNA, ADM 116/1343 (also 186/597), Grand Fleet] Battle Orders [Vol.] III. [Jutland] pars. VII.5 and .7, f. 294.
18 Viscount Jellicoe, The Grand Fleet 1914–1916 (Ringshall, Suffolk: Ad Hoc Publications 2006), 51, 68–71, 75, 83, 85, 87, 90, 92, 95, 98, 102, 108, 111, 116; Frederic Dreyer, The Sea Heritage (London: Museum Press 1955), 89–90. Add. 49012; Dreyer, ‘A Few Notes’, f. 82.
19 [TNA,] ADM 137/2018, Memorandum, 23 Dec. 1914 ff. 279-80 and ADM 137/2019, Memorandum 6 Jan. 1915, ff. 27–9; A. Temple Patterson (ed.), The Jellicoe Papers Vol. I (London: NRS 1966), 126, 134 and 136; Jellicoe, Grand Fleet, 126–7, 134 and 136.
20 ADM 137/2019, Memoranda, 6 and 9 April 1915, ff. 180–3 and 206–10.
21 Jellicoe, Grand Fleet, 142. [TNA,] ADM 137/1958, Enclosure No. 1 to Memorandum 6 June 1915, ff. 24–5; Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 113.
22 Jellicoe, Grand Fleet, 150. [TNA,], ADM 137/2020, Memoranda, 30 July and 30 Aug. 1915, ff. 120–5 and 208–11; Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 113 refers to an opening range of ‘twelve thousand for the older units, whose main battery guns were smaller’ without mentioning that they were armoured cruisers.
23 ADM 137/2020, ff. 302–8, 366–71, 375–6, 431–4 and 556–60 and [TNA,] ADM 137/2021, ff. 108–12, 120–1, 251–2, 283–4, 430–1, 470, 551–3 and 619–22. The order dated 29 Feb. 1916, which is crossed through and applied to exactly the same ships listed in the order for 7 March, has not been counted.
24 The danger space (see Brooks, Dreadnought, 35) was 35ft with ¾ charges at 11,900 yards, with full charges at 16,000 yards: TNA, ADM 186/236, Range Tables … Vol. I, 1918, Tables 50 and 51 for 13.5in Mark V.
25 ADM 137/2021, Memorandum, 8 Jan. 1916, f. 39.
26 Jellicoe Papers I, 190–1; Peter Padfield, Guns at Sea (London: Evelyn 1974), 247; ADM 137/2019, ff. 182 and 208 and ADM 137/2020, ff. 121.
27 Jellicoe Papers I, 190–1; TNA, ADM 137/4822, Extracts of Gunnery Practice in Grand Fleet, 1914–18: Battleships and Battlecruisers, 2, Memoranda, ADM 137/2020, 14 Dec. 1916, ff. 556–7 and ADM 137/2021, 8 Jan. 1916, f. 39.
28 Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 115 and 121 n. 65;. Jellicoe, Grand Fleet, 167.
29 Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 105 and 115.
30 Brooks, Dreadnought, 24–7, 46–7, 52–4 and 162.
31 Brooks, Dreadnought, 45–6. Sumida, ‘Timing’, 136 n. 185 refers to the improved gear for the 1911–12 ships but not to previous developments.
32 Brooks, Dreadnought, 40–1, 50–1 and 92–4: John Brooks, ‘The Mast and Funnel Question’, in Warship 1995 (London: Conways 1995), 44–9.
33 Brooks, Dreadnought, 92, 159–62 and 166–8.
34 Order No. 14, 1913, Enclosure No. I (original emphasis). Manual of Gunnery 1915, 6.
35 Manual of Gunnery 1915, 6. The principal sources for rate control are ibid. 7–9 and 11–17 and Order No. 14, 1913, 2–4; see also Brooks, Dreadnought, 61–4 and 162–6. Both principal sources are cited in Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 116, 119 n. 8 and 122 n. 70.
36 Manual of Gunnery 1915, 10–11.
37 Battle Orders I¸ ‘Gunnery Addendum’, March 1915, 1; Manual of Gunnery 1915, 9–11; Admiralty Library, Ja011, Spotting Rules 1916, Nov. 1916, 4–5.
38 Bryan Ranft (ed.), The Beatty Papers Vol. I (London: NRS 1989), 231.
39 John Brooks, ‘Percy Scott and the Director’, Warship 2006 (London: Conways 2006), 161–70.
40 [TNA, ADM 137/293, Grand Fleet] Gunnery and Torpedo Orders, 32: [ADM 137/2019], Jellicoe, ‘Remarks on [the Use of] Director Firing’, [18 Jan. 1915], ff. 60 and 62. It seems that the trainer’s main duty was to slew the director rapidly when changing target or when own ship altered course.
41 ADM 137/2020, Jellicoe, ‘Remarks on Full Calibre Firing’, 30 Aug. 1915, f. 210.
42 Jellicoe, ‘Remarks on Director Firing’, ff. 60 and 62; Manual of Gunnery 1915, 10.
43 Memoranda, ADM 137/2018, 23 Dec. 1914, f. 279 and ADM 137/2019, 9 April 1915, f. 207; Conway’s 1906–21, 32; Jellicoe, Grand Fleet, 133, 139–40 and 142.
44 ADM 137/1958, Enclosure No. 1 to memorandum 6 June 1915, f. 25. Memoranda, ADM 137/2020, 19 Oct. 1915 and 11 Nov. 1915, ff. 367 and 432 and ADM 137/2021, 28 May 1916, f. 619; Conway’s 1906–21, 34 and 36.
45 Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 113.
46 Jellicoe, ‘Remarks on Director Firing’, f. 61.
47 Battle Orders I¸ ‘Gunnery Addendum’, March 1915, 1 (original emphases); Beatty Papers I, 232.
48 Battle Orders III, pars. XIV, 1–9.
49 Sumida, ‘Timing’, 130 and 132.
50 ADM 137/2020, which contains the orders for practice between July and Dec. 1915 is cited in Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 121 nn. 51 and 65.
51 Sumida, ‘Expectation’, 115.
52 Brooks, Dreadnought, 247, 249, 253, 256 and 261–2.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
John Brooks
John Brooks received his PhD from King’s College London in 2001 after retiring from a career in the telecommunications and computing industries. He is the author of Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland: The Question of Fire Control (2005), a book that led to a fundamental reassessment of the role of gunnery fire control in pre-First World War British naval policy. He has also contributed a chapter on British battle tactics in The Dreadnought and The Edwardian Age (2011) and has written articles for War in History and the War Studies Journal. He is currently completing a new study of the Battle of Jutland.