All language subtitles for BBC.The.Great.War.06of26.So.Sleep.Easy.In.Your.Beds.divx.mp3

"O, do but think you stand
upon the rivage and behold a city
on th' inconstant billows dancing

"For so appears this fleet
majestical."

In August 1914, Britain went to war
with a very small army

and the greatest navy
the world had ever seen.

The first duty of the Royal Navy
was to defend the British Isles

against dangers defined earlier
by Sir Walter Raleigh.

There are two ways in which
England may be afflicted -

one, by invasion, the other
by impeachment of our trades.

100 years after Raleigh,
the Marquis of Halifax wrote:

To the question, "What shall we do
to be saved in this world?"

there is no other answer but this -
"Look to your moat."

The first article of an Englishman's
political creed must be

that he believeth in the sea.

Ever since Trafalgar in 1805,

Britain's "fleet majestical"
had been the envy and despair
of other powers.

"Wherever there's water to float
a ship," said Napoleon, "we're sure
to find YOU in the way."

In 1900, Germany began
to build a fleet - a BATTLE fleet.

Admiral von der Goetz
told the Reichstag:

The maritime superiority of Great
Britain, overwhelming now, will
remain considerable in the future,

but she is compelled to scatter
her forces all over the world.

With the increases about to be made
in the German fleet,

we will be able to measure
our strength with ordinary
British naval forces in home waters.

The very foundations of Britain's
security were placed in hazard.
The threat was unmistakable.

Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary,
expressed its extent:

If the German fleet ever becomes
superior to ours, the German army
can conquer this country.

There's no such risk to Germany,

for however superior our fleet was,
no naval victory would bring us
any nearer to Berlin.

There were two courses open
to Britain - negotiate to limit the
German fleet or increase her own.

In 1908,
the Kaiser ruled out negotiation.

A good understanding
with the English is not desirable

at the cost of the completion
of the German fleet.

If the British want war, they can
have it. We are not afraid of it.

Britain met the challenge
by stripping her overseas stations

and concentrating her navy
in home waters.

Sir John Fisher,
First Sea Lord, wrote reassuringly:

We will soon have in home waters two
fleets, each of which is superior

to the entire German fleet
fully mobilised for war,

so sleep easy in your beds.

Battleships and cruisers returned
home from distant oceans -

a holiday for the Arab smuggler
or the Malay buccaneer.

It was not enough. In 1906, Britain
had launched HMS Dreadnought -
faster, bigger, more heavily armed.

All existing battleships
were rendered obsolete.

In theory, all the shipbuilding
nations were now on equal terms.

The naval race began.

Bigger ships,

heavier armaments,

12 inch guns,

13.5 inch guns,

15 inch guns.

When war began, it was Britain
who had won the race.

She had 24 dreadnoughts
and battle cruisers ready to fight,
to Germany's 16,

AND the moral advantage of a
century of unchallenged supremacy.

One officer said
at the outbreak of war,

"I'm quite sure all of us will find
our bones lying at the bottom
of the sea within the next ten days

"and I have decided to eat nothing
till my death but caviar."

He kept that up for three days and
then gave up to avoid bankruptcy.

To Britain's naval strength
was added that of France.

German policy had made allies
of the old enemies of Trafalgar.

Together,
the allied fleets ringed the German
and Austrian fortress of Europe.

Colonial possessions provided the
British, French and German fleets

with bases for supplies
and repairs.

They also formed a network
of radio stations,

connecting distant squadrons
with their home command.

Above all,
they served as coaling stations.

To steam ships, coal was life.

A heavy ship ate a ton of coal for
every mile steamed at high speed.

When she refuelled,
up to 2,000 tons of coal would have
to be loaded into her bunkers.

So, across the world,
the naval powers had built up
chains of coaling stations.

The filthy colliers
that replenished them
were the sinews of naval glory.

Coaling ship was a hated task,
which might take from dawn to dusk,
or longer.

Breaking the surface of the coal was
fine, but as you got lower and lower
into the hold, it got terrible.

You was eating coal dust
all the time you were down there.
Your nose, your eyes got blocked up.

We was jolly thankful
when we was finished.

# Only one more day of coaling

# One more day

# Oh, rock 'n' roll me over

# Only one more day!

# Only one more day a-working

# One more day

# Oh, rock 'n' roll me over

# Only one more day! #

In 1914, Britain placed
entire trust in the Royal Navy -

supreme, invincible repository
of imperial might.

"Sleep quiet in your beds,"
Admiral Fisher had said.

"We will be incomparably superior
to the entire German fleet."

Yet there were those who were
uneasily conscious of new factors.

A naval revolution
had been in progress...

underwater.

The mine and the submarine created
dangers to which the largest
dreadnoughts were vulnerable.

No-one knew how
these underwater weapons
would affect the great fleets.

One American admiral said, "Damn
the torpedoes. Full steam ahead."

Observers knew Britain
had lagged behind in developing
underwater armaments.

We had no efficient mine,
no proper minesweepers,

no measures for guarding our ships
against mines, no anti-submarine
precautions, no safe harbour.

Poor defences for the fleet in its
own waters upset Commander-in-Chief
Admiral Jellicoe.

I was far more concerned
for the safety of the fleet

when it was at anchor in Scapa Flow
in the early days of the war

than I was
when the fleet was at sea.

Unsuspected uncertainties
hovered around the Royal Navy
as it went to war.

Germany had acquired a colonial
empire in Africa and the Pacific -

more than four times the area
of her homeland,

and she had developed
a huge export trade.

In the Far East was the only naval
force outside the North Sea to
carry the flag of Imperial Germany,

the German Asiatic Squadron
under Admiral Graf von Spee.

This alone defended
Germany's Pacific colonies.

The allies planned von Spee's
immediate destruction -

take away his bases,
his radio and coaling stations,
and his squadron would be helpless.

The first to be seized was Samoa.

Palms and sands and lazy islanders
ringed by the glamorous South Seas.

This was where Robert Louis
Stevenson of Treasure Island
had died and been buried.

"That ridiculous island!"
the Kaiser called it.

There was no fighting in Samoa.

A party of New Zealanders
came ashore to accept the
German surrender with due ceremony.

The black and red and white flag
of Germany came down the mast and
the Union flag flew in its place.

On the same day,
the BEF was marching back from Mons

and Le Cateau in dour exhaustion.

On September 10th, the remote
tropical war moved to another
German island, New Pomerania,

off the coast of New Guinea.

There was a brisk action,
ending in an Australian victory.

On September 15th, the whole
of German New Guinea surrendered.

Australia,
in her first campaign of conquest,

had added 90,000 square miles
to the British Empire

at a cost of six dead
and four wounded.

But Germany's strongest Pacific
colony and von Spee's main base

was Tsingtao
on the Kiaochow Peninsula of China.

Its Governor telegraphed Berlin:

Tsingtao is impregnable.
It cannot be taken from the sea
and no-one would try from the land.

But it could be besieged.

Japanese, British and Indian troops
landed on September 2nd.

The Japanese had a problem.

They couldn't tell a German
European from an English one.

We sent out a mixed patrol -
ourselves and the Japanese.

They shot one of our men. They say
we look the same as the Germans.

They gave us Japanese kimonos,
down to our thighs, with capes.

When we all wore kimonos,
we were all chaps together.
There were no more accidents.

The siege of Tsingtao
went on for nine weeks.

The Japanese brought Howitzers
to smash the forts as the Germans
had smashed Liege and Namur.

We were out resting now
on the 6th and 7th and
we were behind a range, nice cover.

And all of a sudden,
there was a Japanese officer
coming on horseback, full gallop.

He said, "Germans finish,
Germans finish. White flag is up."

They surrendered
on Sunday morning, 7th November.

Now the last islands to fly
the German flag in the Pacific
fell one by one.

The Marianas and the Carolines
and the Marshalls and Bougainville.

One by one, Admiral von Spee
lost his hopes of coal and succour.

His sleek ships steamed on
in isolation. Winston Churchill
described his dilemma:

With the blockade of Tsingtao,
he was cut off from his only base
on that side of the world.

To steam at full or high speed
for any length of time on any quest

was to use up his life rapidly.

He was a cut flower in a vase -
fair to see, yet bound to die.

Germany's African empire
was crumbling too.

In August, Togoland fell.

In September, the Cameroons.

South West Africa was attacked.

The operation was delayed
by a rebellion of Afrikaners

who wanted to reverse the result
of the Boer War.

Rebels were killed, dispersed
or captured, but the Germans
had been granted a respite.

But by the summer of 1915,
the Union flag flew over the whole
of this vast territory.

The first invasion of
German East Africa ended in rout.

A British and Indian force, poorly
commanded and poorly trained,

landed on the swampy coast.

Amid muddles and misunderstandings,
they were attacked
by well-trained African askaris

under a great German commander -
Colonel von Lettow-Vorbech.

The British, their invasion hopes
shattered by dysentery and gunfire,
withdrew after four days,

leaving behind 800 dead
and many prisoners,

as well as enough guns and
ammunition, coats and blankets,
to supply the Germans for years.

Von Lettow-Vorbech and his mobile
force of never more than 15,000

harassed up to 130,000
allied troops

till the very end of the war.

East Africa held out but the German
Empire disappeared from the map.

Her merchant fleet
also disappeared.

The blockade, mounted by
the British Navy on the first day
of war, was doing its work.

German merchant ships were penned
up in ports all around the world.

Ships of neutral nations
were prevented from bringing her
any materials of war.

This created instant friction
between Britain and America.
Lloyd George wrote:

Germany's chief power was on land,
Britain's on the sea.

Germany's invasion of Belgium, her
devastation of France might arouse
disinterested wraths in America,

but it did not touch
American pockets.

On the other hand, Britain's firm
measures to stop contraband of war

from reaching Germany and her
wide interpretation of "contraband"

caused serious inconvenience
to American shipping and direct
interference with American business.

It was a test of diplomacy,
as Britain and Germany competed
for America's sympathy.

President Wilson's
confidential advisor said:

The British have gone as far as they
could in violating neutral rights,

though they have done it
in the most courteous way.

President Wilson had determined
to keep America out of war.
He contented himself with protests.

And now, under the protection
of the Royal Navy,

soldiers from Britain
and the British Empire poured
unmolested into France and Egypt.

In October, the first
Canadian contingent left Halifax,
Nova Scotia, for France,

over 31,000 soldiers -

the greatest concentration ever
carried by ship in one journey.

Everywhere the oceans were a broad
and safe high road for the allies -

for troops from India sailing to
protect the oil fields of the Gulf,

for Australians and New Zealanders
bound for Egypt
where Indian and British soldiers

were defending the Suez Canal
against the Turk.

In all this vast traffic,
not one soldier was lost
through German naval attacks.

The same sea power
protected Britain's merchant trade,

more vital now than ever before.

Everywhere the allies sailed safely
over the oceans,
under the wing of the Royal Navy.

But it is the duty of a fleet
to destroy enemy warships.

On August 28th, the Admiralty
planned a daring assault,
deep into German home waters.

The destination, Heligoland Bight,

the stretch of sea between the
armed island fortress of Heligoland

and the mouths of the Elbe and the
Jade, where the main German fleet
was concentrated.

The Admiralty knew that German
destroyers patrolled this area
every night.

They'd planned a trap
for the Germans.

But when German light cruisers
appeared, the British destroyers
found themselves in difficulties.

Then an impressive new element
surged into the battle -
Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers.

They quickly pounded
the German cruisers into wrecks
with their big guns.

Admiralty signalling muddles
caused much confusion
amongst the British squadrons,

but the action was an unqualified
British success.

They lost no ships.
The Germans lost three cruisers
and a destroyer.

Admiral Tirpitz,
creator of the fleet, lamented:

It was a day fateful
for the work of our navy.

The Emperor did not want losses
of this sort.

Orders were issued by the Kaiser
to restrict the initiative of the
commander-in-chief of the fleet.

The loss of ships was to be avoided.
Sorties and other undertakings
must be approved by the Kaiser.

Germany turned
to her underwater weapons.

The frightening potential
of mine and torpedo
were still a haunting enigma.

Soon, they gained
an outstanding and ominous success.

On September 22nd,
near the Dutch coast,

one of Germany's oldest U-boats,
the U-9,

sighted a patrol
of three British cruisers -

the Hoog, the Aboukir,
and the Crecy.

Within an hour, all three were sunk
with the loss of 1,400 lives -

more men than Nelson lost
in all his battles.

On October 27th, Audacious,
a new British dreadnought,
hit a mine and blew up.

All the crew were saved,
but it was another alarming sign of
the shift in balance of naval war.

On the surface, Germany boasted
one conspicuous success.

The cruiser Emden,
detached from von Spee's squadron,

was pursuing a brilliant career of
destruction in the busy sea lanes
of the Indian Ocean.

She was a Scarlet Pimpernel
of the sea -
gallant, elusive, surprising.

Emden's exploits
rang round the world.

She captured or sank
merchant ship after merchant ship.

If they were colliers, she filled
up and took a new lease of life.

Eight British men-of-war combed
the Indian Ocean for her in vain.

Marine insurance rates rocketed.

She delayed the sailing
of a New Zealand troop convoy.

She entered Penang Harbour and sank
a Russian and a French warship.

One night, she entered the port of
Madras, turned on her searchlights
and gunned the shore oil tanks.

They were wrecked and a 1½ million
gallons went up in smoke.

In Britain, the Admiralty's
prestige was shaken,

as even the First Lord,
Winston Churchill, had to admit:

The press and the public
was not in a position to understand
all that the Admiralty was doing.

They saw only a few German cruisers
doing whatever they chose
and sinking British merchantmen.

A great deal of discontent
made itself felt and heard.

After two profitable months,
Emden sailed to the Cocos Islands

and sent a landing party ashore
to wreck the radio station.

But the new weapon of radio
was her undoing.

The operator
had already signalled for help

and the Australian cruiser Sydney
was on her way.

HORN BLARES

Emden, outgunned and outranged,
ran herself onto a reef.

The Indian Ocean was safe again.

Now the flame of German naval
imperialism was flickering out.
Only von Spee remained.

From the outbreak of war, he eluded
his pursuers, alone, with his five
ships, cut off from his colonies,

he steamed on in
the empty vastness of the Pacific.

Every day, Churchill studied charts
of his possible position,

pondering where
the Asiatic squadron may be.

At last, news came that it was
sailing towards the coast of Chile.

Admiral Cradock, commanding
a British squadron in the Pacific,
was ordered to hunt him down.

Cradock wrote:

Somehow I think we will say, "How do
you do?" to the Teutonic gentlemen.

We don't want any more
disappointments.

Cradock with the old cruisers,
Good Hope and Monmouth,

and the light cruiser Glasgow
and the merchant cruiser Otranto,

found von Spee near the bay
of Coronel, off the coast of Chile.

We formed single line ahead...

..and Good Hope fired
a ranging shot, which was short.

The enemy then opened up
with relevant salvoes.

We did not possess
that method of firing,

but it soon became apparent to us

that both the Monmouth
and the Good Hope were under severe
punishment for about an hour.

There was a terrific explosion
in the Good Hope

and she went up
like a huge bouquet...

and disappeared.

And after that, they concentrated on
the Monmouth and us.

And the Monmouth
was soon in trouble and could make
little effective reply.

The Monmouth sank
and the whole crew was drowned.

Cradock too was drowned
with the crew of the Good Hope.

A fellow admiral said of him:

Poor Kit Cradock -
he'd always wanted to die
on the hunting field or in action.

News of the black defeat at Coronel
staggered a British public

reared on the legend
of an unconquerable navy.

U-boats, mines, the Emden,
and now a British squadron
smashed in a fair fight.

The Admiralty, already under heavy
criticism, reacted ferociously.

The battle cruisers Invincible
and Inflexible were ordered out
to find von Spee and destroy him.

There was to be no delay. The
admiral's superintendent Davenport

reports the earliest completion
date of Invincible and Inflexible
is midnight, 13th November.

Admiralty to C-in-C Davenport, ships
are to sail Wednesday 11th November.

They are needed for war service
and must conform.

If necessary, dockyard men
should be sent away IN the ships
to return as opportunity may offer.

YOU are responsible for despatching
the ships in an efficient condition.

On Wednesday November 11th, the two
great ships under Admiral Sturdee,

steamed south towards the South
Atlantic and the Falkland Islands.

45 allied warships
were now after von Spee's blood.

He had no illusions.

We have at least contributed
in a certain measure
to the glory of our arms.

Although that cannot signify greatly
against the enormous number
of British ships.

Unknown to each other, von Spee
and Sturdee were steaming towards
the same place at the same time -

the Falklands.

Sturdee arrived first.
He was coaling the morning after
and received the signal -

a four-funnelled and a
two-funnelled man-of-war in sight.

The ships he was scouring the ocean
for were sailing into his arms.

The British crews worked feverishly
to prepare their ships
for the chase.

The Germans, at first, thought they
had surprised a cruiser squadron,

then suddenly the Germans saw
the tripod masts - battle cruisers.

They meant certain death.

The battle cruisers
swept out of the harbour.

For three hours, they chased von
Spee, eating up his 15-mile lead.

At nine miles, Sturdee opened fire.

The Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau
fought back gallantly,
but they had no hope.

We could feel one or two shots
coming and hitting us.

We could hear the shots piercing
the funnels and the superstructure
and the casings and...

but we were assured,
from time to time, from the bridge,
that all was going well.

Sturdee's advantage
was overwhelming,

but British gunnery was uneven and
many shells that did land on target
failed to pierce the German armour.

It was five hours
before Scharnhorst sank
and Gneisenau soon followed her.

The Kent finished off
the light cruiser Nurnberg.

She was on fire, fore and aft,
and some of them were jumping
into the water,

on bits of wreckage, so as to get
to us, but the seas were icy cold.

We all had the impression that those
Germans were very plucky people.

I actually saw one man
pull out a flag that was aft.

He got hold of it and I saw him
as he was sinking under the water

still waving that flag
as that ship went down -
"Deutschland still uber alles".

Only one light cruiser escaped.

Coronel was avenged
at the expense of three-quarters
of the battle cruisers' ammunition,

and some disturbing questions about
the quality of British gunnery.

A month later, another battle
raised more questions -

this time about British signalling.

A British battle cruiser force
in the North Sea met a smaller
German one near the Dogger Bank.

MAN SHOUTS COMMANDS

Their heavy cruiser Blucher
was badly hit and burning.

She began to slow down.
The British flagship also damaged
and her radio gone

flag signalled the other ships
to continue chasing
the fleeing Germans.

By a combination of mistakes,
the force stopped pursuing
and turned on the doomed Blucher.

We annihilated her,
brought her to rest,

and she was in a very bad position,

but the most extraordinary thing
about it

was that she was heeling over and
there must have been over 1,000 men

clambering up the deck
onto the side of the ship
and she steadily rolled over again,

so they were sliding down
the side of the ship into the water.

The German battle cruisers escaped.

Safe in harbour
after their brief foray, they
returned to their passive role,

but recreation was not victory.

The German fleet had little
to show after six months of war,

except confirmation
of the Kaiser's fears -

the British grand fleet
was too strong for them.
Morale was in danger.

The Kaiser had to issue
a special order to his fleet.

I urge you to maintain a spirit
of cheerful fulfilment of duty,

even when there has so far been no
opportunity in the face of the enemy

or where in all human probability
no such opportunity
is likely to occur at all.

The German navy had failed.

But the British
had not entirely succeeded.

Six months of war revealed
weaknesses in British training -

a training of character
and seamanship in the tradition
of Drake and Nelson,

but less adapted to the technology
of modern naval war.

There had been grave signalling
errors and Sturdee took five hours
to sink von Spee,

whereas, at Coronel, von Spee
had destroyed Cradock in an hour.

The main base at Scapa Flow was
weakly defended against U-boats.

Observers noted defects in
British equipment and in tactics.

The long lack of a naval staff
was beginning to tell,

yet the balance sheet
was in Britain's favour.

The German Navy might still be
powerful and intact,

but her fleet was in harbour,
her merchant ships were gone,
and her colonies were seized.

In the first months of the war,
the Royal Navy had done its job.

Only a few sensed the absence
of the Nelson touch,

and of the tremendous
superior might of Nelson's day.