The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German Mittelmeerdivision consisting of the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau. The German ships evaded the British fleet and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople, where they were eventually handed over to the Ottoman Empire. Renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, the former Goeben was ordered by its German captain to attack Russian positions, in doing so bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers. Though a bloodless “battle”, the failure of the British pursuit had enormous political and military ramifications. In the short term it effectively ended the careers of the two British Admirals [one of whom is the author of this book] who had been in charge of the pursuit. Writing several years later, Winston Churchill - who had been First Lord of the Admiralty - expressed the opinion that by forcing Turkey into the war the Goeben had brought “more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship.”
The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German Mittelmeerdivision consisting of the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau. The German ships evaded the British fleet and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople, where they were eventually handed over to the Ottoman Empire. Renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, the former Goeben was ordered by its German captain to attack Russian positions, in doing so bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers. Though a bloodless “battle”, the failure of the British pursuit had enormous political and military ramifications. In the short term it effectively ended the careers of the two British Admirals [one of whom is the author of this book] who had been in charge of the pursuit. Writing several years later, Winston Churchill - who had been First Lord of the Admiralty - expressed the opinion that by forcing Turkey into the war the Goeben had brought “more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship.”
First published in 1951, this is the autobiography of a distinguished commander of WWII. Serving in both wars, he was Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean at the outbreak of war, forced to cope with inadequate resources and virtually no air cover. After a short spell in Washington as a Naval Representative he returned as Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean and worked with Eisenhower and Alexander. His unique insight into the meetings with Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt make this a riveting read. “My main reasons for yielding to the suggestion [of setting down this record of my life] were because I wished to do justice to those under whom I served and from whom I learnt so much in my earlier years at sea, and also to pay a deserved tribute to those many whom I later had the honour and privilege to command in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Further, before memory became dimmed by the passage of time, I was anxious to describe what I saw of the part played by the Royal Navy in the two great wars of the present century which lasted in all for more than ten years. “In describing the years of war I have kept as closely as possible to those matters with which, and in which, the Navy was primarily concerned and engaged. Moreover, as nearly as may be, I have tried to concentrate upon that portion of the Navy with which I happened to be serving. [...] success in war cannot be attributed to any single Service. Each one is helpless without the closest and most loyal co-operation with the other two. This applies equally to our two great Sea Services. In war the Royal and the Merchant Navies have always been interdependent and indivisible.”
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