Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

Parameters, Autumn, 2004 by Steven W. Nerheim

Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. By Robert K. Massie. New York: Random House, 2003. 865 pages. $35.00. Reviewed by Captain Steven W. Nerheim, USN, Senior Navy Representative, US Army War College.

When my Royal Navy friends are spinning sea stories, like as not someone will call out "swing the lamp." Robert K. Massie's densely woven work contains a sea story of gigantic proportions, but this very readable book provides much more in the bargain. The author has captured a side of the Great War too often neglected by our predominantly Euro-centric, land-focused approach to that conflict. This is a compelling, comprehensive analysis of naval warfare at the strategic and operational levels of war. The ever-present ghost of Lord Admiral Nelson is joined by the shadows of Jackie Fisher and Alfred von Tirpitz as influences on the actions of Admirals Jellicoe, Beatty, Scheer, and Hipper and the decisions of their respective governments.

All the familiar tales are told, along with some not so frequently rehearsed. From the Royal Navy's frustrating chase of Goeben and Breslau in the Mediterranean, to the roundup of the German raiders in the South Atlantic and Pacific, and from Cornel to the Falklands, the Royal Navy's actions in 1914-15 shaped the situation on the high seas, rather expensively in ships lost and reputations dimmed, to leave Britannia ruling the waves. When the ground campaigns had staggered into tactical stalemate on the western front, the war at sea provided the only remaining opportunity to exercise strategic influence. The resulting decisions for (and the political and personal repercussions of) a chain of these opportunities are clearly laid out as they were grasped, each in their turn: the naval expedition to force the Dardanelles; the quest for a decisive naval engagement; the German decision for unrestricted submarine warfare and the American entry into the war that it provoked.

The British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet sought a decisive naval engagement for nearly two years. The strategic tensions which accumulated as plans to engineer a fleet action matured are reflected in Massie's vivid descriptions of the individual shipboard tensions in the final moments before the Battle of Jutland was joined in May 1916. Clausewitz's "fog of war" was present at Jutland, and was strongly augmented by the real fogs, the real mists, and the quirky conditions of lighting so prevalent in the North Sea. Effective, accurate gunnery, a Royal Navy hallmark from the time of the Napoleonic Wars, would disappoint here. The traditional British gunnery edge was lost to superb German optics and was offset by superior German ship design and construction that enabled excellent damage control through extensive shipboard compartmentalization by limiting both progressive flooding and the spread of fires.

There was no shortage of British failures in the conduct of the Battle of Jutland. Ashore, these ranged from the inadequacies of individuals on the Admiralty staff to the intelligence failures of Room 40. At sea with the Battle Cruiser Force, Beatty adhered to Nelson's maxim to "Engage the enemy more closely," closed his counterpart German cruisers, and ceded the advantage of his longer gun ranges and greater speed. Jellicoe, in his turn, missed an opportunity to place the entire Grand Fleet between the High Seas Fleet and its bases behind the minefields of the German bight. This failure is largely attributable to the utter failure of his subordinate flag officers and captains to provide timely position reporting--the timeless saga of moving information from those who have it to those who need it. But at the end of the day, responsibility devolves upon the commander at sea, and Jellicoe had missed the fleeting opportunity to deliver a decisive victory in Trafalgar-fashion.

But did it matter? Contemporary debate raged, and in some lifestyle-challenged circles continues to rage, over who "won" at Jutland. The Jellicoe-Beatty rivalry unmasked in the wake of Jutland exceeded even the acrimonious and all-too-public feud between the American Admirals Sampson and Schley that had expanded Spanish-American War hostilities into the popular press and naval professional journals. Adherents of both Jellicoe and his rival Beatty (not to mention their supposed shared opponents in the German fleet) keep the discussion alive. This reviewer, for one, comes down solidly on Jellicoe's side. By preserving British control of the sea, the Grand Fleet achieved both Jellicoe's stated intent and the remit of his fleet. By what other standard can strategic success be defined? But such is the nature of sea power theory and the character of war on the borderless seas.

As the likelihood of a fleet rematch receded after 1916, the reapplication of economic pressure by blockade and unrestricted submarine warfare shaped the strategic processes of both naval belligerents and narrowed the options of the remaining major neutral. Massie explores the German calculus among creating and capitalizing on a one-front war, strangling Britain with unrestricted submarine warfare, and potentially precipitating American entry. The naval side of World War I became, as would the next, a struggle of small ships pitting destroyers and trawlers against submarines to preserve or to destroy the transatlantic lifeline. As in 1939-43 there were never enough escorts on the one side, never enough submarines on the other. As commander of the Grand Fleet, Admiral Jellicoe displayed a well-placed concern for the threat of underwater weapons (mines and torpedoes) to his dreadnoughts. With the implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare, that concern would transcend the tactical threat to his battle fleets and become a strategic threat to the survival of Great Britain. Ultimately the construction of sufficient escorts, the implementation of convoys, and the entry of the United States assured the transatlantic passage of munitions, stocks, and troops in sufficient numbers to shift the balance on the western front.