e
war. Without a German battle fleet, the British could have forced
the fighting almost to the very harbors of the German coast--bottling
up every exit by a barrage of mines. The blockade, therefore, could
have been drawn close to the coast defenses. Moreover, with the High
Seas Fleet gone, the British fleet could have entered and taken
possession of the Baltic, which throughout the war remained a German
lake. By this move England would have threatened the German Baltic
coast with invasion and extended her blockade in a highly important
locality, cutting off the trade between Sweden and Germany. She
would also have come to the relief of Russia, which was suffering
terrible losses from the lack of munitions. Indeed it would have
saved that ally from the collapse that withdrew her from the war.
With no German "fleet in being" great numbers of workers in English
industry and vast quantities of supplies might have been transferred
to the support of the army. The threat of invasion would have been
removed, and the large army that was kept in England right up to
the crisis of March, 1918,[1] would have been free to reenforce
the army at the front. Finally, without the personnel of the German
fleet there could have been no ruthless submarine campaign the year
after, such as actually came so near to winning the war. Thus,
while the German claim to a triumph that drove the British from
the seas is ridiculous, it is equally so to argue, as the First
Lord of the Admiralty did, that there was no need of a British
victory at Jutland, that all the fruits of victory were gained as
it was. The subsequent history of the war tells a different tale.

[Footnote 1: A quarter of a million men were sent from England at
this time.]

REFERENCES

THE GRAND FLEET, 1914-1916, Admiral Viscount Lord Jellicoe of
Scapa, 1919.
THE GERMAN HIGH SEAS FLEET IN THE WORLD WAR, Vice Admiral
von Scheer, 1920.
THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND, Commander Carlyon Bellairs, M. P., 1920.
THE NAVAL ANNUAL, 1919, Earl Brassey.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND, Lieut. Commander H.
H. Frost, U. S. N., in U. S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS, vol.
45, pp. 1829 ff, 2019 ff; vol. 46, pp. 61 ff.
THE BRITISH NAVY IN BATTLE, A. H. Pollen, 1919.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE WORLD WAR [_Continued_]: COMMERCE WARFARE

Interdiction of enemy trade has always been the great weapon of
sea power; and hence, though mines, submarines, and the menace
of the High Seas Fleet its