Chapter 137: In Haste and Panic

On March 30, 1916, the United States Navy officially announced the decommissioning of eight battleships, including the USS South Carolina.

By the standards of the Great War, these eight battleships were long obsolete. Take the Arkansas, the newest of the group, for example: its twelve 12-inch main guns were barely adequate, its main armor belt reached a maximum thickness of only 279 millimeters—inferior even to some battlecruisers—and its top speed of 21 knots was well below the requirements for modern battleships. Furthermore, its limited displacement left no room for meaningful modernization. If the Arkansas was in such a state, the other seven were in even worse condition, possessing no capability to contend with modern warships.

The problem was that none of these eight vessels had reached their intended service life. The Arkansas had been commissioned in September 1912, and even the oldest, the South Carolina, had been in service for only six years. By Royal Navy standards, all eight were well within their prime service years and nowhere near retirement.

On April 1, the British Royal Navy came calling, eagerly proposing to purchase the eight battleships.

Because the plan had been long in the making, the U.S. Navy agreed immediately, though it demanded a very high price: Britain had to pay in cash rather than leasing the ships by using overseas colonies as collateral, as previously discussed.

The issue was that the British treasury had been long since drained, and they had no cash to offer. Consequently, British authorities were forced to approach American bankers, proposing to obtain loans secured by overseas colonies to fund the purchase.

Unfortunately, American bankers had no interest in Britain’s overseas colonies.

In the end, the U.S. federal government stepped in, providing a government guarantee to enable banks to extend loans to the British. Simply put, if Britain failed to repay the loans, the U.S. federal government would be liable, and the overseas colonies pledged by Britain would revert to the U.S. federal government.

On April 14, the U.S. federal government, the British government, and three American banks—the National City Bank, J.P. Morgan, and the Empire Bank—signed a joint guaranteed loan agreement. The three banks officially issued a two-billion-dollar loan to the British government, providing the funds necessary to purchase the warships. In reality, this money never reached the British government's accounts; it went directly into the federal budget and, by the end of the month, into the coffers of the U.S. Navy as seed money for the construction of new battleships.

Once Britain acquired the warships, the matter was far from over. The reason was simple: the Royal Navy lacked the personnel to man these vessels. Thus, Britain had to find a way to recruit a volunteer force in the United States.

Fortunately, there was no U.S. law prohibiting its citizens from fighting for other nations. Under American law, as long as U.S. military personnel formally retired from active duty, they could serve in other countries as volunteers; this was considered a personal matter with no direct connection to the United States. More importantly, there were many of English descent serving in the U.S. Navy.

By the end of April, the British government had recruited thousands of volunteer servicemen in the United States, the vast majority of whom were U.S. Navy personnel who had applied for discharge that same month.

On May 4, the Royal Navy held a commissioning ceremony for the "New Fleet" in New York Harbor.

Britain’s desperate urgency was inextricably linked to the war on the European continent.

At the end of April, German forces occupied the entire Verdun region. In the more than two months of the Battle of Verdun, they had annihilated nearly one million French troops and nearly 300,000 British troops at the cost of fewer than 400,000 German casualties. It was the most significant victory on the Western Front since the war began, forcing open the gateway to Paris.

Following the end of the Battle of Verdun, Joffre was dismissed by the French authorities. The problem was that replacing the commander-in-chief did not reverse the course of the war.

At that time, the French leadership was not considering whether they could win the war, but rather whether they could exit it with dignity. Even the French President was convinced that the German army would surely capture Paris before the end of the year, and that France would either bleed to the last drop or surrender before the blood ran dry.

Clearly, if France surrendered, Britain would not fare well either.

On May 1, Bonar Law announced his resignation, and Lloyd George formed a coalition government. That same day, Lloyd George announced that within one month, he would increase the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France to three million men, and add another three million over the following six months. Subsequently, Lloyd George proposed to France the establishment of an Allied Command on the Western Front with real authority, agreeing that a French general should serve as commander, provided that the commander of the BEF received an appropriate position, such as Allied Chief of Staff.

It must be admitted that Lloyd George did exactly what needed to be done. The failure of the Anglo-French coalition to break the stalemate on the Western Front was not due to a lack of manpower; before Russia’s defeat, the Allies had maintained a numerical advantage. The greatest problem was that the British and French armies could not effectively coordinate. Almost every major battle was fought independently, giving the German army opportunities to defeat them piecemeal.

The problem was that not everyone supported Lloyd George. Sir John French, commander of the BEF, adamantly opposed being commanded by a French general. Consequently, in mid-May, Lloyd George dismissed French and appointed his deputy, BEF Chief of Staff Douglas Haig, as commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Force.

Unfortunately, this series of personnel changes could not alter the Anglo-French coalition's position of being on the receiving end of German attacks. It could even be said that once the German army reorganized and marched on Paris, the French army would be defeated again and lose the city.

At this moment, Britain’s performance in the naval theater became critical.

According to post-war declassified documents, Britain had already reached a secret agreement with the United States: if Britain could recapture command of the sea in the North Sea and North Atlantic and once again impose a total strategic blockade on the German Empire, the United States would enter the war as an Allied power and guarantee the dispatch of 500,000 ground troops to Europe within three months of entry. Furthermore, whether Japan would enter the war also depended on the performance of the Royal Navy.

Thus, it was clear that if Britain wanted to reverse its defeat, it had to win at sea first.

On May 4, two events occurred: twelve light cruisers departed from Portsmouth and arrived at the Bermuda Islands, and the High Seas Fleet departed from Wilhelmshaven.

Three days earlier, on May 1, Feng Chengqian had issued a combat readiness order in Wilhelmshaven. For the previous three months, the main capital ships of the High Seas Fleet had remained in port, sending only small and medium-sized vessels, such as light cruisers, into the North Sea for reconnaissance. According to Tirpitz’s deployment, all ships tasked with commerce raiding had been transferred to Kiel and organized into an "Oceanic Fleet" under the command of Vice Admiral Spee. This was done primarily to lighten the combat burden on the High Seas Fleet, allowing Feng Chengqian to focus on the Grand Fleet.

Feng Chengqian’s objective was crystal clear: to prevent the "New Fleet" from returning to the British Isles.

By this time, both the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet had largely recovered their strength. In Scapa Flow, the number of capital ships capable of sailing had reached twenty-one—eighteen battleships and three battlecruisers, including the HMS Warspite, which had been commissioned only in March. The High Seas Fleet had twenty capital ships—fifteen battleships and five battlecruisers, with the flagship being the SMS Bayern, commissioned in early April.

Clearly, the strength of the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet was evenly matched.

As such, if the eight battleships of the New Fleet were included, the Grand Fleet would surpass the High Seas Fleet and gain an absolute numerical advantage. One could even say that the High Seas Fleet would never again be able to surpass the Grand Fleet.

Undoubtedly, this was a result that Feng Chengqian, the Imperial Navy, and indeed the German Empire could not accept, and thus the return of the New Fleet to Britain had to be stopped.

However, Feng Chengqian did not view the problem so simply. Whether striking the Grand Fleet or dealing with the New Fleet, the objective was the same: to prevent the Royal Navy from regaining an absolute numerical advantage. Thus, there was no real difference between striking the Grand Fleet and intercepting the New Fleet; both could achieve the goal.

Precisely for this reason, before leading the High Seas Fleet out of port, Feng Chengqian had formulated two operational plans: one aimed at the New Fleet about to cross the North Atlantic, and the other aimed at the Grand Fleet, which was highly likely to come out to meet them.

From a military standpoint, Feng Chengqian preferred to engage the New Fleet, as he could use his twenty capital ships to defeat or even annihilate them without question, all without losing his own combat capability, thereby maintaining high pressure on the Grand Fleet and preventing the Royal Navy from ending the Imperial Navy’s blockade in the short term. Politically, however, engaging the Grand Fleet held greater significance.

Since a choice was difficult, Feng Chengqian did not make one, deciding instead to wait and see how the situation developed.

The departure of the High Seas Fleet was no secret. On the dawn of May 5, upon receiving confirmation, Jellicoe—who had returned to command the Grand Fleet—boarded his flagship, the HMS Iron Duke, and led the Grand Fleet out to sea.

Although Lloyd George’s mission for him was to intercept the High Seas Fleet, Jellicoe knew very well that he would gain no advantage by fighting a decisive battle in the North Sea. Previous naval engagements had proven that in the "small bathtub" of the North Sea, the performance of the High Seas Fleet was superior to that of the Grand Fleet.

To defeat the High Seas Fleet, he had to exploit its weaknesses and force a naval battle favorable to the Grand Fleet.

Jellicoe now had such an opportunity. The key was that the High Seas Fleet had a glaring weakness that the German Imperial Navy could not compensate for or resolve: the capital ships of the High Seas Fleet lacked sufficient cruising range, and they had no naval bases in the Atlantic!