They challenged the Royal Navy’s method of countering German submarines, insisting supply ships should sail in protected convoys. Sims and his staff promoted American naval opinions when reviewing strategy with the British Admiralty. īy establishing an office in England called the “London Flagship,” Sims and a select staff of officers and expatriate American specialists evaluated and passed Allied naval communications and intelligence to the Department of the Navy. He traveled to London under an assumed name, in civilian guise, arriving on Apwith the intention of establishing direct contact between the United States Chief of Naval Operations, the Royal Navy, and other Allied naval forces. Sims, with established reputation throughout the Navy, proved the ideal officer for that mission. Ashore and in exercises of the “War College Afloat” they studied the role of the Navy in modern war.īy 1917 Benson anticipated a naval campaign in European waters that would require a naval headquarters in England. Appointed by the first Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), William Benson, together they anticipated a transatlantic naval war involving new challenges and technology. Sims was President of the Naval War College at Newport. The destroyers’ arrival was due in part to the presence in England of an American naval mission headed by Vice Adm. The Royal Navy urgently requested more destroyers for hunting submarines. This warfare had reduced British grain stores to a critical three week supply. Without escorts, these ships served as easy prey for the Germans. The Germans had resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, leading to more than 800 Allied ships being sunk in a matter of months. Not quite a month after the United States declared war, the first American warships arrived in Europe on May 4, 1917.
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