The Western Front Association: furthering interest in the Great War 1914-18 | explore | learn | share

ISBN: 978 0 8130 2987 0  741 + xix pages, photos, maps, index $100
Published by Florida University Press, 2007. 

This is the first overviews and assessment in many years of America’s WWI era navy and its involvement in The Great War. Most readers of this review know much about the politics of American intervention in the 1914-1918 conflict, as well as many details of the formation and operations of the two-million strong American Expeditionary Forces commanded by General John J. Pershing. Much less is understood about the contributions of the US Navy under Admiral William S. Sims, Commander of US Naval Forces in Europe.

The US Navy entered World War One much better armed and prepared than the US Army. It had years of experience in deploying and operating far from home bases. In 1917, it was the third or forth most powerful naval force on earth and on the brink of becoming a first class naval power. The navy boasted 17 dreadnought and 23 pre-dreadnought battleships. The naval construction program of 1916 provided for construction of 156 new ships including 10 battleships, six battle cruisers and numerous lighter cruisers to be laid down by mid-1919. Naval war planning was also well advanced. Unfortunately this planning was for a war in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean, an area largely out of range of European navies already fully engaged in European waters.

The declaration of war overturned all this planning and sent the scurrying navy in new directions. Dreadnought and cruiser construction was delayed in favor of urgently needed destroyers and other light craft to combat the mounting German U-boat menace which threatened to cut indispensable supply line to North America. Within a month of the congressional declaration of war, Destroyer Flotilla Eight crossed the Atlantic to join the Royal Navy anti-submarine patrol force in Queensland (now Cobh), Ireland. In May, the Cruiser and Transport Force was formed to convoy American troops to France - a task it performed without loss of life for nearly a million Doughboys. Obsolescent battleships and cruisers were usefully employed in protecting trans-Atlantic supply and troop convoys. In June, the first naval aviation units reached France. By November 1918, the Navy had expanded from 80 thousand men and 12 thousand reservists to 560 thousand men and officers. Eventually, some 16 thousand sailors and 500 naval aircraft operated from bases in England, Ireland, France, Gibraltar, Corfu and Italy. In December 1917, five American dreadnoughts jointed the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. A second battleship division followed and was based at Bantry Bay in Ireland. By May 1918, the first of 121 American wooden 110-foot subchasers were operating in European waters. Two months later, the US Navy began laying the first of 56,610 mines in the North Sea anti-submarine barrage.

The USN experimented with many new weapons and concepts during WWI. Unfortunately, most new gadgets for detecting submerged submarines proved ineffective. The fleet train supply and maintenance concept developed by the navy prior to the war was implemented in part with the purchase and construction of several very capable tenders equipped with machine shops and foundries and able to make major repairs on combat vessels far from home bases. American dreadnaughts, unlike Royal Navy battleships, were also equipped with machine shops and foundries, making them remarkably self-sufficient in overseas waters.

In addition to detailing US naval operations, logistics, training, policy and personnel welfare, the author also provides insightful biographic information on the principal naval leaders and on command relationships within the US Navy and among the US, British French and Italian navies. Unlike Pershing (who was instructed to build an independent US fighting force), Admiral Sims as a matter of US policy put his men, ships and aircraft under command of the senior Entente officer in their operating areas. By drawing on British experience, the US Navy was able to make an early and effective contribution particularly in promoting and supporting effective convoy operations which eventually broke the back of the German submarine offensive. Other American contributions to the air and sea wars are less clear cut and more controversial, particularly as regards the massive 34 thousand square mile North Sea mine barrage. Nonetheless, US Navy command relationships with European navies, the British in particular, were cordial and productive despite policy disagreements revolving around British resistance to American calls for aggressive attacks on German home bases.

Reviewer: Len Shurtleff