Tue Barre or Jertaxp, By Commander Canyon Bellairs, ace.
(Hodder & Stoughton).
Commander Bellairs, who retired many years ago from the Navy as a very junior Lieutenant, is a strong advocate for the policy of offensive, and by his ignorant attacks on Lord Jellicoe becomes 80.
There is nothing in the book except some dull statistics weights of broadsides, childish diagrams, and abuse of a great Admiral. The author plunges into questions of policy, strategy and tactics, but. has nothing to say on what the Navy achieved in the war in three essential phases: firstly, protecting the country against invasion; secondly, safeguarding the transportation of troops; and thirdly, ensuring the continuation of our; Maritime trade.
When dealing with the actual battle, Commander Bellairs fails to achieve wisdom even after the event. He is exasperated that Lord Jellicoe took the trouble to avoid a salvo of torpedoes which might, with ordinary luck, have damaged or sunk three or four ships. Altering course to get out of range of a torpedo attack is much the same as "ducking" or side-stepping when a knock-out is on the way to your solar plexus. Bellairs and Beckett, probably belong to that school of tactics which advocates dying for your country. But Carpentier may have taught the latter some sense.
If Lord Jellicoe had not been man of the most unselfish character, and' possessed of a very sound appreciation of the potentialities of modern weapons, he might have risked the Fleet and country on a gamble for a Dukedom. Through sheer luck, the enemy escaped during the night of the battle, but the Germans acknowledged that, even' so; the High Sea Fleet was no more a fighting force; and as a result, the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare had to be adopted, and this brought America into the war.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.