By Herr Emil Alboldt, who served for more than twenty years in the German Navy. (From "Strange Intelligence" by H. C. Bywater and H. C. Ferraby.)
According to his account, which is well documented throughout, the German Naval personnel began the war in a spirit of confidence though tempered with wholesome respect for the. British) Navy. But as month after month went by without disturbing the somnolence of the High Seas Fleet, which lay idle in its barricaded ports, the fighting, spirit of the men gradually waned. Two severe defeats (Heligoland Bight and the Dogger Bank), sustained by German Cruiser Squadrons through lack of battle fleet support, caused the sailors' to question the capability of their leaders. Jutland against the British battle Even the partial success gained, at cruisers failed to reassure the men offset as it was by the heavy punishment inflicted on the battleships by the Grand Fleet's gunfire. Herr Emil Alboldt roundly declares that but for the misty weather prevailing at. Jutland" "nothing could have Prevented the British from shooting bur whole feet to pieces, ship by ship, thanks to their auj range and speed. ignorance' on te part of the senior officers of the old Navy was respon-Sible. he asserts, for, the inferior armaments and speed of its ships. In 1918, he states; the British had adopted a highly efficient type of armour piercing shell, which would have wrought havoc in the strongest German ships, and in view of the British superiority in range, the Germans could not have hoped to escape.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.