Former Lectures At Kiel Naval Academy Points Out Shortcomings of Pocket Battleships Rosinski, who was a lecturer at the Naval War Academy at in a recent issue of the "Spectator," Dr. Herbert
(Kiel from 1932 to 1936, reviews German naval warfare in the present war as compared to that displayed during the world war. He draws attention to the shortcomings of the pocket battleships and displays considerable surprise at the inaccuracy of German gunners in the present war as compared to that shown by their predecessors in the 1914-1918 struggle.
The German Navy lost the last war because its directors saw in naval warfare a purely military duel between the two opposing fleets.
convinced that with the outbreak of hostilities the British Grand Fleet would not hesitate to pentrate into the Heligoland Bight and offer them battle. the German admirals for nearly two decades had! had no thought or plan going beyond tions for that encounter. instead the Grand Fleet prefered from its secure base at Scapa Flow to cut Germany off from the outer world without a preliminary battle against the German High Sea Fleet, "they realized too late that in naval) warfare the essential' factor was control of vital communications, not the defeat of your opponent's armed forces.
"The realization of that fact is the foundation-stone of Germany's naval strategy in the present war. Incapable of maintaining her own communications against the overwhelming superiority of the Allies, she was resolved not to repeat her former mistake and dissipate her efforts by directing them against the British Battle Fleet, but to concentrate them for an overwhelming attack against tthe Allied lines of communication behind the shield formed by that! force. In doing so, the German naval strategists have certainly not ignored the fact that in naval history so far such "evasive" strategy has invariably broken down in the end before the command of the sea established by superior sea-power, as happened in their own submarine campaign in the last war. What has imbued them' with the hope of faring better in the present conflict has been the determination to bring this attack to bear with a concentration of purpose and effort unknown in the history of naval warfare.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.