At War in Distant Waters: British Colonial Defense in the Great War

by Phillip G. Pattee

The naval story of the First World War is so often told in relation the the North Sea and the war in Europe, but in this new book the author concentrates on the Royal Navy's offensive operations further afield and argues that they were not, as often portrayed, unnecessary sideshows but absolutely critical to Britain's very survival. These expeditions fulfilled the important strategic purpose of protecting British trade where it was most vulnerable. Trade was not a luxury for Britain; it was essential for maintaining an island nation's way of life and, indeed, for prosecuting the war in Europe. The empire's global trade was both a valuable and vulnerable target for Germany's various commerce raiders and U-boats and had to be defended not just in home waters but further afield. This new book argues that the several combined military and naval operations against overseas territories constituted parts of an overarching strategy designed to facilitate the Royal Navy's gaining command of the seas. For instance, in Mesopotamia expeditions directed against the Ottoman Empire were launched to protect communications with India and British oil concessions in Persia; the operations against German territories exterminated the logistics and intelligence hubs that supported Germany's commerce raiders. A finely researched and written book for both naval enthusiasts and historians.

Genres: World War I, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2013

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty complete story of British activities to protect its colonies before and during World War 1. I would have liked to see a bit more about the combat, but otherwise it's a good narrative.

[Book Club of One · Rating 3 out of 5]

At War in Distant Waters explores the creation and implementation of British naval strategy in the Great War. Balanced as an economic and naval history, Pattee takes the reader through German and British pre-war political machinations and trade networks, with a particularly focus on the naval arms race. The greatest strength of the work is the explanation of naval strategy. The narrative of the 1914 campaign that captured many of the German colonial territories was particularly fascinating.

For one less familiar with WW1, this would be an excellent introduction to motivations of these two powers. For one who reads regularly in this topic, a lot of it is familiar and made reading a bit of chore. As the book was only a little over 200 pages, the latter made for slow completion.

[Edgar Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phillip G. Pattee finds that trade was at the center of British naval strategy during the Great War. The British Empire was founded on trade. Prolonged disruption of trade could cause Britain to lose the war. The German Great High Seas fleet forced the British to concentrate the bulk of the Royal Navy in the North Sea and adjacent waters, leaving very little reserve to protect trade from German raiders. Subcommittees of the Committee on Imperial Defence had examined this problem in the decade before World War I. Their analysis of the problem led to a multifaceted strategy to ensure that trade continued during any war, including ensuring that both vessels and cargoes would receive insurance at reasonable rates during wartime, collecting intelligence in peacetime as to what were the main trade routes and the volume of traffic, and also tracking the position of German warships and merchantmen. The British used their global cable network supplemented by high-powered radio to coordinate these efforts. Once war was declared, they immediately cut the German cables and called on the British colonies and Dominions to launch expeditions against German colonies to seize ports and at the very least disable German long range radios. The overriding aim was to deny German commerce raiders and their supply ships secure bases from which to operate and the ability to coordinate their actions. At the same time, using as precedent the Treaty of Washington of 1871 which settled the Alabama claims, the Foreign Office pressured neutrals not to allow German warships or supply ships to either refit or resupply from their harbors.

For the first months of the war the Royal Navy was at full stretch, possibly overstretched, to both maintain a distant blockade in the North Sea and defend trade. The turning point came in December 1914 with the destruction of Admiral von Spee's squadron in the Battle of the Falklands. By the spring of 1915 the Royal Navy had swept the seas of all German raiders.

This victory over German surface raiders eventually forced the German Navy to use submarines to attack trade, which in 1917 caused the United States to intervene on the side of the Allies.

This is an important book that specialists in World War I and naval history will want to read. It is not, perhaps, a book for the reader with only a casual interest in these subjects.