Beatty had been Churchill’s naval secretary before the war, and in 1912 had spelt out for his political master the geographical realities that were to shape Britain’s conduct of the war at sea: ‘The British Isles form a great breakwater across German waters thereby limiting the passage of vessels to the outer seas to two exits, the one on the South, narrow, easily blocked and contained, and the other on the North of such a width (155 miles) that with the forces at our disposal it could be easily commanded so as to preclude the possibility of the passing of
