The secret war 1914-1918 part two--naval encounters.

Historically, naval warfare as waged by England, later the United Kingdom, impinged greatly upon economic warfare and international diplomacy. The British naval blockade, and Russia's refusal to implement Napoleon's retaliatory Continental System was the main reason for the French invasion of Russia in 1812; with all its fateful consequences for Napoleon's Empire. That same year the harassment of American blockade runners to French controlled ports, and a failure of diplomacy, caused a young and vigorous United States to declare war on its old parent. The causes of that war were well remembered during 1915-1917.

Naval Intelligence and Code Breaking

Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, the Director of the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty War Staff in 1914-1918 was at the heart of British strategic electronic warfare. He created a code-breaking cell at the Admiralty; known as Room 40, which by the end of the war employed almost a thousand staff in shore based naval intercept and cryptanalysis organisation. (2) So important and secret were the activities of Room 40 that it influenced the outcome of the First World War.

Early in the war the Admiralty oversaw the destruction of the German trans-Atlantic cables which curtailed German trans-Atlantic communication routes to four; the Swedish Foreign Office, Stockholm; Amsterdam and thence to Madrid for onward transmission to New York; and the US Embassy Berlin (via London). The first and third latter was supposed to be used only to facility peace negotiations, but were routinely abused by the Germans. All had been penetrated by British Intelligence. The fourth route was the direct radio telegraphy link between Germany and the United States. Naturally it was constantly monitored by the British. To facilitate their code-breaking the physical security of the German consulate in New York had been surreptitiously breached through the use of Czech nationalist in the pay of British intelligence, and their highly classified diplomatic cipher copied. (3)

In addition to high-jacking the German diplomatic code, the British Admiralty obtained their naval code and cipher books as well. Shortly after the outbreak of war the German cruiser Magdeburg was sunk off Kronstadt, the Russian naval base in the Baltic. The cruiser's captain, failed to destroy his code books, they fell into Russian hands and were despatched immediately by fast cruiser to Admiralty London. (4) With the ability both to encipher and decipher German naval traffic, the British conceived a ruse de guerre aimed at the destruction of the German Pacific squadron. However, before it could be sprung, that squadron had inflicted a major defeat on the British.

A Naval Ambush

On the outbreak of war, British and German Admiralty's were aware of each others fleet deployment. While the main battle fleets faced each other across the North Sea, each nation had squadrons of varying strength in the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In the Mediterranean, the German battle cruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau escaped the British and French fleets, and sought sanctuary off Constantinople in the Sea of Marmara. In Berlin the only news the Admiralty had had of the chase and escape of their ships, was the interception of radio exchanges between pursuing warships. The British countered the possibility of Goeben and Breslau's emergence from the Dardanelle's by dispatching two battle cruisers, HMS's Invincible and Inflexible to the Aegean, where they remained for several months watching; and being watched. At the same time, under command of Admiral Count von Spee, the strong German Far-East squadron consisting of two heavy cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisnenau plus the light cruisers Leipzig, Dresden, Nurnberg and Emden moved from Tsingtao. Then having detached SMS Emden to wreck havoc as a commerce raider in the East Indies, von Spee's squadron steamed southeast, under radio silence. Off Coronel, Chile, Spee's ships destroyed a British squadron under Admiral Cradock on 1 November 1914. Only Canopus, an antiquated pre-Dreadnought battleship too slow to remain in Cradock's line, escaped. Afterwards the German squadron entered Valparaiso where its crews were feted by the German colony. News of von Spee's victory and arrival was not long in reaching the naval staff in London, where a naval ambush of long preparation was put into motion.

Full scale dummy replicas of Inflexible and Invincible were constructed in England and towed under great secrecy to the Aegean. Having exchanged places with their namesakes on a dark night, the two battle-cruisers navigated the straits of Gibraltar in darkness, and raced to the Falklands. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, HMAS Australia, sister ship to Inflexible and Invincible, had completed her mission to oversee the occupation of the German colony at Rabaul, when orders were received which sent her steaming at best possible speed to the southeast Pacific.

Concurrently, an operational message to von Spee had been prepared, purporting to emanate from Admiralty Berlin, ordering him to proceed with all speed to the Falkland Islands and destroy the wireless station at Port Stanley. It was encrypted in the German naval cipher; and dispatched by courier via The Netherlands to a British agent in Berlin. His instructions were to dispatch the message on receipt of further orders. The agent already knew the procedure used by Admiralty Berlin for the dispatch of such messages by commercial cablegram, and how it was stamped by the Admiralty and censor's office. He had also acquired the necessary stamps and forms. Only the destination cable office was required; and this was supplied by news of von Spee's entry into Valparaiso.

On receipt of the message, Count Spee discussed the orders it contained with the German Minister to Chile, then summoned his senior officers to a conference. Despite the misgivings of some commanders, the squadron sailed south. A bare twenty-four hours separated the arrival of the British and German squadrons at the Falklands. The British ships were coaling when lookouts spotted the smoke of approaching ships; coaling was discontinued and the two ships began raising steam. In the morning light of 8th December 1914, when the approaching German ships identified the distinctive tripod masts of British dreadnoughts, many in von Spee's squadron must have known they were doomed. In the engagement that followed, and for which battle cruisers had been specifically designed, only the fastest German light cruiser, SMS Nurnberg, escaped. Had the captain of Nurnberg decided to sail into the Pacific instead of around Cape of Good Hope to German East Africa, his ship would have come under the guns of Australia off Cape Horn. Instead of a repetition of the Sydney/Emden engagement at Cocos Keeling, the RAN flagship had to be content with sinking Spee's supply ship Eleanore Woermann with a single shell. The battle of the Falkland Islands is the earliest example of new age naval warfare. Although separated by thousands of miles and fought on land and sea, the battles of Tannenberg and Falkland Islands signalled that electronic warfare had made its debut on the battlefield.

When the senior surviving officer, Commander Pochhammer, made his post-battle report the Kaiser penned a personal note to his copy: "It remains a mystery what made Spee attack the Falkland Islands." (5)

The Phantom Fleet and Jutland

When radio telegraphy became widely used in ships, naval signals specialists made the important discovery that Morse sending was distinctly personal; and a telegraphists 'fist' was as identifiable as his fingerprint. Once his ship was identified, by the use of directing finding, that ship's movements and location could be plotted. The potential use of this in war, for both intelligence and deception, was quickly seen; and a signals intelligence cell was created on most warships. In 1915 the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet transferred a number of ships telegraphists into a flotilla of small vessels, trawlers, fitted with radio transmitters. It was to become known as the 'phantom fleet'. (6) The intention was, in conjunction with radio silence, to deceive the Germans as to the true location of major units of the Grand Fleet.

On the outbreak of war, the Battle Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe moved to Scapa Flow and Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battle Cruiser Fleet to Rosyth. From these bases, the British Grand Fleet instituted a naval economic blockade of Germany. But so confident was the Army dominated German High Command of victory before Christmas 1914, the effects of naval blockade on Germany were discounted. Seen by Berlin the strategic role of their High Seas Fleet, "second largest in the world and second to none in fighting quality and efficiency" was coastal defence. Confined to port by the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the spirited young navy grew restless. When Admiral Reinhardt Scheer, who had commanded German battle cruisers which had bombarded English coastal towns in 1915, became commander of the High Seas Fleet in 1916, he was confident of achieving "a situation of temporary and local superiority which would give him victory;" he won approval for a major sortie into the North Sea; to lure a portion of the Grand Fleet into action with the entire High Seas Fleet. At the end of May 1916 Scheer's intelligence postulated this situation could be achieved with the Battle Fleet anchored in Scapa Flow, and the Battle Cruiser Fleet drawn south by a second naval bombardment of English east coast towns. At 1540 hours on 30 May 1916 the coded message "Carry out Top Secret Instruction 2490 on 31st May" was flashed to the High Seas Fleet. It was intercepted and decoded by the Admiralty London before 1700 hours. Although the secret instructions were not known, the widespread distribution of the message indicated a major enemy operation. (7) The intelligence was flashed to Admirals' Jellicoe and Beatty. Both fleets put to sea, but while Beatty's ships told the world, Jellicoe's ships were under radio silence; while the 'phantom fleet' continued inter-communicating far to the north. Scouts of Beatty's Battle Cruiser Fleet duly engaged German battle cruisers at 2.28 pm on 31 May; and after a major clash with heavy losses, Beatty withdrew his squadrons northwards, leading the German Fleet directly towards Jellicoe's onrushing Battle Fleet in cruising formation--columns of four battleships disposed abreast.

A naval friend of Admiral Hall wrote after the war that the weakness of Room 40 at this time was that it was a decrypting office not an intelligence centre. (8) Much of the information passed to naval operations was not properly analysed, or discounted by the senior duty officer. Room 40 did not become an intelligence centre proper until 1917. Yet, notwithstanding inaccurate, incomplete, and non-intelligible information transmitted to Jellicoe by the Admiralty, Beatty, and other subordinate commanders; which Jellicoe could not question due to radio silence, the Battle Fleet and the German High Seas fleet were on converging courses. At 6.15 pm to Scheer's utter astonishment, he beheld to his front Jellicoe's battleships deploying from cruising formation into line of battle, and crossing the 'T' of his line. Worse, almost the entire Grand Fleet was between him and his home ports. Instead of ambushing the British Battle Cruiser Fleet, Scheer was himself ambushed. Pounded by heavy and accurate gunfire, Scheer ordered "Battle Turn-Away". Only immediate execution of "superb tactics and perfect fighting discipline" saved the High Seas Fleet from total destruction. (9) Darkness brought command indecision and confusion; nevertheless, in the following twelve hours Scheer had to repeat the 'battle turn away' before his ships reached the safety of their home ports. At Jutland the British losses were the greater; but the High Seas Fleet never put to sea again. Its morale was sapped by inactivity, and when eventually the order to put to sea was given in October 1918 the junior personnel of the High Seas Fleet mutinied en masse.

The Zimmermann Note and its Consequences

On 16 January 1917 Arthur Zimmermann, German secretary of state for foreign affairs cabled a note to German minister in Mexico, von Eckhardt via the German minister to the United States, von Bernstorff. It was encrypted in a diplomatic cipher that had not been changed in years, and transmitted to Washington by several routes; the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Stockholm; the American Embassy, Berlin; and also radioed direct to New York.

   For your Excellency's personal information and to be handed on to
   the Imperial Minister in Mexico.

   We shall commence unrestricted U-boat warfare on February the 1st.
   Nevertheless we hope to keep the United States neutral. If we
   should not succeed in this, we shall propose to Mexico an alliance
   on the following terms: We shall wage war and conclude peace in
   common. We shall provide general financial support, and stipulate
   that Mexico shall receive back the territory of New Mexico and
   Arizona which she lost in 1848. The details will be left to you to
   carry out. Your are instructed to sound Carranza (President of
   Mexico) in the strictest confidence, and as soon as war against the
   United States is certain you will give him a hint to enter into
   negotiations with Japan on his own initiative, requesting her to
   join in and offering to act as intermediary between Japan and
   Germany. Draw Carranza's attention to the fact that the carrying
   out of unrestricted U-boat warfare will make it possible to bring
   England to her knees and compel her to sue for peace within a few
   months. Confirm receipt. Zimmermann." (10)

The message was intercepted and decoded in London; but the British government and its officials were in a quandary. Diplomatically, the message was so grotesque that it could be a hoax; designed to embarrass the British and prove they had broken the German diplomatic cipher. However, the British knew that if it was genuine it could possibly bring the United States into the war on the Allied side. Hall, however, had insisted that whatever happened, when releasing the note ways and means had to be found, to conceal from Berlin the British ability to read Germany's most secret diplomatic traffic. Not until 24 February did Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour hand U.S. Ambassador Walter Page a plain text copy of the note. Then the British had to convince the incredulous Americans the message was genuine. The American Ambassador telegraphed State, and, giving them the message identification, suggested "you can probably obtain a copy of the text, as transmitted by Bernstorff, from the telegraph office in Washington". (11) State Department were unable to break the German crypt and suspecting a British diplomatic ploy, demanded the code books to decrypt the message themselves to confirm its authenticity. When the British refused to hand over the code books, State Department cabled their copy of the original cryptogram to their ambassador in London. For once Admiral Hall lowered the guard surrounding Room 40; his senior cryptanalyst brought the relevant code books to the US Embassy (American soil), and, in the presence of Mr Page decrypted the message. (12) The second part of the conundrum was played out by the Americans informing the press they had obtained the decrypted plain text in Mexico City. This caused hiatus within the German Diplomatic service

Conclusion

Naturally, on its release the Note caused outrage in the United States. But as foreseen, anti-war activists and pro-German groups claimed it was a British (perfidious Albion) plot to involve the United States in a European War. President Wilson might still have found ways to keep the United States neutral. However, all debate ceased when Zimmermann, with astonishing naivety, publicly announced at a press conference that the telegram was genuine. (13) Congress declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Financial credit, delayed by Wilson as his trump card to force the Allies to a peace conference was immediately extended. However, Mexican cross border raids and retaliatory United States incursions into Mexico, tied down a considerable part of the regular army of the United States throughout 1917. Not until April 1918 did American troops arrive in France in any great numbers. Meanwhile, Germany defeated Russia and moved over a million men to the Western Front; and in their 1918 spring offensive came very close to defeating the Allies. Unrestricted U-boat warfare brought as much hardship to the civil population in Britain as the naval blockade caused in Germany. What saved Britain was the reinstitution of the convoy system last used in the Napoleonic wars.

Admiral Hall and the staff of Room 40, by intercepting, decrypting and releasing the Zimmerman note probably saved the Allies from the necessity of a stalemated negotiated peace treaty. That would possibly have left Germany in possession of much Polish, Russian, French and Belgian territory, prolonged German Imperial militarism and altered the course of history.

After the war, the aerial strategic bomber was seen by some military thinkers and politicians as the future of war. The Royal Air Force took over responsibility for Imperial Policing in Palestine, Iraq and the Northwest Frontier of India. Behind the scenes in the RAF, research began for an electromagnetic 'death ray', which eventually resulted in the development of radar. In World War II Radar, an important passive element of electronic warfare, was a major factor in winning the Battle of Britain. However, it was only one aspect of the secret war; during the years 1940-1943, communications intelligence and electronic intelligence repeatedly saved the Allies from defeat. Australia's main benefit from EW was the destruction of Japanese aircraft carriers in 1942. The story of that secret war has been told and retold. However, the full story of the secret war of 1914-18 has never been told because Admiral Hall's papers were placed under a publishing ban.

Throughout the second half of the Twentieth Century, electronic warfare waged unceasingly between the ideological-based East and West. A new dimension was added when global orbiting satellites were launched for military communications, electronic eavesdropping, photographic reconnaissance, and surveillance. During that period the gigantic costs for the research and development of computer and space technology, primarily for military use, was mainly borne by defence spending. In the end the cost of the Cold War was too much for the Communist East to bear and its economy collapsed. The Cold War between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, was for Europe the most bloodless war in its long history. War was quite different in the rest of the world. The West intervened in selected places, notably Korea, Indochina, Algeria, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf, which immediately drew the attention of the international media and the United Nations. Elsewhere the four horsemen of the apocalypse rode unchecked in ideological surrogate wars and its accompanying misery; especially in Africa.

A major spin-off for the world from the technology developed primarily for the Cold War, has been the personal computer, enhanced global communications, the Internet; and globalisation of many aspects of human endeavour. The downside of this is that international terrorism, drug and people smuggling, and international crime in general, have also been enhanced. Defeating these, particularly international terrorism, is the challenge for the secret warriors of the Twenty-First century.

(2) Admiral Sir William James. The Eyes of the Navy. A Biographical Study of Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, Methuen, London, 1956.

(3) Captain Franz von Rintelen. The Dark Invader, Peter Davies, London, 1933, p. 203. Rintelen, a Richard Hannay figure, became a firm friend of Admiral Hall following his interception and detention while travelling on a Dutch ship from the United States to the Netherlands at the end of 1915. His account of espionage and sabotage in the United States during five months of 1915 is at times over the top. Nevertheless, his close relationship after the war with Admiral Hall who wrote the foreword to The Dark Invader gives credence to Rintelen's account.

(4) ibid, p. 205.

(5) ibid, pp. 114-222. The Nurnberg reached German East Africa where she was trapped and sunk by a British squadron. However, her personnel, guns, equipment and stores had previously been landed and provided a major reinforcement for General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. An irregular soldier of genius, Lettow, with never more than 20,000 men, tied down over 100,000 Allied troops. Campaigning across East Africa the size of Europe, he held out until after the Armistice. Orders had to be despatched from Berlin to oblige him to surrender.

(6) Captain Ferdinand Tuohy. The Secret Corps, John Murray, London, 1920, p. 152.

(7) Captain Donald MacIntyre. Jutland, Pan Books Ltd, London 1966, pp. 30, 83 & 96.

(8) James p. 119.

(9) MacIntyre p. 132.

(10) Rinteln p. 226.

(11) ibid, p. 229.

(12) Barbara Tuchman. The Zimmermann Telegram, The Phoenix Press, London, 2001, pp. 164.

(13) ibid, pp. 177 & 183.

Tom Johnstone (1)

(1) Tom Johnstone is a retired Royal Signals officer who also served in the Royal Air Force and on secondment with the King's African Rifles.