Atlantic Warfare Today : 421 



with France; resentment at the disruption of the general peace joined 

 with a general feeling that Germany was the aggressor; violation of 

 law and morality in the unprovoked invasion of Belgium; disregard 

 for other treaties; dislike of Prussian arrogance and Prussian philos- 

 ophy, etc. None of these sympathies or feelings, however, were effec- 

 tive in bringing the United States into the struggle until an amazing 

 series of immediate and concrete provocations had accumulated. In- 

 deed Germany had to mismanage her campaign on a lavish and reck- 

 less scale in order to arouse a sluggish America to a consciousness of 

 responsibility and danger. 



For some time America's relation to the war was intellectual and 

 emotional rather than active. Wilson believed it was his destiny to be 

 the great peacemaker and he was correspondingly reluctant to appear 

 as the head of a nation at war. 



What America suffered first from the war was a restriction on her 

 international commerce, interference with her ships on the high seas, 

 sinking of ships and loss of American lives. 



In 1 91 4, at the beginning of the war, the British fleet in the North 

 Sea numbered about twenty dreadnaughts based on Scapa Flow in 

 the Orkneys and two ports in Scotland. The German fleet in North 

 Sea ports counted only thirteen dreadnaughts. The Germans were 

 not therefore disposed to risk a major engagement at sea. In August 

 British cruisers raided Heligoland and the German cruisers came out 

 to drive them off. Then Sir David Beatty, coming up with battle 

 cruisers, sank three German ships. Later the German battle cruisers 

 did well in an engagement at Dogger Bank (1915) and occasionally 

 threw some shells at British ports like Yarmouth, Scarborough, etc. 

 Meanwhile German ships in remote foreign ports put to sea and be- 

 came wreckers and raiders. Admiral Graf von Spee, coming from 

 Japan with the cruisers Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Niirnberg, bom- 

 barded Papeete and ruined Fanning Island cable station. In company 

 with other German vessels he won his way into the South Atlantic 

 where he met three old British cruisers and sank two of them. Then 

 he decided the Falkland Islands would make an easy target as he 

 sailed by on his way home. He was wrong. A hastily assembled 

 Allied fleet caught him there; four German ships were sunk and von 

 Spee and his two sons lost their lives. 



From the beginning Germany placed considerable confidence in 

 the use of mines and of submarines, and when her efforts with sur- 

 face craft proved fatal or turned out inconclusive she intensified her 

 efforts in mines and submarines. 



