Defeating the U-boat. Inventing Antisubmarine Warfare (Newport Papers Number 36)

摘要

On 10 April 1917, Rear Admiral William Sowden Sims, U.S. Navy, sat across from the Royal Navy's Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Rushworth Jellicoe. Sims and his aide had arrived in London on that same day, less than twenty-four hours after their passenger steamer had docked in Liverpool. While they were at sea, on 6 April, the American Congress had declared war on Germany and its allies. Anticipating hostilities, the U.S. Navy Secretary, Josephus Daniels, had ordered Sims to London to, in Sims's words, 'get in touch with the British Admiralty, to study the naval situation and learn how we could best and most quickly cooperate in the naval war.'1 Now, sitting across from him-'calm, smiling and imperturbable'-was the First Sea Lord. With operational responsibility for the entire British navy, Jellicoe was well placed to confirm the belief of Sims and most Americans that the British fleet 'had the situation well in hand.'2.