Admiral Sir John Jellicoe stood at the center of the British naval effort in
World War I. As commander of the Grand Fleet, which contained the bulk of
Britain's naval strength, he directed the most important operations of the
British navy from the start of the war until the close of 1916. At that point, he
became First Sea Lord and took control of all aspects of the war at sea. Jellicoe
proved a decisive commander in the period 1914-1916. In dealing with the
crucial threat posed by the German submarine offensive in 1917, the admiral
proved less steady, and he was forced from office in December 1917.
John Jellicoe was bom on December 5, 1 859. A member of a family with
a long naval tradition, he entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1872. He
rose rapidly, obtaining a glowing reputation as a gunnery officer. Jellicoe's
career was enhanced by a stint of combat service in the Boxer Rebellion in
1900. Even more important, he early on became a protege of Admiral Sir
John Fisher, who, as First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910, became the architect
of the modem British navy. Fisher's favorite became an admiral in 1907 at
the early age of forty-eight. In the years immediately before the outbreak
of war, Jellicoe received assignments intended to groom him for larger
responsibilities, becoming commander of the Atlantic Fleet and then serving
as Second Sea Lord.
On the first day of the war. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill
ordered Jellicoe, then deputy commander of the Grand Fleet, to relieve his
superior. Admiral Sir George Callahan. Churchill considered Callahan too
old to lead Britain's most important naval force. Jellicoe reluctantly complied,
protesting the impropriety of moving into the shoes of his immediate
superior in such a peremptory fashion.
Jellicoe now had the awesome responsibility of commanding the most
important weapon in the Allied arsenal. The Grand Fleet controlled the
crucial sea lanes of the North Sea. If it suffered a major defeat, the German
navy could cut the British army on the continent off from its home base;
just as fatally, it would cut Britain's essential supplies of food from the
outside world. To add to his burdens, Jellicoe realized that his force of
battleships, battle cruisers, and smaller ships operated in a new combat
environment. The danger from submarines and mines made aggressive
operations like those conducted by such legendary predecessors as Lord
Horatio Nelson impossible. Jellicoe had to retain control of the sea while
preserving his margin of strength.
The British naval leader conducted operations between 1914 and 1916
in that spirit of caution. Efforts to trap units and destroy significant parts of
the German High Seas Fleet in the open waters of the North Sea failed
repeatedly, and the British commander was embarrassed when German
warships were able to shell coastal cities in eastern England.
The grand encounter between the battleships of the two powers came at
the Battle of Jutland, off the coast of Denmark, on May 31, 1916. Jellicoe's
leadership during the battle reflected his fear of seeing the British fleet hit
by heavy losses. In the two hours of fading daylight in which the main action
took place, Jellicoe twice saw the line of enemy battleships turn away from
his fleet. His critics have charged him with excessive caution in failing to
pursue the Germans with vigor, permitting the enemy's High Seas Fleet to
return safely to port. Moreover, British ship losses were substantially greater
than those inflicted on the Germans. Nonetheless, most students of Jutland
have endorsed Jellicoe's decisions. In his moment of supreme responsibility,
the British leader had chased the enemy from the open waters of the
North Sea, and the Royal Navy retained its superiority in battleships and
battle cruisers. Germany remained under blockade, and Allied sea traffic
was safe from the enemy's surface fleet.
Jellicoe's next test came from beneath the sea. By the closing months of
1916, Germany's naval efforts centered on submarine attack against Allied
merchant shipping. In late November, the government promoted Jellicoe to
First Sea Lord, the officer in charge of the entire Royal Navy. His chief task
was to aombat the submarine menace.
At first, Jellicoe remained tied to the failing policy of patrolling the sea
lanes and seeking out the underwater enemy. As commander of the Grand
Fleet, he had vehemently opposed proposals to shift destroyers from their
principal task of protecting his battleships to duty escorting merchant ships.
Like most senior naval commanders, +ie had numerous objections against
having Allied merchant ships travel in convoys. Convoying seemed to mean
abandoning an offensive posture by the navy, creating large targets for
enemy submarines, and relying on the dubious skills of merchant captains
in coordinated maneuvering.
With losses climbing to frightening proportions in early 1917, Jellicoe
plunged into despair. In a conversation with Admiral William Sims of the
United States in April, he supposedly stated that German submarines were
winning the naval war; Britain had nothing to counter the deadly threat.
In the end Jellicoe accepted the necessity for convoys. But the initiative
came from his subordinates, from Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and
possibly from Sims as well. The First Sea Lord implemented a convoy
system deliberately rather than energetically. Perhaps due to his own
reservations, perhaps due to his declining health and the strain of overwork,
a full-fledged convoy system was in place only at the close of 1917. Lloyd
George and his energetic new First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Eric Geddes,
both found Jellicoe lacking in drive and imagination. Geddes became
especially concerned about the navy's failure to stop German submarines
from passing through the English Channel. In late December, Geddes forced
Jellicoe from his post, replacing him with the more vigorous and imaginative
Rosslyn Wemyss.
Jellicoe had no major military responsibilities for the rest of the war. In
the postwar period, he served as governor-general of New Zealand from
1920 to 1924. He died in London on November 20, 1935.
World History
