Annual Manoeuvres of 1914

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The Royal Navy's Annual Manoeuvres of 1914 were cancelled on 20th February 1914 and replaced by a Test Mobilisation of the Reserve Fleet.[1] This decision was to prove fortuitous as the international tensions of the summer made war with Germany seem increasingly possible, and finally inevitable.

Though some preparations began on 13 July, the schedule for this exercise was planned to be as follows:[2]

Wednesday 15th July Reserve called up
16th and 17th July Mobilise
Saturday 18th July Proceed to rendezvous
19th to 23rd July At rendezvous and tactical exercises at sea
Friday 24th July Arrive Home Ports
Saturday 25th July, 9am Discharge reserves

On July 23, Austria presented its ultimatum to Serbia following the assassination of the Archduke at Sarajevo. As a result the British government, at the last minute, cancelled the dispersal of the reserve fleet. The First Fleet was ordered to remain at Portland, and those reserve ships which had begun to disperse were ordered to retain their full crews and take on coal, stores and ammunition. These changes were achieved as quietly as possible, to avoid enflaming an already very tense political situation[3]. As a result, the Royal Navy was more ready for the start of the Great War than it might otherwise have been.

An indication of the care taken to ensure that the maintenance of the Fleet remained secret is given in these orders quoted by Winston Churchill:

"To-morrow, Wednesday (July 29), the First Fleet is to leave Portland for Scapa Flow. Destination is to be kept secret except to flag and commanding officers. As you are required at the Admiralty, Vice-Admiral 2nd Battle Squadron (Warrender) is to take command. Course from Portland is to be shaped to southward, then a middle Channel course to the Straits of Dover. The Squadrons are to pass through the Straits without lights during the night and to pass outside the shoals on their way north. Agamemnon is to remain at Portland, where the Second fleet will assemble."[4]

Order of Battle

The ships of the reserve formed the Second and Third Fleets as follows under fleet flagship Lord Nelson:[5]

Battle Squadrons
(+ denotes attached vessels)
Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth
Prince of Wales VAdmRN.png Russell RAdmRN.png Prince George VAdmRN.png Albion RAdmRN.png
Bulwark Albemarle Hannibal RAdmRN.png Ocean RAdmRN.png
Formidable Exmouth Illustrious Goliath
Implacable Vengeance Magnificent Jupiter
Irresistible Topaze+ Majestic Canopus
London   Mars Glory
Queen   Victorious Sapphire+
Diamond+   Doris+  
Cruiser Squadrons
Fifth Sixth Seventh
Carnarvon RAdmRN.png Good Hope RAdmRN.png Euryalus RAdmRN.png
Cornwall Drake Cressy
Cumberland Leviathan Minerva
    Venus
 
Eighth Ninth Tenth
Aboukir RAdmRN.png Bacchante RAdmRN.png Hogue RAdmRN.png
Challenger Diana Charybdis
Isis Sutlej Eclipse
Juno Talbot Highflyer
Other Forces
Training Squadron 1st Light Cruiser Squadron Minelayer Squadron Unappropriated
Crescent (flag) Falmouth+ Andromache Vindictive
Edgar Liverpool+ Apollo
Endymion   Intrepid
Gibraltar   Iphigenia
Grafton   Latona
Royal Arthur   Naiad
Theseus   Thetis

Footnotes

  1. M11959/14 From Admiralty to C-in-C, Home Fleets, dated 20th February 1914. Backhouse Papers, Naval Historical Branch.
  2. "Naval Mobilization." The Times (London, England), 14 July 1914, p. 16.
  3. Sir Julian Corbett, Naval Operations: History of the Great War based on Official Documents, Volume 1, (Uckfield: Imperial War Museum and Naval & Military Press, 2009 [1938]), 23-24.
  4. Churchill. The World Crisis. p. 225.
  5. Vice-Admiral Cecil Burney, Second and Third Fleets Serial Orders, 11 June 1914, Backhouse Papers, Naval Historical Branch

Bibliography

  • M11959/14 From Admiralty to C-in-C, Home Fleets, dated 20th February 1914. Backhouse Papers, Naval Historical Branch, Portsmouth, UK.
  • Vice-Admiral Cecil Burney. Second and Third Fleets Serial Orders, 11 June 1914, Backhouse Papers, Naval Historical Branch, Portsmouth, UK
  • Churchill, Winston."The World Crisis.", London: Macmillan, 1923
  • Corbett, J S. Naval Operations: History of the Great War based on Official Documents, Uckfield: Imperial War Museum and Naval & Military Press, 2009 [1938],


Annual Manoeuvres of the Royal Navy
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