Admiral Sims.

This is coolbert:

When America entered the First World War [WW1] in the early part of 1917, the first prominent American military man on the European scene was U.S. Navy Admiral Sims.

Sims' trip was to establish and coordinate a convoy system. A convoy system that would allow for safe transit of the Atlantic from America to Europe of all shipping carrying troops and war munitions.

Such a system was established. And did prove to be successful. Eminently so. German U-boat attack was mitigated substantially by the convoy system. And this with a rate of transport such that in the early months of 1918, 250,000 American troops per month were arriving in Breast, France, enroute to the Western Front!! Consider this: [courtesy of Al Nofi and CIC].

"Although the nearly three million American military personnel took
ship across the Atlantic during World War I, only 500 died in u-
boat attacks on warships and merchantmen, and another 71 died of
disease or accidents en route."

An outstanding achievement!!

[this IS a remarkable feat. Was duplicated in World War Two [WW2] also. A transport was lost to Japanese submarine attack during WW2, but without the loss of one soldier among the four thousand troops being transported!! [all the troops aboard were gotten off the ship before it sank!!] This too is a remarkable achievement and speaks very highly of the U.S. Navy!!]

Sims was quickly to find, however, that something even more pressing than the convoy system was on the mind of the English.

Starvation!!

At the time of Sims' visit, the British Isles had only a three week supply of grain on hand at any given moment. Even in the years PRIOR to the outbreak of the war, the English were heavily dependent upon imported food. With the U-boat menace sinking a quarter of all ships bound for English ports, the import of food to meet the minimum needs of the English became acute.

When asked if there was a counter to the U-boat threat, Admiral Jellicoe, the senior British Admiral answered that he could see no solution in sight!! England was in danger of being knocked out of the war not from defeat on the battlefield, but rather from starvation at home!!

A certain part of this dilemma was due to the fact that a goodly portion of English cropland previously used for growing crops for human consumption was being utilized rather for the growing of fodder for cavalry horses.

All during the four years of WW1, the allied forces maintained in all theatres of the war large divisional size formations of cavalry.

[a perfect example of this occured during the British Somme offensive of July, 1916. Haig, the British commander, had three divisions of cavalry in the wings, awaiting the breakthrough that never came. This is just ONE example among many of what was a pattern of stupidity and a clinging to old, outmoded ideas!!]

Cavalry formations that were intended to exploit a breakthrough of German defenses, if such a breakthrough was to occur. Such a breakthrough did not occur, with the exception of the campaign of the British in Palestine. [as has been mentioned in another blog entry.]

Such was the attachment of the allied high command to the concept of the horse soldier that the cavalry formations on the Western Front were kept in the rear, at a state of readiness all during the four years of trench warfare, but WERE NEVER USED!!

NEVER USED, BUT CONTRIBUTING TO A POSSIBLE STARVATION SITUATION ON THE ENGLISH HOME FRONT!!

Consider this:

"in 1897 another British force in India, of 44,000 men, still required 60,000 draft animals. And what was an army's single greatest supply item, by volume? Fodder for all the animals—a logistical fact through World War I."

What is most amazing is that almost half [40 %] of the horses used by the military in WW1 were used merely to facilitate the delivery of fodder to the other half [60 %]. A 60 % that stood idle during the war, waiting for a combat role THAT NEVER MATERIALIZED!!

[it is true that a number of horses would have been employed as prime movers for artillery, ambulances and such. What exact percentage this is I just cannot say.]

THIS REPRESENTS A COLOSSAL WASTE THAT ALMOST RESULTED IN DEFEAT FOR THE BRITISH ON THE WESTERN FRONT OF WW1!!

What were all the senior allied commanders thinking!!?? I just cannot say. You would have thought at some point they would have universally agreed that cavalry DID NOT HAVE A ROLE IN THE MODERN TYPE OF COMBAT AS SEEN IN WW1. This DID NOT happen!!

coolbert.