Angus Konstam, German High Seas Fleet 1914-18 (Osprey, 2023)
The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was the iconic naval action of World War I. It was not quite the Great War’s Trafalgar, but the German High Seas Fleet barely dipped its toes into the North Sea again. In this book, in Osprey’s new Fleet series, Angus Konstam surveys the German fleet and finds a bit more than the ‘luxury fleet’ claim famously made by Winston Churchill.
Konstam begins with the fleet’s purpose, considering why the Kaiser built a powerful navy when defensively it served little purpose for Germany’s relatively short coastline. Because they could is a neat ‘imperial’ answer, but Germany also wanted to challenge the Royal Navy’s supremacy as a deterrent in the North Sea, the so-called Risk Theory. That set off a naval arms race that the Germans lost. Konstam then surveys the German Dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, and torpedo boats, the latter two incorporated into the scouting groups that brought on the Battle of Jutland. Ship design follows then the organisation of the High Seas Fleet and its layered command and control at naval and fleet levels. Konstam includes communications and its problems, along with naval intelligence. Though they had wireless systems, most communications and intelligence were still visibility based. Ships do not sail without logistical support and ports. The main German port, Wilhelmshaven, proved just capable of housing the large High Seas Fleet; it was a good supply hub, though dependent on supplies coming from source in a struggling Germany. Konstam closes with a brief analysis of the High Seas Fleet in battle. With the Kaiser reluctant to risk his fleet, major actions were few and far between, though Konstam covers them all. He notes that the fleet was more about imperial status than serving any strategic purpose, but that would have hardly mattered because the RN handily outnumbered the Germans despite a relative parity in ship quality. Konstam concludes that the German High Seas Fleet could have done more than it did but for the Kaiser’s over-protective stance not to risk his pet project.
Angus Konstam is a prolific and capable writer of naval history. It will come as no surprise then that this latest offering from his keyboard is a well written and informative account of the German High Seas Fleet. He is ably supported in his endeavour by Osprey’s usual selection of photographs and illustrations, the maps are particularly useful. Konstam includes a brief bibliography for further reading, and this Fleet series book will act as a serviceable introduction for any of them.
