1914: The Early Months of the War

Abstract

This chapter recounts how Winston Churchill ordered the Grand Fleet to take up their war station at the remote anchorage of Scapa Flow on 29 July 1914. It discusses Germany's invasion of Belgium that drew Britain into the conflict just within two days of the Grand Fleet's arrival in Orkney. It also theorizes how the anchorage at Scapa enabled the Royal Navy's fleet of dreadnoughts to command the North Sea and anticipate threats from its smaller German counterpart, the High Seas Fleet. The chapter cites the Koenigen Luise vessel that laid the first minefield of the Great War, implying that the British could expect the Germans to pursue an aggressive and defensive mining policy. It details how the minefield disrupted coastal shipping up and down the coast.