The
charge of cowardice against our enemies, especially the Turks and
Germans, is nonsense. Besides, it takes away our own men's glory if
they had nothing more than cowards to put down. Of course the enemy
had cowards, as other peoples have; but they had plenty of brave men
too; and what, that unsurpassable hero of the air, McCudden, said of
one brave German will do for many more. "I shall never forget my
admiration for that German pilot who, single-handed, fought seven of us
for ten minutes, and also put some bullets through all our machines.
His flying was wonderful, his courage magnificent."
The Germans had not only the advantage of being able to mass nearly all
their navy together but of training it all together on the same North
Sea practice ground, and of building battle squadrons on purpose for
one kind of fight close at home: a single tiger-spring and that was
all. The British, on the other hand, had to build a good many ships
"fit to go foreign" thousands of miles away, and so had to give up much
space to the men's quarters and to fuel; while the Germans could save
half this space for increased power in armour, engines, guns, and other
things suited to one short cruise and tiger-spring near home.
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