Not the
least of the many British triumphs was winning against an enemy who was
so brave, so skilful, so strong in many ways, and so very devilish in
all.
Now that we know what we are about, let us clear the decks for action
and go full steam ahead right through the fight at sea.
The British Navy had to help the British Army into France and take care
that the Army's ever-growing forces there, as well as on a dozen
different fronts elsewhere, always had the sea-roads kept open to many
different bases over half the world. The Seven Seas are ten times
bigger than the whole of North and South America. Yet the Navy watched
or kept in touch with every part of all of them. So much for space.
Now for time. Time was needed to get Kitchener's vast new armies
ready. Millions sprang to arms. But it would have been sheer murder
to send them to the front without many months of very hard training.
So the enemy had to be kept at arm's length for a very long time--for
the whole war, indeed, because reinforcements and supplies were always
needed in vast and ever vaster quantities, both from the Mother Country
and from the Empire, Allies, and Neutrals overseas.
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