French Navy During the Great War
At the beginning of August, 1914, nearly all the French naval units were concentrated in the Mediterranean Sea, while the British fleet was to guard the North Sea, the Channel, and the Atlantic Ocean. After assuring the transportation of many African troops, which proved to be an efficient reinforcement in the first battles of the war, the French Fleet, twenty dreadnoughts and ten cruisers strong, bombarded the Dalmatian coast (August 16, 1914), shelled the Cattaro moorings (October 18, 1914), and blockaded the Straits of Otranto. Then, in 1915, the concentration at Corfu and the transportation to Salonica iu 1916 of the Serbian Army, after its retreat from Serbia, was due to the French Navy.
After contributing to the expedition in the Dardanelles, and the shipment of Anglo-French troops from Gallipoli to Salonica, the French Navy turned to the less glorious, but no less useful task of protecting against hostile submarines the transportation of troops and supplies. Meanwhile, it kept the Syrian harbors closed to the Germans, and later on convoyed the French contingents to Palestine. The naval demonstrations on the Greek coasts (bombardment of Cavalla, August, 1916; blockade of the Greek coasts and moorings at Salamis, September, 1916), finally enabled Mr. Jonnart, High Commissioner of the Entente, to bring about the abdication of Constantine, and to re-establish in Greece- with Venizelos-a government free from any German influence.
The French Navy was able, besides, to send to the front the naval fusiliers, who fought for two days and nights to cover the retreat of the Belgian army from Antwerp to the Yser, and then held up the Germans at Dixmude for twenty-six days. Two thousand naval gunners and thirty thousand sailors were distributed among different units, and their gallantry made all those detachments (and more particularly the fusiliers) as renowned in France as the Marines are in the United States.
Finally, France took an important part in the methodical struggle against the German submarines; the merchant marine was carefully convoyed by warships and airplanes; trawlers armed with cannon were engaged in the daily pursuit of U-boats. This silent, endless task may be compared to the long guard the Allied armies had to mount during the yean of trench warfare-a life of continuous risk without battles or glory; but the accomplishment of that thankless duty contributed to secure the supremacy of the seas, which finally brought about victory.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
