3. War Begins

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Lord West looks at the Royal Navy's strategy for winning the First World War. How in the early years of the war did it fail to bring its might to bear? The First World War represented a major change in British strategy towards wars on the European continent. Historically Britain had stood off from continental conflicts, funding armies there but otherwise letting the Royal Navy exert its power at sea. But now with British and imperial armies fighting across Europe, the Royal Navy was reduced to transporting troops, escorting convoys and, with the exception of some small victories mopping up German commerce raiders around the world, an inglorious policy of distant blockade. While the Grand Fleet was kept in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, the only real attempt to fundamentally alter the balance of power was opposed by many in the Navy, went down in history as a catastrophic failure, and remains to this day one of the war's great 'what ifs'. Producer: Giles Edwards First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2014.