Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War

by Reinhard Scheer

Victors write history. German Admiral Reinhard Scheer knew this, and wrote his own anyway. In this memoir of World War One, he says, "We are victors and vanquished at one and the same time, and in depicting our success the difficult problem confronts us of not forgetting that our strength did not last out to the end."

Admiral Scheer took command of the German High Seas Fleet in 1916. He championed unrestricted submarine warfare as the key to winning, maintaining that it was no worse than the British blockade against Germany. Scheer's belief in aggressive surface fleet actions led him to the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval engagement in World War One and still one of the biggest in history.

Scheer asserts that the Fleet fought well throughout the war: "The remembrance of the famous deeds which were accomplished on the sea will henceforth preserve over the grave of the German Fleet the hope that our race will succeed in creating for itself a position among the nations worthy of the German people."

This edition of Scheer's memoirs, first published in 1920, has been modernised with an active table of contents and links to footnotes, and has been lightly edited to correct typographical errors in the original.

Genres: History, World War I, Germany, British Literature

452 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1920

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I found this book very easy to read, considering that it is a translation from German, so good marks on that front.

This book is part memoir, part history and part political statement. Scheer's first hand account of his naval progression throughout the war is thoroughly enjoyable. It is good to have a background knowledge on the history of naval warfare in the Great War, but also not essential.

This books one failing, although understandable, is Scheer's to get bogged down in politics and in laying blame for events or using them as justifications for the German navies actions. Particularly unrestricted submarine warfare.

However, as history is nearly always portrayed by the victors, it is valuable to have these views as propaganda and Misinformation are prevalent on all sides. It is only by understanding all aspects of a story that we can hope to reconstructed a closer representation of the facts.

Highly recommended

Thanks for reading

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good book from the other side just after the war.