Status Updates From Room 40: British Naval Inte...

Room 40's task was becoming more difficult, depending increasingly on the ability to draw the right conclusions from information revealed by the movements of U boats or small craft, without clinching evidence of preliminary orders issued by wireless to the heavy ships; these had given warning of the Yarmouth raid, Dogger Bank & Jutland.

Scapa Flow was over 500 miles away from Wilhelmshaven, without first class intelligence the Germans could be off the coast or anywhere in the north sea before Jellicoe could bring the Grand Fleet to the scene. The relative geographical positions were such that he virtually had to sail at the same time as his adversary if he was to have any hope of intercepting him. Intelligence was NOT avaliable in the 1st 3 months.

Return to Great War theme, with a look at predecessor of Bletchley Park!