From ‘The Running Fight in the North Sea’, The Spectator, 30 January 1915:
THE splendid success of the battle-cruisers under Admiral Beatty in the North Sea last Sunday means much more than that they sunk the German armoured cruiser ‘Blücher,’ as well as a light cruiser, and very seriously damaged two German battle-cruisers. It means that we have a much better knowledge than before of what German tactics are likely to be, and what the German capacity is for fighting a superior force with an inferior force.
The Germans are so fond of creating an atmosphere of mystery—of encouraging a belief that they have some miracle of inventiveness to spring upon the world—that a great many people fancied that we should learn the full extent of German thought and preparation for the first time when a battle was joined between ships of the same type. That battle has at last been joined, and we know now that Germany had nothing up her sleeve. In any case, the ability of our Navy to defeat any tricks and ingenuities that might have been brought against it was never in the least doubt. It is none the less satisfactory to discover that in the first action of the war between super-Dreadnoughts the Germans did just what the evidence already available might have led us to expect—that and nothing more. They were handsomely beaten at a game of their own choosing, and the result must, of course, be that the confidence of the British Navy in all future engagements will be increased, and the confidence of the German Navy reduced.
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