Randolph (CVA 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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4' 1 f determined not to miss any chance. lhere, just around a bcnd in the coast-line, in -Xboukir Bay, were the French Thirteen shipsol-the-line were anchored far back tery of cannon set up on an island The French were in individual fights. It was the most overwhelming victory the modern world had seen, and Nelson be- came overnight the only man in the world who could be mentioned together with Napoleon who was now stranded in Egypt thousands of miles from France. After the Battle of the Nile control of the Mediter- J t A A I in very shallow, treacherous waters, covered by a bat- ' ' t c , A V sighted at 1500 while two of Nelsons thirteen ships were far astern returning from Alexandria harbor, and another was astern towing a prize. It was obvious to the French admiral that Nelson must wait for his ships to come up, and that he could not navigate those waters at night. It was obvious to Nelson that he was going in to destroy the French as fast as the wind would carry him. During the many weeks at sea Nelson had called his captains together time and again to discuss tactics. When the time came there was no confusion and in- decisiong Captain Foley in Goliath led the line not only through the shallows, but around the head of the French line to strike them on the inboard side. As he approached he took a heavy beating from the leading French ships, but he held his own fire. A good sea- man, he knew that the water between the anchor buoy and the bows of the leading ship must be deep enough, and his only concern at the moment was to have ga clear view of that buoy unobscured by gunsmoke. As he scraped by he raked the Guerricre from stem to sterng when five British ships had done the same Guerriere was a dismasted wreck. Nelson in the sixth ship saw that it was time to double up on the French line, and came to anchor opposite the third ship. The seventh and eighth British ships brought up opposite the fourth and fifth Frenchmen, and the van was out- numbered eight to five. It was dark when the ninth and tenth British came up, and they dropped too far down the line, Belleroplton found herself opposite the French flagship, L'Orient a giant of 120 guns, and Majestic was all alone in the French rear. In the van the French were being crushed, but Majestic and Belleroplmn suffered severely. Bellero- phon was at last forced to cut her cable and drift out of action, but just then the three trailing British ships came up, and all three engaged L,O7'I'67'lf. A fire was started, and the British directed their guns against the French Hre-parties. The flames spread, and as neighboring ships realized what must inevitably occur they cut their cables to get away. L'O1'1'ent exploded with awful forccg for minutes the battle ceased while every sailor stared. At last a gun hred, and the fright- ful work went on. After midnight the battle petered out from the sheer exhaustion of the men. When dawn broke the first six French ships had struck their colors, I.'O1'ient had disappeared, two others were run ashore, and one was just being taken. Of the three sound ships left, one ran aground attempting to flee. while the last two made good their escapeg Nelson later had the satisfaction of taking each of these ships ll9 ranean and of the seas of the world was firmly in British hands. Napoleon, like Hitler, went on to prepare a plan for a huge operation to invade Eng- land. Like Hitler he asked his admirals to control the English Channel for one day and he would conquer the world. Hitler's admirals were able to dissuade their ruler, but Napoleon's admirals were forced to make a desperate effort to concentrate their fleet, and 1' 1 13: , cv .' 'wtf I' g .gi 'E X X ' fs- X I' ,f I 7 5 Q - ffffzfif -riff if 1. ,ll .X - ,gi l 19th Century Navigator were beaten by Nelson at Trafalgar. In both cases these would-be conquerors were forced to turn East, to defeat in the vast and bitter reaches of Russia. As early as 1854, Alexis de Toqueville, a Frenchman travelling in America, was able to predict that the future of the world would be decided by two young giants growing up in the West and in the East, Amer- ica and Russia. For almost a hundred years there- after, the world stage continued to be dominated by Britain, France, and Germany, but in 1959, the truth of de Toqueville's prophecy is all too apparent. Before the twentieth century, the stability of Europe was maintained by the balance of power which meant, in practice that England took it as her responsibility to form an alliance against whatever power grew strong enough to threaten the European order. This was possible because then there were any number of powers in Europeg the peculiar quality of today's international situation is that militarily there are only two powers in the world. International politics has spread from Europe to include the whole world, so the problem of the Mediterranean is not our only

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TOULON I I 1. E.. I . s m ' ,x 1 X f I A v Il X I , X xxx Il X , ,I I 1 7 1 . :i , , S A ., 1' Nxz 1 x '-11 I X ' N 1x2-.. z,. .- ' .7' 1 sX.' . x -+A mf . 1 : x , X ag, :- , . 'Q ' , I E u'.'.'3' 3 5. . N 'i ,X : ' xx-..-07' .Q..2' '-1:I gf. ' f' Q Y Q Q23 ..-if' -- . 'la 'I E I N -is U ..,X.:..: O .I fl 4 - xx 5.5, 9 ' 32.4, Q a 'ia' f X TG EL -.aw ' ' ' ':f1. ll: If JUNE ,X Q .f-.a:I. PV -was 9 Q 2 ',...:1z:: .2 1 '51 23 v 6 , ' 5: Lg ,, 'ix 4,125 o e Q fff ' nt. - xx X 1 ' N. .- '-P- ' '3'-3. - x::T'-N NNN Q ,-.--f I n',, NI -. X '---- -- - -- -v I f I . 'I-..-sp MALTA xx XX 'I ,f I un, xxx N-N..,.,--,,,f' I ue JUNE! Nc, X ,' as FN- X , , ,I ' x ,,-' 1 ----- BRITISH en N-cs i ,J 'f:5.:. ' N-NN 'X '17-I AUG .I 'i ' NN N fre. FRENCH ' SCALE KMIJ 200 400 600 n,:,f, Nl... '---r- -11' ,.., -4 :FALEXANDRIA ze JUNE The Sea Chase Having come this far he resolved to search the eastern shore, although he was not optimistic. His luck was very bad again, for had he turned back immediately he would have run into the heart of the French fleet. lt had actually left Malta on I9 -Iune, giving it only three days lead instead of six, and Nelson's fast war- ships had passed the slowytransports hull- .,..x X K i xx--Wy' ,fl down over the horizon in the night. Nel- I 'MJ xxx 'N ff! son had arrived at Alexandria on 28 June, I , H ,,,. ,,,, 5 ,XX F' at which time the French were right behind .wif ND XX- him. Nelson returned to Sicily on 18 July, l-X a whole month gone by without a scrap of 1' A Xxx. ,,' information. Four days were spent replen- rjzf' fxxx XI ' ,,,' ishing, still without news, during which R, f.f'N,X SHOAL WATER X-I ' nflflf time Nelson concluded that if there were -'mx all in 'N'--XX. IFN-f rr ,cfflf I no news at Sicily the French must indeed Lx I A Xi k 'm'F i7Z5 - ,ll I' I : have sailed to the East. xx, .ff T! iff, Il I' f F l It was part of Nelson's genius that he was ,..,. 5 I i I I i more than willing to sail to the ends of the I li B l : I l : earth to find the enemy. Later, before Tra- .ff Il s Xxx I I I : I lalgar, he was to chase the French across the I! I ' NI Q 1 I I I Atlantic to the XfVest Indies and back again Ii lx i B 5 I I I before succeeding in bringing them to ac- xxxx I I : tion. Now he sailed back again to the East. X I3 ' I I this time going by way of Greece. There I' I he learned that Napoleon was invading N 0 I I Egypt, and again he rushed to Alexandria. G, 6 I' This time the British were elated to find If the harbor full of French shipping, until 0 I they realized that the ships there were all ,f transports and merchantmen, the French 0 f fleet was gone. Nelson was heart-broken: . Q f - -I he had given Napoleon more than a month BRIIHSH 0 ls i'N ! in which to conquer Egypt, and had al- Q FRENCH 0 I' ,fy lowed the fleet to get off scot-free. W'ith- -,-' ff' Ollt much hope, the British continued cast, 0 I LVN ,lf--Nw ,ff I-.-.X ,KW 0 N .1 1' f' X' l H3 .... r 1 K f - 'I

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problem, but lf remains one of the most important and difficult that we face. dle East has always derived from the fact that they are at the center of the worlds trade routes. In nrodern times the construction of the Suez Canal and the dis- ffreat apprehension of an invasion of Fngland but as long as the lleet was fueled and the Impire re- threat to Britain s existence was that Germany might take the oil-fields of the Middle East and close the Nlediterranean. The slrort-sightedness of Hitler was . - - Q O Q Q J Q f ' J f Q Q . Q Q . . Q . Q - The importance of the Mediterranean and the Mid- mained intact this danger' was not very real. 'I he real u L C K ' J 4 C l I , Q , 1 4 I Q 1 4 1 1 if J Y Y y 1 A , Q covery of the ry orld s richest petroleum deposits in the Middle East have only increased this importance. Be- cause of these considerations, Great Britain has long made it the object of her foreign policy, second in importance only to maintaining the balance of power, to control the Middle East. It is also the fact that the power Great Britain feared in the Middle East was Russiag for centuries, Russia has striven to penetrate this area in order to gain access to the Southern seas. In the nineteenth century when the Ottoman Empire in Turkey was breaking up, Great Britain and France fought the Crimean XfVar against Russia to prevent her from establishing a naval base on the Black Sea. Russia eventually succeeded in winning the Black Sea, but by incorporating modern Turkey into the W'estern family of nations, the YVest has so far pre- vented Russia from reaching the Mediterranean. IfVe have seen that for a thousand years, the YVest has been constantly at war with the Moslem East. Con- sidering this, it is almost incredibly fortunate that Turkey should now be such a strong friend and ally of the YVest, and it is not at all surprising that the other Moslem nations should now be so reluctant to join us. Fortunately they are reluctant to join Russia for the same reason, that for centuries Russia has been strry ing to conquer them The Arab nations remem ber when the Christian nations trembled at the strength of Islam and like eyery other nation in the world they do not uelcome the idea that today there are only two powers There are 90 000 000 Arabs in the Middle East if they were united they would make the fifth or sixth most populous nation rn the world In both the First and Second YVorld Wars Great Britain deyoted a great part of her effort to the cam paigns rn the Middle East In YVorld VVar I Italy was on her side which greatly facilitated her problems of communication but Turkey was on Germanys side which gravely threatened both the main artery and life blood of the Empire the Suer Canal and petro leum Great Britain was able to hold the Middle East, but she was sorely defeated when she attempted to wrest control of the Dardanelles from Turkey in the great Gallipoli campaign In W'orld War II until 1944 when the defeat of the western powers against the Axis was concentrated rn the Mediterranean area The air Battle of Britain and the sea Battle of the Atlantic caused frightful suffer ing but the indomitable spirit of the British and the productive capacity of Amerrcr preyented them from affecting the course of ysar In 1910 there was one of the factors in his defeat' one of the greatest errors was to leave the Mediterranean war to Italy' until it was too late. It was a peculiarity of the war in North Africa that because the Axis held the center of the coast and Britain held Egypt their supply lines crossed in the middle of the sea. Throughout the war both sides found their supply lines in the greatest jeopardy. The Italian commander in Africa was most reluctant to mount an offensive towards Egypt because of this fact, and the British attempted to pass only the most vital equipment through the Mediterranean, only when absolutely necessary. The land war in Africa was the longest campaign of the whole war because every advance petered out in the desert as the delicate supply lines became over-extended. The Italians drove the British, the British drove them back, Rommel drove the British, the British drove him back, Rommel tried again, and again he was driven back. The ob- jective of the Axis was Alexandria, and Rommel came within seventy miles of it, but failed. At last, late in 1942, the Americans landed on the western coast of North Africa, a great effort was made, and the Ger- mans were pressed from both sides into a corner in Tunisia, where they were defeated There were many other campaigns around the Mediterranean 1n Greece the Italians were rgnomm- rously repulsed by the small Greek army with British assistance but Hitler bailed out his pompous ally and conquered Greece the Germans went on to take Crete in the only campaign of the war to be supplied en- tirely by air in the Middle East the British won cam- paigns in Syria Iraq and Iran against Germans and the Vichy Irench In 1943 the Allies were at last strong enough to take the offensrye and they did so in the Mediterranean, first rn Sicily and then on into Italy Italy gave up the ghost as soon as the first land- ing was made but the Germans were determined to hold all of Fortress Europe and the fighting is as so bitter that the Allies advanced at the rate of only one mile a day The result of Britain s long hnd struggle is as th rt she suryrved to help drive home the defeat of Cer- many It was brought home to us in the YN est that America at least to our friends in Luropt Mean- uhrle however the rerl issue of the is n is is being fought on the steppes and m nshlands of Russrr Hitler h rs been considered stupid to hue rttuked Russia but probably he would hue rs orded it if he had thought rt possrhlt Russia his loomed large in 0 Q , Q Q Q Q . Q . . . c ' . 4 . , , ' ' Q , , Q . . . Q Q Q . Q. . Q Q Q . r Q . Q . . . Q Q Q Q Q . Q Q . . Q . Q . . Q . . Q . . . . . . Q QQ Q , , Q Q Q . Q , Q . Q Q , . Q . Q Q - Q Q QQ . QQQ . ' ' ' ' ' ' '. , 2 ' t ' if 2 ! l . Y I . 'f ' Germany was certain, practically the whole effort of the Mediterranean is absolutely vital, if not to ' ' ' . . ' ' ' ' ' , if , ' 2 ' .'.' x f 'z ' 'z, ' Q f ' - ' l Q' 'r 'Az 21 t ' ' ' ' 1 ' 1 1 , 1 z ' - f :f'zf'- ' ' ' 1 ' ' '-- I ' L. 1 B v. as . ' l..fl . .,.. ,. . -