the United States, where at the port of New York the men of the fleet
paraded down Fifth Avenue, to the appreciative acclaim of tens upon tens
of thousands of enthusiastic patriots who lined Fifth Avenue.

Had the German fleet come out for battle a large percentage of it would
unquestionably have been destroyed, and yet it is the theory of naval
officers that some units, perhaps the swift cruisers, would in the very
nature of the fighting (sea battles are fought upon the lines of two
great arcs) have succeeded in shaking themselves loose, to the
consequent detriment of our freight and transport traffic. Cruisers
speeding free upon the face of the broad ocean are difficult to corner,
and a great amount of damage might have been inflicted on the Allies
before all were finally hunted down.

As it was, the enemy fleet remained at its base, and in the end came
forth peacefully, as has been described. Had the war gone on, had the
German craft not appeared for battle, a plan to smother their base
through the medium of clouds of bombing airplanes would unquestionably
have been put into effect at a good and proper time. And at the same
juncture, no doubt, our Sixth Squadron would have joined with the Grand
Fleet in an attack upon Heligoland, plans for which are still in
existence.

In the waning months of the war it had become increasingly clear that
the submarine as a weapon to decide the war was ineffective. Not only
were the Allied destroyers and chasers, armed with their depth-bombs,
waging a successful fight against the undersea boats, but other methods
were beginning to have their effect. Chief among these were our
mine-laying exploits, by which, in October of 1918, was established a
mine-barrage across the North Sea, which proved a tremendous handicap to