- Archibald Berkeley Milne
Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne, 2nd Baronet (
2 June 1855 –4 July 1938 ) was anadmiral of theRoyal Navy who commanded theBritish Mediterranean Fleet at the outbreak of theFirst World War .Biography
Milne was the son of distinguished admiral,
Sir Alexander Milne, 1st Baronet , and grandson of Vice Admiral Sir David Milne.For ten years he served on the royal
yacht s, commanding H.M. Yachts from 1903 to 1905 as Flag Officer, and being made aRear-Admiral in 1904. During this time, he became a friend of KingEdward VII and ofQueen Alexandra , who called him "Arky-Barky".His next posting was as second in command of the Atlantic Fleet until 1906.From 1908 to 1910 Milne commanded the 2nd Division of the Home Fleets. Milne was made a full
Admiral in 1911 and given command of the Mediterranean Fleet in November 1912. The appointment was made byWinston Churchill ,First Lord of the Admiralty , taking into consideration the views of the King, George V. Admiral Fisher, formerFirst Sea Lord deplored Milne's appointment to such an important post, accusing Churchill of having betrayed the navy. [ 'Castles' p.32] At the outset of World War I, the Fleet was twenty-seven ships strong.The pursuit of "Goeben" and "Breslau"
On
August 4 ,1914 , afterGermany had declared war onRussia andFrance but beforeGreat Britain had declared war on Germany, he sent his two strongest battle cruisers, the HMS "Indomitable" and "Indefatigable", to seek out (as ordered) Germany's only two ships in the Mediterranean, the SMS "Goeben" and "Breslau", under the command of AdmiralWilhelm Souchon . The ships met as the Germans were steaming back toMessina ,Italy , to refuel after bombarding the French colonial ports ofPhilippeville andBône ,Algeria .The German ships steamed out of Messina harbour at midnight,
August 5 , precisely as Britain officially went to war with Germany. They were headed forTurkey , to attempt to convince it to enter the war on Germany's side, by force if necessary. The heading surprised Admiral Milne who had expected them to steam west to theStraits of Gibraltar . He had only one ship, the light cruiser HMS "Gloucester", in a position to follow them. The next morning (August 7 ), the "Gloucester" closed in and opened fire on the "Breslau", which returned fire. "Breslau" was slightly damaged in the exchange receiving one hit at the waterline. Near the western coast ofGreece , the pursuit of the "Goeben" and the "Breslau" was taken up by four more British ships, led by Milne's second-in-command, Rear-Admiral SirErnest Charles Thomas Troubridge . Troubridge's ships were smaller and slower than the "Goeben", they were also outgunned. Troubridge and his gunnery officer determined they could not intercept the German ships before daylight. They concluded that the enemy battlecruiser's superior speed and range would allow it to maintain enough distance to pick off Toubridge's ships at leisure before they could ever get close enough to engage effectively.Souchon's ships made it to
Constantinople and were admitted into the harbour by the Turks. The German diplomats reminded the Turks that Great Britain had recently broken a contract to supply two new battleships to the Turkish government (which the British Admiralty had decided to keep for its own use as war loomed), and offered to sell them the "Goeben" and the "Breslau". The Turks agreed onAugust 16 and eventually joined Germany's side onOctober 30 ,1914 . The ships were renamed the "Yavuz Sultan Selim" and the "Midili", retaining their German crews; Souchon was made commander-in-chief of the Turkish Navy.Afterwards, Milne served out the rest of the war on half-pay. He was offered the three-year command at the Nore encompassing the ports of
Chatham andSheerness in 1916, but the position eventually went to another officer due to "other exigencies". The Admiralty repeatedly emphasised that Milne had been exonerated of all blame in the affair, most significantly when announcing Milne's retirement at his own request in 1919, so as to further the promotion of other officers. [Cite newspaper The Times |articlename=Admiral Sir A. B. Milne |section=Obituaries |day_of_week=Wednesday |date=6 July 1938 |page_number=18 |issue=48039 |column=D ] In 1920 the official naval history of the war by SirJulian Corbett was critical of Milne's handling of the affair and contained "serious inaccuracies". ['The Flight of the "Goeben and the "Breslau"', p.V] Milne requested the Admiralty to act which they declined to do so, and in 1921 Milne wrote "The Flight of the "Goeben" and the" Breslau in an attempt to clear his name, which "justified the officialapprobation ". [cite web |url=http://oxforddnb.com/view/article/35032 |title=Milne, Sir (Archibald) Berkeley |accessdate=2008-08-23 |last=Halpern |first=Paul G. |work=HTML |publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ]References
* Paul Chrastina, [http://www.worldwar1.com/sfgb.htm Trenches on the Web - The Pursuit of the "Goeben" and the "Breslau"] , Originally in "Old News ", Vol 7, No 4, Dec-1995 under the title "German Warships Flee British Fleet"
*Robert Massie , "Castles of Steel", Random House 2004, ISBN 0224 040928
* Geoffrey Miller, [http://www.manorhouse.clara.net/book1/index.htm "Superior Force: The conspiracy behind the escape of" Goeben "and" Breslau"] , pub Hull, 1996, ISBN 0-85958-635-9
* Admiral Sir A. Berkeley Milne, Bt., "The Flight of "Goeben" and "Breslau": An Episode in Naval History", London, Eveleigh Nash Company, 1921.Notes
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