(B.)—Development of the Admiralty War Staff.
1. Two years have passed since this body was instituted, and both the progress made in the Admiralty and the acceptance of the idea by the Fleet justify a further advance.
Three main questions have arisen:—
(1.) The creation of a Trade Division.
(2.) The preparation of Manuals and direction of training generally.
(3.) The detachment of the Mobilisation Department from the War Staff.
I have come to the conclusion that the first essential is the creation of a War Training Division, under a Director, and equal in importance to the Operation and Intelligence Divisions. This division will be charged with the theoretical direction and co-ordination of all tactical and strategical exercises and instruction whether in the Fleets or at the Colleges. It will, of course, have nothing to do with the education which fits a cadet to become a naval officer, or with the training of Specialists of any kind, or with the training which fits a boy to become an able seaman. All this is in the Administrative sphere and belongs to the Second Sea Lord. The War Training Division is concerned only with what the naval officer learns about war, what tactical use the gunnery and torpedo experts make of their weapons, and what exercises are prescribed for the Fleets and Squadrons.
2. Nothing in the work of this division will relieve Flag Officers from their present duties and responsibilities in the training of their commands. But henceforward they will work on regularly explored and considered lines, and within limits which are the result of collective thought and experience; and henceforward continuity and uniformity will be preserved by a central direction and co-ordination, which gathers up and authorises the established conclusions, without restricting reasonable initiative. It is no answer to the advocates of such a Division, to say that war training is given by the Commanders-in-Chief at sea, and that war training is in the department of the First Sea Lord. The Commanders-in-Chief change repeatedly, and with them their personal instruction changes, very often without leaving a trace behind. The First Sea Lord cannot possibly prepare manuals of tactical and strategic instruction. This work can only be done by a regular department permanently at work.
3. I propose, therefore, in principle to constitute without delay a War Training Division of the Admiralty War Staff. This division will be organised under a Director (D.T.D., short for D.N.T.D.) in three sections, denominated respectively X, Y, and Z.
The following will be the main distribution of duties:—
(X). Manuals and Exercises.
Preparation and revision of all Training Books and Manuals (other than technical or administrative) including Signal Books in their tactical aspect.
Preparation of manœuvre schemes.
Report and criticism of manœuvres.
Record and criticism of tactical and strategic exercises.
Advice upon the initiation of experiments (other than technical or administrative), upon the organisation of units, upon War Establishments, and upon the tactical aspects of New Construction.
Distribution of War Staff publications.
(Y). War Colleges: Examinations and Courses.
Supervision of War Colleges and all war educational arrangements.
Examinations and courses in tactical and strategic subjects.
Libraries.
(Z). Historical.
The staff of this new division will be formed in part by reductions from the Mobilisation and Operations Divisions (some of which latter’s work is taken over); and in part by an addition to the Estimates for which Treasury sanction will be required. As a set-off against this there is the economy of reducing an Admiral by bringing the War College to Greenwich.
Nine or ten officers (some of whom can be retired officers) should suffice with the necessary clerks and writers.
Let me have proposals on these lines with estimates.
4. The Operations Division will have been to some extent relieved by the formation of the War Training Division. It must, however, be augmented by the addition of a new section (the Manning Department) dealing with War Mobilisation, which will be explained later; and, secondly, by the new Trade Defence Section. This latter is clearly only a part of the Operations sphere. It is grouped with Operations because the defence of trade is essentially an offensive operation against the enemy’s armed ships.
The Operations Division will, therefore, be organised in four sections—(a), (b), (c), and (d)—as follows:—
Attention is drawn to the minute of the Secretary on the proposed issue of charts and returns to the Trade Division. This necessity is not proved. The staff of the new section must be reconsidered accordingly.
5. The Intelligence Division requires little change, but should, in principle, be divided into three sections, as follows:—
Section (l) is to be charged with the new duty of preparing war plans for the hostile countries separately or in combination against us alone or allied, showing both—
(1.) What they will probably do against us.
(2.) What would be the worst they could do against us. From time to time war games will be played between the Intelligence and Operations Divisions.
Section (m) will likewise report on the needs and dangers of the friendly countries and study the measures best adapted to strengthen them in peace and war.
These new duties open to the Intelligence Division a large creative and imaginative sphere, and offer opportunities for the highest tactical and strategic ability.
6. The Mobilisation Division is not well named. Mobilisation is a small and infrequent part of the duties of this division. Mobilisation is, indeed, a comparatively unimportant feature in our naval system, all the more powerful vessels being constantly in full commission, and the Second Fleet requiring only to be ‘completed.’ The day-to-day provision of complements for ships commissioning, and the intricate arrangements connected therewith, constitute the staple of the work of this Department.
Further, its duties are almost entirely administrative, and administration is foreign to the sphere of the War Staff.
I therefore propose that the Mobilisation Division shall be separated from the War Staff, and shall be called the ‘Manning Department.’
A section of the Manning Department will, however, be formed to deal with War Mobilisation, and this section will work under the D.M.D., but in close association with the new Training Division of the War Staff.
Thus the whole administrative work connected with the manning of the Fleet will be left intact under the Second Sea Lord, while, at the same time, the War Staff will have included in its circle everything necessary to its reflective and organising duties. I await definite proposals to give effect to this.
7. It is important that every officer serving in the War Staff should look for recommendation for advancement from the C.O.S. I propose, therefore, that C.O.S. should be allotted a proportion of recommendations as if he were a Flag Officer in independent command, and should make them to my Naval Secretary in the usual way for the half-yearly promotions. C.O.S. will also initiate all recommendations for War Staff appointments and appointments to the Naval War College, and all lists of officers for war courses of all kinds will be proposed by him and submitted through the First Sea Lord to me.
The record books in the Private Office will be sufficient for general purposes, but a Staff Register should be formed for recording the War Staff capacities and services of officers whether at the Admiralty, the Colleges, or afloat, and a copy of this register will be kept written up to date in the Private Office.
It may be found necessary to add an officer to the personal staff of C.O.S.
8. I attach a skeleton chart of the new organisation.
9. I add the following general observations. The divisions of the War Staff though separate are parts of one united organisation. Each discharges its own functions in association with the others. They are not to do each other’s work. The Operations Division is not, for instance, to collect its own data. It is to accept them from the Intelligence Division. The Training Division is to accept the conclusions of the Operations Division and propose the Fleet for their execution. But there must also be unity and free intercourse between the three Directors. In order to promote and ensure this, C.O.S. will be enjoined to hold every month a formal Staff meeting with his three Directors and any of their subordinates who may be required for the discussion of Staff questions, and the agenda and minutes of these meetings will be submitted through the First Sea Lord to the First Lord.