CHAPTER XII
THE NAVY FIGHTING ON THE LAND
Besides transporting American troops, the Navy, in one detail of its work, actually participated in warfare on the Western Front. Though this feature of our effort has nothing to do with the main subject, the defeat of the submarine, yet any account of the American navy in the war which overlooks the achievements of our naval batteries on land would certainly be incomplete. The use of naval guns in war operations was not unprecedented; the British used such guns in the Boer War, particularly at Ladysmith and Spion Kop; and there were occasions in which such armament rendered excellent service in the Boxer Rebellion. All through the Great War, British, French, and Germans frequently reinforced their army artillery with naval batteries. But, compared with the American naval guns which under the command of Rear- Admiral Charles P. Plunkett performed such telling deeds against the retreating Germans in the final phases of the conflict, all previous equipment of naval guns on shore had been less efficient in one highly important respect.
For the larger part of the war, the Germans had had a great gun stationed in Belgium bombarding Dunkirk. The original purpose in sending American naval batteries to France was to silence this gun. The proposal was made in November, 1917; but, rapidly as the preparations progressed, the situation had entirely changed before our five fourteen-inch guns were ready to leave for France. In the spring of 1918 the Germans began the great drive which nearly took them to the Channel ports; and under the conditions which prevailed in that area it was impossible to send our guns to the Belgian coast. Meanwhile, the enemy had stationed a gun, having a range of nearly seventy-five miles, in the forest of Compigne; the shells from this weapon, con-
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