Only a month before the end of the First World War the German High Seas Fleet was assembled for battle in the Schillig Roads. The crews, fearing that a major naval operation would be both suicidal and fatal to the Armistice negotiations then being conducted, refused to sail. Unable to quell the mutinies, Admiral Hipper had to order the dispersal of the Fleet to various north German ports. At Kiel the revolution spread from the ships to the dockyard workers and sailors at the base, and thence all over Germany Although the revolution ultimately failed, the collapse of power in the Navy was never properly restored and the Fleet, after its internment by the Allies at Scapa Flow, was scuttled by its own officers.

David Woodward studies closely the causes of the sailors' discontents — the poor living conditions, lack of prospects, the command of largely inexperienced officers — to show how their morale was undermined to the point of mutiny. The consequences were, as he points out, far-reaching and Hitler was able to make political capital out of the episode with the claim that 'Germany had been stabbed in the back'. His account is based on extensive research in contemporary German archives and on the private papers and descriptions of some of the men who were involved.

Jacket design by Michael Caple

The author

David Woodward left University College School at 17 to start his journalistic career as a telephonist for the Press Association. He became Assistant Correspondent for Reuters in Geneva, then Correspondent on the News Chronicle, subsequently Naval War Correspondent with a 'beat' stretching from West Africa to Chunking. From 1944 to the end of the war he was War Correspondent for the combined news service of The Times and Manchester Guardian. Since then he has worked for the Public Information Department of UNESCO; as First Secretary (Information) in the British Legation, Tel Aviv, and finally as a Producer in the Features Department of BBC Radio until his retirement in 1969.

List of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapters I to XII

Index

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