Page 318 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

318 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

on Dunkerque and Calais. Each should be blocked by the sinking of two to three ob-
solete battleships or cruisers in a way that hampered salvage. Cranes, docks and locks
should be destroyed by demolition. The preparations should take place without delay.
A detailed plan should be developed together with Keyes. At the same these three ports
and Havre and St. Nazaire should be prepared defended a German blocking attempt
with block ships masked as merchant ships that could take place linked to a German
offensive under cover of a battle-cruiser raid. The French should be notified of the risk.
Fuller’s superior, the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Sydney Fremantle,
supported him and noted that other naval authorities, the British Army and both French
armed services needed to be involved. However, the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral
Rosslyn Wemyss disagreed. He noted on 16 February that no preparations or other steps
should be taken at that time. 4

Alexander Gibb
Early 1918 the civil engineer Alexander Gibb
had been headhunted by his mentor, Eric Ged-
des. Geddes was a competent former railway
manager who had previously been successfully
employed to create an effective logistic rear for
the British Army in France. The Prime Minister,
David Lloyd George, had thereafter moved him
to the Admiralty to reorganise ship construction,
and soon the self-conscious manager had been
promoted to the War Cabinet as First Lord of
the Admiralty with authority to control the ad-
mirals.
It was the second time that Geddes used
Gibb. He had earlier hired Gibb in France to
prepare to bring the German controlled Belgian
ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend back into use
Sir Alexander Gibb – National Portrait Gallery
after their expected capture in the later summer
1917 offensive. At that time the engineer had just completed managing the construction
of the navy’s new main base at Rosyth. To get formal authority for the job Gibb had been
given the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the army Royal Engineers.
As the Flanders ports had not been captured, there was no work for Gibb in France,
and Geddes brought his protégé back to London and placed him in the new post as
”Civil Engineer-in-Chief” of the Admiralty. Gibbs main mission became the ambitious
”Admiralty M.N. Scheme”. He was to manage the construction of a permanent barrier
across the Dover Strait from Folkestone to Cap Gris Nez centred on 8 to 12 strong point
towers resting on concrete caissons. The towers would become connected by new and

4 TNA, ADM 137/710, Plans Division ”Question of Blocking French Channel Ports in Event of Retirement of
Allied Left Flank” and “Question of Protecting the French Channel Ports from Enemy Blocking Operations”
of 10-2-1918.