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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, to Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, Commander-in-Chief, Southern Ireland

[Extract]

June 1st. 1918.

My dear Admiral,

          ...You will note from the enclosed memorandums|1| that a troop escort based on Queenstown steams approximately three legs of a triangle as follows:- 480 miles to the rendezvous not escorting. 600 miles to the French port, escorting. 380 miles back to Queenstown not escorting. In all 860 miles not escorting and 600 miles escorting – 1460 miles in all.

          With the destroyers based on Brest, the legs of the triangle are as follows:- 510 out to the rendezvous escorting empty transports off the coast, 600 miles escorting troops into the coast, 150 miles returning to Brest from St. Nazaire in case the latter port is the port of destination. In all this is 1110 miles escorting and 150 miles not escorting. A total of 1260 miles.

          From this it is evident that destroyers based on Brest can be used with much greater economy of both destroyers and oil.

          We expect before very long to have a very considerable number of torpedo chasers (110 ft.) on this side. Some of these will be based in the Channel and some in the Irish Sea. We hope that these will make it much livelier for the submarine to say the least, not counting the service of the new destroyers which I hope will be arriving soon.

          I expect to be off Monday or Tuesday of next week to visit the mine laying base in the North. A number of very fine mine layers have just arrived and arrangements are being made to go ahead with the barrage. Upon my return I will have to attend the next meeting of the I[n]ter-Allied Naval Council, and shortly after that I hope to be able to get away for a visit to Queenstown.

          However these are stern and anxious times and one can never tell when plans will have to be changed.

Very sincerely yours,            

Source Note: LT, DLC-MSS, William S. Sims Papers, Box 23. Below the close the letter is addressed, “Admiral Sire Lewis Bayly, R.N.,/ Admiralty House,/Queesntown,/Ireland.” The portions of this letter not printed here appear verbatim in another letter that Sims wrote to Bayly on this date. See: Sims to Bayly, 1 June 1918.

Footnote 1: These memoranda are no longer with this document.

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