Fleet in Being

The presence of a strong force, even though inferior, near the scene of operations, will produce a momentous effect upon the enemy's action.

Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, the great U.S. writer on sea power, gave this definition of a popular theory which he rejected--the theory of the Fleet in Being.

Admiral Mahan's skepticism notwithstanding, the principle of the Fleet in Being served the Germans well in World War I, and is powerfully at work against the U.S. as well as Britain in World War II. In this case the Fleet in Being is again a German fleet, gathered in a fjord near Trondheim, Norway. The mere threat of that fleet restricts the full use of perhaps four times its own strength in British and U.S. warships.

Last week the Stockholm Nya Dagligt Allehanda reported that the German fleet in being included three capital ships and two aircraft carriers. Responsible British and U.S. authorities dismissed this particular report as a possible Axis plant. But they did not dismiss the threat, nor did they doubt that the Germans have a sizable naval force tucked away in Norway's fjords.

That fleet might at any moment try to break out to the open sea and raid in force on Allied convoys. It might serve as a grand bait to lure the British Home Fleet (which now includes U.S. units) into a massed submarine trap. The German Navy's new commander, Admiral Karl Doenitz, conferred last week with the Italian Naval Chief of Staff, Admiral Arturo Riccardi -- a reminder that the fleet in Norway could also be used to draw Allied strength out of the Mediterranean, should worsening of the Axis position in Tunisia call for escape by sea.

At most, the German fleet in Norway consists of the 35,000-ton battleship Tirpitz, sister of the Bismarck, which was destroyed on its long dash out of Bergen two years ago; the 26,000-ton Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, repaired after their successful run through the Channel last year; the pocket battleships Admiral Scheer and Luetzow; two 10,000-ton cruisers of the Hipper class; and perhaps ten destroyers.

If the Trondheim fleet actually includes two carriers, they are probably converted merchantmen (the Graf Zeppelin and Deutschland are not thought to be ready). The British feel that they could lick such a force. But the burden of keeping enough ships at hand to counter the many moves open to this fleet in being has a "momentous effect" on Allied strategy.

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