THE GREAT WAR 6 : So Sleep Easy in your Beds (Admiral Fisher) [Main Title]

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  • Title: THE GREAT WAR 6 : So Sleep Easy in your Beds (Admiral Fisher) [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 1065-6
  • Other titles: SO SLEEP EASY IN YOUR BEDS (Admiral Fisher) [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: The rôle of the Royal Navy in the first six months of the First World War.
  • Description: In 1914 Britain had a tiny Army, but the greatest Navy in the world, with traditions of defending the country and its trade stretching back to Elizabethan times. In 1900 Germany hoped to build a battle-fleet big enough to oppose those elements of the scattered British fleet still in Home Waters. In 1908 the Kaiser ruled out negotiations with Britain on the size of this fleet; the British therefore began to concentrate their fleet at home. Already in 1906 the British launching of HMS Dreadnought had begun the race for naval superiority, and by 1914 Britain had won the race with 24 battleships and battle-cruisers to Germany's 16; while German naval policy had made allies of France and Britain. These big ships needed coaling stations round the world, based on Imperial colonies, and were highly vulnerable. New naval weapons, the mine and the submarine, were unknown factors, and Germany led in both. The only German fleet outside Europe was Admiral Graf von Spee's Asiatic Squadron. The Allies, by capturing the German colonies in the Pacific and their base at Tsingtao, cut off von Spee's coal supplies. In Africa too all the German colonies were rapidly over-run, except for German East Africa where 15,000 Germans kept 130,000 British troops occupied for the rest of the war. The German merchant fleet was pinned in neutral harbours, and neutrals prevented from trading with Germany. This caused some friction between Britain and the USA, but President Woodrow Wilson was determined to keep his country out of actual conflict. Meanwhile soldiers from the Empire crossed to France and Egypt without German interference. On 28th August 1914 the British won a small victory over the Germans at Heligoland Bight. This convinced the Kaiser that his fleet should not be risked at sea against the British, and that submarines should be used instead. On 22nd September three British cruisers were sunk by one U-boat, and on 27th October a battleship sunk by a mine. Meanwhile the cruiser SMS Emden from von Spee's squadron raided in the Indian Ocean until caught up with and sunk by HMAS Sydney. The remainder of the squadron were caught by the British off Coronel but sank two of the British ships in a German victory. Von Spee's force was finally caught by Admiral Sturdee's battle-cruisers at the Battle of the Falkland Islands and almost all sunk. This showed, however, that British gunnery was poor. A month later a British signalling error allowed German battle-cruisers to escape, although defeated, from the Battle of Dogger Bank. The German fleet was strategically paralysed, but British failures in training and equipment had been exposed. "The German Navy had failed, but the British had not entirely succeeded."
  • Alternative Title: SO SLEEP EASY IN YOUR BEDS (Admiral Fisher) [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: IWM 1065-6
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM: PROJECTION PRINT ONLY - NOT FOR PRODUCTION USE
  • Featured Period: 1919-1938
  • Production Date: 1964
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) Imperial War Museum (Production sponsor) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) BBC (Production company) Essex, Tony (Production individual) Watkins, Gordon (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Rollins, Ed (Production individual) Manefield, Tom (Production individual) Pitt, Barrie (Production individual) Jay, Anthony (Production individual) Jarvis, Anne (Production individual) Hipple, Rex (Production individual) Kay Film Laboratories (Production individual) Bigman, Richard (Production individual) Caravel Films (Production individual) McWatt, John (Production individual) Garland, Nicholas1935 (Production individual) Saunders, Robert (Production individual) Read, Bill (Production individual) Keene, Brian (Production individual) Callaway, Ian (Production individual) Bosworth, Pam (Production individual) Carr, Norman (Production individual) Heelas, Peter (Production individual) Toovey, Barry (Production individual) Cave, Julia (Production individual) Broadway, Anne (Production individual) Bryen, Doris (Production individual) Kersey, Jill (Production individual) Davidson, Eric (Production individual) Vigne, Jean (Production individual) Mendelsohn, Robyn (Production individual) Maloney, William (Production individual) Macloughlin, Marya (Production individual) Maros, Basil (Production individual) Virgo, Myrtle (Production individual) Descendre, Anne (Production individual) Edwards, Jeffrey (Production individual) Parry, Audrey (Production individual) Shukman, Harold (Production individual) Kuehl, Jerome (Production individual) Barrie, Alexander (Production individual) Hastings, Max Hugh Macdonald1945-12-28Researcher, BBC TV Great War series, 1963–64; Reporter, Evening Standard, 1965–67; Fellow, US World Press Inst., 1967–68; Roving Correspondent, Evening Standard, 1968–70; Reporter, BBC TV Current Affairs, 1970–73; Editor, Evening Standard Londoner’s Diary, 1976–77; Columnist, Daily Express, 1981–83; contributor, Sunday Times, 1985–86; Editor, The Daily Telegraph, 1986–95; Dir, 1989–95, Editor-in-Chief, 1990–95, The Daily Telegraph plc; Editor, The Evening Standard, 1996–2002; contributor, Daily Mail, 2002–; Contrib. Ed., Financial Times, 2009–13. As War Correspondent, covered Middle East, Indochina, Angola, India-Pakistan, Cyprus, Rhodesia and S Atlantic. Mem., Press Complaints Commn, 1991–92. Churchill Fellow, Westminster Coll., Fulton, Mo, 2011. TV documentaries: Ping-Pong in Peking, 1971; The War about Peace, 1983; Alarums and Exercursions, 1984; Cold Comfort Farm, 1985; The War in Korea (series), 1988; We Are All Green Now, 1990; Spies, in series Cold War, CNN, 1998; Hitler’s Germany, 2000; The Falklands: reluctant heroes, 2002; Winston’s War, 2003; The Falklands Legacy, 2012; The Necessary War, 2014. A Vice Pres., Game Conservancy, 1992–; President: CPRE, 2002–07; Sir Walter Scott Soc. of Edinburgh, 2012–13. Trustee: Nat. Portrait Gall., 1995–2004; Game Conservancy, 2014–. Liddell-Hart Lecture, KCL, 1994; Mountbatten Lecture, Edinburgh Univ., 2004; Leonard Stein Lectures, Oxford Univ., 2009. FRHistS 1988; FRSL 1996. Hon FKC, 2004. Hon. DLitt: Leicester, 1992; Nottingham, 2005. Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards, 1982 (cited 1973 and 1980); What The Papers Say, Granada TV: Reporter of the Year, 1982; Editor of the Year, 1988; Duke of Westminster Medal for military literature, RUSI, 2008; Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, Chicago Pritzker Library, 2012; Friuladria Prize, Gorizia Internat. Hist. Fest., 2014 (Production individual) Liddell Hart, Basil Henry1895-10-311970-01-29 (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Barnett, Correlli Douglas (Production individual) Pitt, Barrie (Production individual) Horne, Alistair1925Trustee of the Imperial War Museum (Production individual) Bonham-Carter, Victor (Production individual) Williams, John (Production individual) Josephs, Wilfred (Production individual) BBC Northern Orchestra (Production individual) Hurst, George (Production individual) Redgrave, Michael (Sir) (Production cast) Richardson, Ralph (Sir) (Production cast) Williams, Emlyn (Production cast) Goring, Marius (Production cast) Luckman, Cyril (Production cast) Shaw, Sebastian (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: Royal Navy 1914-1918 (theme) Battle of Coronel 1914, Pacific Ocean, First World War (event) 12/3(261.2).11 (event) 12/3(261.2).25 (event) 12/3(265).1 [1914 Coronel] (event) 12/3(265).22 (event)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1494 ft; Running time: 45 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 1065-6

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