Allied commanders Lieutenant General Jacques of Belgium, General Diaz of Italy, Marshall Foch of France, General Pershing of the United States, and Admiral Beatty of Great Britain at the dedication of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, November 1, 1921.

See Liberty Memorial, Kansas City: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I, May 14, 2013.

Jacques, Gen. Diaz, Marshall Foch, Gen. Pershing, Admiral Beatty

Kansas City, Mo. Nov. 1, 1921

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David Beatty served as Naval Secretary to Winston Churchill who appointed him to command the Battle-Cruiser Squadron in 1913.

On August 28, 1914, a British fleet under Tyrwhitt and Roger Keyes led a raid on the German naval base at Helgoland with 2 light cruisers, 25 destroyers and 3 submarines. German naval forces were aware of the plan, and the British were likely saved from heavy losses only by the arrival of three battle cruisers under Beatty. With the addition of Beatty's ships, the British sank three German light cruisers, Köln, Mainz, and Ariadne, heavily damaged three others, and sank a destroyer. The British light cruiser Arethusa was badly damaged but towed home.

On January 23, 1915, the British decoded a German wireless message that a battle squadron of the German Fleet would cruise into the North Sea. Beatty commanded the British force that sailed to intercept them. Their encounter in the Battle of Dogger Bank saw the loss of the German battleship Blücher with most of its crew with no British ships lost and few casualties.

With his small squadron acting as a lure to draw the German fleet towards the greater British fleet, Beatty was the first to encounter the German Scouting Forces in the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916. He lost two battle cruisers before the German High Seas Fleet and British Grand Fleet joined the war's largest sea battle.

Beatty replaced Sir John Jellicoe in late 1916 as Commander of the Fleet.

National Affiliation: Great Britain