Franco-British naval convention

On 6 August 1914 in London France and Great Britain concluded a naval convention setting out the rules of cooperation between the two fleets in wartime. The most important provision concerned the Mediterranean: the general direction of naval operations in that area was entrusted to France, and the French admiral Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère became commander of the combined Allied forces.

Dividing the seas

The convention confirmed the division of tasks agreed before the war. Since 1912 the main forces of the French fleet had been concentrated in the Mediterranean, while the British Royal Navy concentrated on the North Sea and the English Channel, where it also took on the defence of France’s northern coasts. British ships remaining in the Mediterranean were from now on to operate under general French direction.

In the Mediterranean the Allies were opposed by the Austro-Hungarian fleet, based in the Adriatic, and by the German Mediterranean Division with the battlecruiser Goeben and the cruiser Breslau. For France the most important thing was the safety of the troop transports from North Africa that were to reinforce the army on the Western Front.

The first weeks

The cooperation got off to a bad start. Before the convention came fully into force, the German ships Goeben and Breslau slipped past the British squadrons and on 10 August reached the Dardanelles. This escape had serious political consequences, and British commanders, including Rear-Admiral Ernest Troubridge, had to answer for it before a court martial. The combined forces under Boué de Lapeyrère then concentrated on blockading the Austro-Hungarian fleet in the Adriatic. On 16 August, off the coast of Montenegro, they sank the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Zenta.

Significance

The convention of 6 August was the first formal military agreement between France and Great Britain in this war. It showed that the allies were sharing responsibility for particular waters rather than acting separately. After Italy entered the war in 1915, the rules of cooperation in the Mediterranean were changed in a new convention that also covered the Italian fleet.