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Admiral William Snowden Sims, LL.D. '19, Commander-in-Chief of the American Naval Forces in European Waters during the participation of the United States in the World War, will speak next Tuesday evening, January 24, in the Living Room of the Union. His address will be on the naval operations during the war, and on the nature of future naval warfare. The meeting will be open to members of the Union.
Admiral Sims was sent to London within one week of the United States' declaration of war in April, 1917, and remained in England for the duration of the war. At the signing of the armistice the forces operating under his command in European waters included nearly 400 ships of various types, more than 5,000 officers, and 74,000 men, or a considerable larger force than the entire United States Navy before the war.
The moment of Admiral Sims' arrival in London was one of the most critical periods of the war, when destruction of trade by the U-boats was at its height. Upon reaching England, Admiral Sims, in conjunction with the foremost men in the British Navy, conceived and executed the plan of convoying all merchantmen through the submarine zones--an extremely difficult task, but one which successfully checked the submarine menace.
One of Admiral Sims greatest contributions to the conduct of the war was the construction of the immense American mine field which stretched from Scotland to Norway.
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