Читать книгу Our Navy at war онлайн

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To prevent information from reaching Germans, we stopped publishing the movements of naval vessels and the daily orders to naval officers. Since the outbreak of the war in Europe we had maintained along the coast a number of naval vessels to enforce neutrality regulations. Now this force was increased, and a virtual coast patrol established.

That night I sent out the order, "Alnav availability," which directed all vessels to report their actual readiness for war.

The President kept in close touch with all our preparations. Not satisfied with general reports, he wanted to know just what was being done. Monday afternoon, while I was hard at work with officers on plans and orders, Mr. Wilson suddenly appeared in my office. Glad as I was to see him, his visit was a surprise. Documents concerning a number of the matters we were working upon were on my desk, and in a few moments I reviewed in detail the plans, told him what we had done and were doing, and asked his directions as to certain operations.