““Vice-Admiral Scheer’s own confidential report to Wilhelm II. Here he made the tendentious, and highly questionable, assertion that “even the most successful outcome of a fleet action will not force England to make peace”, and he advised the All Highest that “a victorious end of the war within a reasonable time can only be achieved through the defeat of British economic life – that is, by using the U-boats against British trade.”59””
![“My comments are directed at the system which was responsible for their poor performance, not at the officers concerned. I do not recall ever having taken part [before the war] in an exercise that was other than a set ritual, which, while not without value, certainly did little to prepare us for…” quote by Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/12c/gilbert-andrew-hugh-gordon-156_poor-performance_my-comments-are-directed-at-the-system-w_497405.jpg)
