British home army in the First World War bridge between Tilbury and Gravesend. There were fears that a German fleet protected by mines and submarines could land a 100,000-strong force before the British Grand Fleet could steam the south from its base at Scapa Flow. To counter this threat, the Admiralty redeployed pre-dreadnought battleships and submarines closer to vulnerable ports, expanded the coastwatch and increased patrolling of the North Sea. In October, Churchill responded to Kitchener's call for the Royal Navy to take more specific precautions against invasion by insisting that the role of the Grand Fleet was to eliminate an invader's covering fleet rather than defeat the
Romanian Black Sea Fleet during World War I sea-going gunboat "Grivița" and the Romanian Navy's sole proper minelayer, "Alexandru cel Bun". The Black Sea Fleet was neglected for a long-time by the Romanian Command. Its warships were all built between 1880 and 1888, while the Romanian Danube Flotilla was equipped with modern vessels built as late as 1908. The protected cruiser "Elsiabeta" was converted to an anti-aircraft cruiser after the start of the war, her four 120 mm main guns being landed and her four 75 mm secondary guns being modified for anti-aircraft fire. She was also armed with four machine guns and four 356 mm (12 inch)