Internal reform was already happening, but senior admirals did not recognize the political problem because they still enjoyed influence at court, in newspapers, and in elite society. Army staff papers were nevertheless supplying the vocabulary that ministers and legislators increasingly used, so personal prestige masked an institutional loss of ground. Louis of Battenberg had built a first-rate human-intelligence network on Germany and Austria, yet his strength lay in background work rather than public political explanation. Fisher and Beresford's rival factions could then use Battenberg's name as a pretext in their own contest for the First Sea Lordship. Operational and intelligence competence could therefore coexist with weak domestic strategic communication.
Notable Point · 44:21-46:36
Why capable admirals missed the political shift
Senior admirals still had court and press influence, but failed to notice that the army's regular briefings were defining the political language of strategy.