Bacon's experimental howitzer brings him back to war

Bacon initially returned in 1914 as a colonel and deputy commandant of the Royal Marine Artillery because he had developed a howitzer that Winston Churchill valued even though the Army had not bought it. He was preparing to take the weapon to the Dardanelles when Horace Hood's transfer created a vacancy in the Dover Patrol. The Admiralty selected Bacon for that demanding coastal command. Sir Henry Oliver later remembered him as exceptionally energetic and tireless, even sleeping in his office and going afloat immediately when trouble arose. Oliver also judged that intrigue and political intervention had ended Bacon's command unfairly. Personnel politics could decide who led a strategically important theater.