Battenberg's Naval Intelligence service in the early 1900s shows how informal networks could feed a professional institution. He wrote to relatives across Europe's royal houses about their navies' new destroyers, cruisers, and construction programmes. The resulting reports prompted Fisher to ask where the stream of information originated. Family correspondence had given Battenberg access to details that the intelligence service found valuable.
Notable Point · 1:45:15-1:46:46
How Battenberg turned royal correspondence into naval intelligence
Battenberg used relatives in European royal houses as informal sources on foreign destroyers, cruisers, and naval construction.