 Several months after the declaration of war in August 1914, wear on the British ships reached the point where repairs could not be postponed and several ships were withdrawn from the Grand Fleet.Three battlecruisers had been sent to South America and the brand new super-dreadnought had been lost to a mine; , another super-dreadnought, was undergoing repairs.German ships used three main codes for which codebooks were issued to their ships and copies had been obtained from sunk or captured vessels unbeknown to the Germans.