This book marks the first comprehensive history of Britain's naval bulwark, the Home Fleet. It illuminates the vital role that fleet played in preserving Britain as a base of operations against Hitler. We see portrayed the hard days of blockade, patrol, and battle that encompassed the Home Fleet's war. And we see how that war was made harder by weaknesses at the Admiralty and by the damaging interference of the Minister of Defence - Winston Churchill.
Royal Navy Uniforms 1930-1945 uses over 400 illustrations - both period images and new colour photographs of original items - to show the clothing of both Officers and Ratings in World War II and during the years leading up to it, when Naval uniforms underwent significant modernization. The illustrations are supported by detailed text describing the development and use of Naval clothing of the time. Its contents include Officers' clothing and effects; Class 1 and III Ratings' clothing and effects; seamens' clothing and effects; battledress and tropical clothing; miscellaneous clothing, personal effects and substantive and non-substantive insignia. This is the first book to offer a detailed study of Royal Navy clothing in the 1930s and World War II and will be a vital resource for collectors, historians and enthusiasts. All of the major uniform types are superbly illustrated with 470 colour and black & white studio images and period photographs.
The X stood for experimental, but it might equally have meant extraordinary, exotic or extravagant, as this giant submarine attracted superlatives the worlds largest, most heavily armed, and deepest diving submersible of the day. X.1 was a controversial project conceived behind the backs of the politicians, and would remain an unwanted stepchild. As British diplomats at the Washington naval conference were trying to outlaw the use of submarines as commerce raiders, the Admiralty was designing and building the worlds most powerful corsair submarine, to destroy single-handed entire convoys of merchant ships. This book explores the historical background to submarine cruisers, the personalities involved in X.1s design and service, the spy drama surrounding her launch, the treason trial of a leading RN submarine commander, the ships chequered career, and her political demise. Despite real technical successes, she would finally fall foul of black propaganda, aimed at persuading foreign naval powers that the cruiser submarine did not work; even today uninformed opinion repeats the myth of her failure. However, it was completely ignored by other navies, who went on building submarine cruisers of their own, some larger than, but none so sophisticated as, X.1. The book analyses in detail the submarine cruisers built by the US Navy, the French and the Japanese, plus the projected German copy of X.1, the Type XI U-Boat, paying belated tribute to the real importance of the mysterious X.1.
France declared war upon the British in 1793. The burden to conduct a long conflict proved heavy for that island nation. Poverty increased. Liberties and freedoms were sometimes taken away. Thousands of men had to leave their families, and disease, desertion and death meant that many never returned. At first the Royal Navy barely had enough warships to cope, but eight years later she had more than enough. By that time a threat of invasion towards Ireland prompted Parliament to enact a new nation, christened The United Kingdom of Great Britain. As such, 1800 became the final year of the old Kingdom of Great Britain. As she passed away, many of her men and women might have wondered as to what had made her navy a true Neptune. What had assisted the slow birth of a naval 'superpower'? This book seeks to answer that very question.
The First World War was the first real time in 100 years that the reputation of the British Royal Navy was put on the line in defence of the country.This book tells of the creation and development of the Grand Fleet under the drive of the energetic and charismatic admiral of the fleet ‘Jacky’ Fisher, who modernised the navy with the introduction of the revolutionary Dreadnought battleship. This type of vessel in particular made other nations’ battleships obsolete, created a powerful weapon for the defence of Empire and trade, and finally defeated the designs of Kaiser William III. Using unique technical drawings rendered by the author, the history of the Grand Fleet is told in accessible narrative style, with outstanding technical detail which will satisfy naval enthusiasts.
A fascinating study of midshipmen and other "young gentlemen", outlining their social background, career paths and what life was like for them. Officer recruits - "young gentlemen" - entered the Royal Navy with dreams of fame, fortune and glory, but many found promotion difficult, with a large number unable to progress beyond lieutenant. Recent scholarship has argued thatduring the wars of 1793-1815 there was greater social diversity among naval officers, with promotion increasingly related to professional competence. This book, based on extensive original research, examines the social backgroundof around 4,000 "young gentlemen" a term which includes midshipmen and various other categories, including captains' servants, volunteers and masters' mates. It concludes that in fact high birth became an increasingly important factor in the selection of officer candidates, and that as the Admiralty grip on the appointment and management of officer aspirants increased, especially after 1815, aristocratic presence in the ranks of young officers increased significantly as a result of deliberate Admiralty policy. The book also discusses the assertion that the increase in elite sons led to a dramatic increase in cases of indiscipline and insubordination, concluding that although therewas a marked increase in courts martial for insubordination during and after the French Wars there is no evidence that such cases related more to the elites than to young aspirants in general". The book includes many case study examples of midshipmen and other "young gentlemen", illustrating what life was like for them and how they themselves viewed their situation. S.A. CAVELL is a graduate of the Queensland University of Technology and Louisiana State University and completed her doctorate at the University of Exeter.