Download or read book The Beatty Papers Volume II 1916 1927 written by Earl David Beatty Beatty and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Beatty Papers 1916 1927 written by Bryan Ranft and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Cunningham Papers written by Michael Simpson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following America's entry into World War Two, there was a necessity for the Royal Navy to strengthen co-operation with the United States Navy. Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham's brief term as head of the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington was to endear him to the Americans so much so that they proposed him as Allied Naval Commander of the Expeditionary Force which was to invade North Africa in November 1942. In October 1943, Cunningham was summoned to replace the dying Pound as First Sea Lord, a position he held until his retirement from active service in June 1946. In that time he presided over the invasion of Normandy, operations in the Mediterranean, the sinking of the Scharnhorst and Tirpitz, the defeat of the late surge of U-boat activity, the British Pacific Fleet, and the problems of manpower, the futures of the Royal Marines and the Fleer Air Arm, and the conversion of the Royal Navy from its swollen wartime strength to a much-reduced peacetime cadre. Cunningham remained concerned over the future of the country's defence and that of the Royal Navy and he was able to speak in major defence debates in the House of Lords. He died suddenly in 1963 and was buried at sea. Cunningham was one of Britain's great sailors, a worthy successor to Nelson, whom he admired and many of whose qualities he displayed. This second volume of Cunningham's papers covers the period of his life described above. It includes official documents but also many letters to his family and brother-officers that exhibit his feelings, as well as his illuminating diary entries from April 1944 onwards.

Download or read book The Milne Papers written by John Beeler and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-05 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection covers the period February 1862-March 1864, which constituted the final two years and one month that Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne commanded the Royal Navy’s North America and West India Station. Its chief focus is upon Anglo-American relations in the midst of the American Civil War. Whilst the most high-profile cause of tension between the two countries — the Trent Affair — had been resolved in Britain’s favour by January 1862, numerous sources of discord remained. Most turned on American efforts to blockade the so-called Confederacy, efforts that often ran afoul of international law, not to mention British amour-propre. As commander of British naval forces in the theatre, Milne’s decisions and actions could and did have a major impact on the state of affairs between his government and that of the US. While noting in one private exchange with the British ambassador to Washington, Richard, Lord Lyons, that he had been "enjoined to abstain from any act likely to involve Great Britain in hostilities with the United States," Milne added ominously, "yet I am also instructed to guard our Commerce from all illegal interference" and it is plain from his correspondence that both he and the British government were prepared to use force in that undertaking. Thus, between apparently high-handed behaviour by the US Navy and Milne’s and the Palmerston government’s resolve not to be pushed beyond a certain point, the ingredients for a major confrontation between the two countries existed. Yet most of Milne’s efforts were directed toward preventing such a confrontation from occurring. In this endeavour he was joined by Lyons and by the British government. No vital British interest was at stake in the conflict raging between North and South, and thus the nation was unlikely to become directly involved in it unless provoked by rash US actions. Yet there was no shortage of such provocations: the seizure of British merchant vessels bound from one neutral port to another, detaining such ships without first conducting a search of their cargo for evidence of contraband of war, the de facto blockade of British colonial ports, apparent violations of British territorial waters, the seizure of British merchantmen off the neutral port of Matamoros, Mexico, and the use of neutral ports as bases of operations by US warships among them. In responding to these and other sources of dispute between the US and Britain, Milne proved adept at pouring oil on troubled waters, so much so that in a late 1863 letter to Foreign Secretary Lord Russell, Lyons lamented his impending departure from the station: "I am very much grieved at his leaving....No change of admirals could be for the better." This collection centres upon Milne’s private correspondence, especially that between him and Lyons, First Lord of the Admiralty the Duke of Somerset and First Naval Lord Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Grey. It also includes private letters to and from many of Milne’s other professional correspondents and important official correspondence with the Admiralty.

Download or read book The Cunningham Papers written by Andrew Browne Cunningham Cunningham of Hyndhope (Viscount) and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second volume of Cunningham's papers covers the period from his brief term in 1942 as head of the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington and his subsequent appointment as Allied Naval Commander of the Expeditionary Force, through his time as First Sea Lord from October 1943 to his retirement from active service in June 1946. The collection includes official documents but also many letters to his family and brother officers that exhibit his feelings, as well as his illuminating diary entries from April 1944 onwards.

Download or read book The Somerville Papers written by Michael Simpson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir James Somerville (1882-1949) was one of the great influences on the 20th-century navy, both as a commander of fleets and a pioneer of radio and radar. The Admiral's extensive correspondence, diaries and reports are deposited in the Churchill Archives Centre at Cambridge. These edited selections reveal much of the background about major naval operations in the Second World War. The loneliness of high command is clearly revealed in these highly personal documents, almost 500 of which are reproduced in the book. In particular they show Somerville's frequent disagreements with Churchill - a feature common to all senior British commanders during the war.

Download or read book The Rodney Papers written by David Syrett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This, the second of three volumes of the correspondence of George Brydges Rodney, covers the admiral's life from the end of the Seven Years War in 1763 until August 1780. This was perhaps his most eventful, extraordinary and controversial period; from being a successful admiral, a member of Parliament and the Governor of Greenwich Hospital, Rodney plunges into debt and a debtor's exile in France, only to rise again as a victorious admiral and as a national hero. At the end of the Seven Years War Rodney was disappointed and bitter at the failure of the British government to reward him for his prominent part in the capture of Martinique and other French islands in the West Indies. He was made baronet in 1764 and governor of Greenwich Hospital in 1765. He had already been a member of Parliament for Saltash in 1751-4, and sat for Okehampton, Penryn and Northampton consecutively between 1759 and 1774. In 1768 he was involved in one of the most costly elections in eighteenth century parliamentary history. He secured election at Northampton, but his finances were broken. Furthermore, he had begun to gamble heavily and, with a limited income, fell into the hands of moneylenders. In 1770 he attempted to recoup his finances by becoming Commander-in-Chief at Jamaica. Nevertheless in the West Indies until 1774 Rodney managed a successful period of diplomacy with Spain, of intelligence gathering, and of navigational surveying especially off the coast of Florida. Even so, he returned to England deeply in debt and was forced to flee to France to escape his creditors. The war with the American colonies proved to be Rodney's salvation. After war with France had broken out, in 1779 the British government was desperate for an admiral who could fight and win battles. Rodney was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Leeward Islands. His success in battle and skillful conduct of the naval war in the West Indies in 1780 restored Rodney's public standing. The stage was set for his most famous victory, the Battle of the Saintes in 1782, and the restoration of his private finances. George Brydges Rodney had gone through a dramatic change of fortunes. The character of that man is revealed here. This volume will permit re-assessment of this outstanding British admiral of the American War of Independence for a new generation of historians.

Download or read book Neglected Skies written by Angus Britts and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2017-10-15 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neglected Skies uses a reconsideration of the clash between the British Eastern Fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy’s First Air Fleet in the Indian Ocean in April 1942 to draw a larger conclusion about declining British military power in the era. In this book, Angus Britts explores the end of British naval supremacy from an operational perspective. By primarily analyzing the evolution of British naval aviation during the interwar period, as well as the challenges that the peacetime Royal Navy was forced to confront, a picture emerges of a battle fleet that entered the war in September 1939 unready for combat. By examining the development of Japan’s first-strike carrier battle group, the Kido Butai, Britts charts both the rise of Japan as a wartime power as well as the demise of the Royal Navy. Japan, by concentrating their six largest aircraft-carriers into a single strike force with state-of-the-art aircraft, had taken a quantum leap forward in warfighting at sea. Simultaneously, British forces found themselves outmatched in this Eastern theatre and Britts makes the case, by looking at a set of key battles, that this is where the global supremacy of Britain’s naval power ended.

Download or read book The Naval Route to the Abyss written by Frank Nägler and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anglo-German rivalry in battleship building at the beginning of the twentieth century has been blamed by many as a major cause of the First World War, yet ‘the Great Naval Race’ has not received the attention that its notoriety would merit. This volume facilitates an understanding of how the two parties interacted by providing a comprehensive survey of existing scholarship, as well as important primary sources from a range of archives. By offering German documents in their original text and in English translation, this book makes the German role in this conflict accessible to English speakers for the first time.

Download or read book The Naval Route to the Abyss written by Matthew S. Seligmann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intense rivalry in battleship building that took place between Britain and Germany in the run up to the First World War is seen by many as the most totemic of all armaments races. Blamed by numerous commentators during the inter-war years as a major cause of the Great War, it has become emblematic of all that is wrong with international competitions in military strength. Yet, despite this notoriety, ’the Great Naval Race’ has not received the attention that this elevated status would merit and it has never been examined from the viewpoint of both of its participants simultaneously and equally. This volume, which contains a comprehensive survey of the existing scholarship on this topic, both English-language and German, as well as important primary source materials from a range of archives in both Britain and Germany, fills this gap. By putting the actions of the British Admiralty side-by-side with those of its German counterparts, it enables the naval race to be viewed comparatively and thereby facilitates an understanding of how the two parties to this conflict interacted. By offering a comprehensive range of German documents in both their original text and in English translation, the book makes the German role in this conflict accessible to an English speaking audience for the first time. As such, it is an essential volume for any serious student of naval policy in the pre-First World War era.

Download or read book The Collective Naval Defence of Empire 1900 1940 written by Nicholas Tracy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of high policy documents charts Britain’s difficulties in defending the Empire in a time of ’imperial overstretch’. The 20th century saw the rise of several great maritime and military powers and the relative decline of British strength, which created major defence problems for the British Empire. Various solutions were attempted, such as ententes with France and Russia, the settling of differences with the USA and an alliance with Japan. These sufficed until after World War I, when the Empire gained several new territorial responsibilities, all to be defended on a declining economic base. The dominions were encouraged to pay for their own navies, although the Admiralty wished to assume control of them. The increasing threat from Japan made Australia, New Zealand and other Asian colonies nervous and the promised ’main fleet to Singapore’ became less and less likely as the 1930s wore on.

Download or read book The Naval Miscellany written by Susan Rose and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This seventh volume of Naval Miscellany contains documents which range in date from the late thirteenth century to the Korean War. They illustrate the many different ways in which the naval forces of the crown have served the realm. Topics covered include the role of ships in campaigns against Scotland under Edward I and Edward VI, the protection of the Iceland fishery in the days of the Commonwealth government, and the operation of prize courts during the wars against France in the eighteenth century. Moving on to the nineteenth century, the supply of timber to the Royal Navy is examined, while two contributions deal with surveying off the west coast of Africa and another prints a diary kept by a member of the Naval Brigade operating onshore in the Zulu War. The most recent contributions deal with the origins and development of the Royal Australian Navy up to the 1950s. Two more controversial subjects are also included; the first gives more information about the storage of cordite on battle cruisers in 1916 and the battle of Jutland; the second documents the relief of Admiral North from Gibraltar in 1940. There is something here for every enthusiast for naval history and for all students of the relevant periods.

Download or read book Elizabethan Naval Administration written by C.S. Knighton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 828 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first general selection from the substantial body of surviving documents about Elizabeth’s navy. It is a companion to The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I (Vol.157 in the NRS Series), where the apparatus serving both volumes was printed, and it complements the other NRS volumes that deal specifically with the Spanish Armada. This collection concentrates (though not exclusively so) on the early years of Elizabeth’s reign when there was no formal war. From 1558-1585 the navy was involved in a number of small-scale campaigns, pursuit of pirates and occasional shows of force. The documents selected emphasize the financial and administrative processes that supported these operations, such as mustering, victualing, demobilisation, and ship maintenance and repair. The fleet varied in size from about 30 to 45 ships during the period and a vast amount of maintenance and repair was required. The main component of the volume is the massively detailed Navy Treasurer's account for 1562-3 which is followed by and collated with the corresponding Exchequer Account. The documents illustrate just how efficiently the dockyards functioned. They were one of the great early Elizabethan achievements.

Download or read book Britain s War At Sea 1914 1918 written by Greg Kennedy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-20 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Britain, memory of the First World War remains dominated by the trench warfare of the Western Front. Yet, in 1914 when the country declared war, the overwhelming expectation was that Britain’s efforts would be primarily focussed on the sea. As such, this volume is a welcome corrective to what is arguably an historical neglect of the naval aspect of the Great War. As well as reassessing Britain’s war at sea between 1914 and 1918, underlining the oft neglected contribution of the blockade of the Central Powers to the ending of the war, the book also offers a case study in ideas about military planning for ’the next war’. Questions about how next wars are thought about, planned for and conceptualised, and then how reality actually influences that thinking, have long been - and remain - key concerns for governments and military strategists. The essays in this volume show what ’realities’ there are to think about and how significant or not the change from pre-war to war was. This is important not only for historians trying to understand events in the past, but also has lessons for contemporary strategic thinkers who are responsible for planning and preparing for possible future conflict. Britain’s pre-war naval planning provides a perfect example of just how complex and uncertain that process is. Building upon and advancing recent scholarship concerning the role of the navy in the First World War, this collection brings to full light the dominance of the maritime environment, for Britain, in that war and the lessons that has for historians and military planners.

Download or read book The Mediterranean Fleet 1930 1939 written by Paul G. Halpern and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mediterranean Fleet entered the 1930s looking back to the lessons of Jutland and the First World War but also seeking to incorporate new technologies, notably air power. Unfortunately in the depression years of the early 1930s there was a lack of funds to remedy deficiencies. The problem became critical during the Abyssinian crisis of 1935. The crisis wound down by mid-1936 but the respite did not last long. In June 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out and the Mediterranean Fleet was soon involved in evacuations of British and other endangered foreigners from Spanish ports as well as the protection of British flagged merchant ships in the war zone. In addition to the Spanish Civil War there was an increase of tension with Germany in 1938 that culminated with the Czechoslovak crisis in September. The situation of the Mediterranean Fleet and its possible actions had the Munich agreement not been reached are described. The Spanish Civil War ended in 1939 with the victory of the Nationalists and the Mediterranean Fleet was again involved in evacuations. By now the prospect of war with Germany and possibly Italy was quite clear and serious preparations for war continued. The plans for war in the Mediterranean are reproduced in detail.

Download or read book Royal Navy Strategy in the Far East 1919 1939 written by Andrew Field and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-05-20 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the ending of the Great War and the start of the Second World War in 1939, the Royal Navy remained the largest in the world. But with the League of Nations seeming to offer a solution to all future conflicts, a country weary of war and without an obvious enemy there seemed no need for a large battlefleet.

Download or read book British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in Asia 1914 1941 written by A. Best and published by Springer. This book was released on 2002-07-16 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length study of the role played by British Intelligence in influencing policy towards Japan from the decline of the Alliance to the outbreak of the Pacific War. Using many previously classified records it describes how the image of Japan generated by Intelligence during this period led Britain to underestimate Japanese military capabilities in 1941. The book shows how this image was derived from a lack of adequate intelligence resources and racially driven assumptions about Japanese national characteristics.