Navy List January 1919 Volume 1

Volume 1 of 5 This is a significant work of reference in that it provides the personnel state of the Royal Navy as at the end of the Great War; the list is corrected to 18th December 1918. And not just the personnel are featured, for here are listed HM ships of all types including merchant vessels commissioned as HM Ships. With most of the ships listed type, armament, displacement and propulsion details are given, e.g, LION. Battle Cruiser. 26,350 tons. 70,000 HP. 8-13.5 inch, 16-4 inch, 4-3pdr. This publication begins with the alphabetical list of the officers on the active list of the Royal Navy and the Royal marines showing their rank, seniority and of the retired and emergency officers serving, where serving and this includes retired and emergency officers. If the name is preceded by a number, this identifies the ship or shore station in which he is serving (they are all numbered). This is followed by a list showing officers according to seniority. Other lists are of Royal Marines; ships/shore stations with their identifying number and showing officers serving with them; RNR, RNVR, Dominion naval officers; retired RN, RM and RNR officers; invalided officers and much more. There is a section for Honours and Awards including VC (shown after the Orders of Knighthood, the DSO and Royal Red Cross), DSC, DSM and foreign awards. At the end there is a section on Dress Regulations for officers of the Fleet and even a list of lantern slides available in local libraries. The description given above by no means exhausts the information available.

The sea shaped the course and conduct of World War II, from the first moments of the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, to the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. The impact could be felt far beyond the shoreline, as the arms and armies carried across the oceans were ultimately destined to wage war ashore. Populations and industries depended on the raw materials and supplies in a war that increasingly became a contest of national will and economic might. Ultimately, it was the war at sea that linked numerous regional conflicts and theaters of operation into a global war. As the war grew in complexity and covered an increasingly larger geographical area, the organization of the maritime effort and the impact it had on the formulation of national strategy also evolved. This volume illustrates the impact of naval operations on the Second World War by highlighting topics previously neglected in the scholarship. In doing so, it provides new insights into political, strategic, administrative, and operational aspects of the maritime dimension of the war.

The book commences with a discussion of the policy issues as to whether Australia needed submarines and then the decision to buy AE1 and AE2. It then goes through their coming to Australia, the tragic loss of AE1 in New Guinea on 14 September 1914 and the bravery and daring of the AE2 crew in penetrating the Dardanelles on Anzac Day in 1915. The history then goes on to deal with the J-Class submarines that came to Australia in 1919, the first Oxley and Otway (which went to the RN in the Depression in 1931), and the fact that in World War Two, Australia had no submarines except for the Dutch K IX whose career ended with a battery explosion in 1944. Then the period of the RN Fourth Submarine Squadron based in Sydney is dealt with, including some of the happy memories of those who served in it. The book sets out the story of the new RAN submarine arm from 1963. When Oxley (S 57) arrived in Neutral Bay, Sydney, in 1967, so began the new Australian era of submarines. The basic dates of the O Boats are outlined, along with the building and basic dates of the Collins class. The book deals with some of the issues about the intelligence patrols, about the Future Submarine and also records the numerous plaques, services, memorials and museums in Australia and overseas dedicated to Australian submarines and Australian and NZ submariners. There is a detailed chapter on special submarine craft such as the X-Craft in which some of the submarine heroes like Max Sheean, Henty Henty-Creer and Ken Briggs served, and in some cases died. The appendices to this book are numerous and detailed by a strong team from around the world, including Garry Mellon, Barrie Downer and Pat Heffernan. Numerous photographs have been collected and included in the book to fit in with the text from Darren Brown and others. The appendices also list all Australian submariners who have qualified and served up until mid-2014, including those who have died.

Clash of Fleets is an operational history that records every naval engagement fought between major surface warships during World War I. Much more than a catalog of combat facts, Clash of Fleets explores why battles occurred; how the different navies fought; and how combat advanced doctrine and affected the development and application of technology. The result is a holistic overview of the war at sea as it affected all nations and all theaters of war. A work of this scope is unprecedented. Organized into seven chapters, the authors first introduce the technology, weapons, ships, and the doctrine that governed naval warfare in 1914. The next five chapters explore each year of the war and are subdivided into sections corresponding to major geographic areas. This arrangement allows the massive sweep of action to be presented in a structured and easy to follow format that includes engagements fought by the Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Ottoman, and Russian Navies in the Adriatic, Aegean, Baltic, Black, Mediterranean, and North Seas as well as the Atlantic, India, and Pacific Oceans. The role of surface combat in the Great War is analyzed and these actions are compared to major naval wars before and after. In addition to providing detailed descriptions of actions in their historical perspectives, O’Hara and Heinz advance several themes, including the notion that World War I was a war of navies as much as a war of armies. They explain that surface combat had a major impact on all aspects of the naval war and on the course of the war in general. Finally, Clash of Fleets illustrates that systems developed in peace do not always work as expected in war, that some are not used as anticipated, and that others became unexpectedly important. There is much for today’s naval professional to consider in the naval conflict that occurred a century ago.