From riverine operations in the American Civil War and China in the 1860s to the major fleet engagements of the World Wars, plus more recent naval actions in the Falklands/Malvenas War and Gulf War, Lindberg and Todd methodically show how geography has shaped the strategy, tactics, and tools of naval warfare. Alfred T. Mahan was perhaps the first naval professional to recognize and acknowledge fully the influence of geography on navies and naval warfare. Many of his principles of seapower were inherently geographical and influenced both what kind of naval force a state would possess and how it would be utilized. In the time that has passed since Mahan made his observations, naval warfare and navies have experienced major technological changes, yet geographical factors continue to exert their influence on how navies fight, how they are structured, and the design of the ships that they deploy.

After providing a comprehensive review of geostrategic theory and its application to naval warfare, the book is organized by major operational environments in which such warfare occurs--the high seas, littoral regions, and inland waterways. Lindberg and Todd illustrate how such geographical factors as distance, location, surface, and subsurface conditions influence naval operations, including fleet-to-fleet engagements, amphibious assault, coastal defense, logistical support, and riverine actions. A separate chapter takes an in-depth look at the ways in which geography influences navies themselves with issues such as primary mission type, force structure development, and ship design. Through the use of historical case studies, this volume applies long held geographical concepts to fundamental naval theories and practices to illustrate just how pervasive geography's influence has been during the past 140 years.

The Careers of Six Famous Royal Navy officers
The age of sail-particularly as it related to the Royal Navy-has, perhaps been justifiably, dominated by the great Nelson. His victory at Trafalgar meant that Britannia effectively did rule the waves and the threat of British sea power meant that the Royal Navy did not have to fight a major battle for a hundred years whilst the British Empire prospered. The often quoted and lauded 'Nelson Tradition, ' all but implies he originated it. In fact Nelson was part of an established tradition of great British seamanship that began before him, accompanied and supported him and survived his immediate passing. This book outlines the lives of some of the finest and most successful of those men-all famous in their own right and all remarkable despite their eclipse by the master, Nelson himself. The sea battles of Hawke, Jervis, Howe, Saumarez, Rodney and Pellew are expertly described here by Mahan-one of the finest historians of this subject-making it an essential read for all those interested in the exploits of the Royal Navy during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

On July 4, 1991, the Arleigh Burke class of destroyers, the most powerful surface combatants in naval history, was commissioned. It was the culmination of a century-and-a-half evolution of the destroyer—an evolution captured in this vivid and timely history of the world's most popular warship. Destroyers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact tells the story of one of the most-recent, most-rapidly evolving additions to the world's navies. Coverage ranges from the 1882 launch of the first destroyer, through the nonstop technical and strategic innovations of the world war eras, to the current high watermarks of destroyer design such as the Arleigh Burke class (named for the navy's most-famous destroyer squadron combat commander). With its ship-by-ship analysis, this masterful volume shows how destroyers have continually met the challenge of protecting naval and land operations from ever more dangerous attacks. The book also captures the flavor of shipboard life for officers and crew and looks at the crucial role of the destroyer as a standard-bearing status symbol of naval might and political intention.

They were the deadliest ships of World War II--nine German commerce raiders disguised as peaceful cargo ships, flying the flags of neutral and allied nations. In reality, these heavily armed warships roamed the world's oceans at will, like 20th-century pirates. They struck unsuspecting freighters and tankers out of the darkness of night or from behind a curtain of fog and mist. For almost three years they led the Royal Navy on a deadly chase from sea to sea, seeding Allied ports with hundreds of mines and, on one occasion, even bombarding a shore installation.

Masquerading as unarmed merchantmen, the raiders carried an awesome array of weapons cleverly hidden behind false structures and concealed inside empty packing crates on their decks. Seaplanes and motorboats helped them seek out their victims on the vast seas. They then fed off of these unsuspecting targets, pumping fuel from their prey into their own tanks and taking food from captured pantries to feed their own crews and the thousands of prisoners that they picked up along the way. These secret ships also acted as supply ships for U-boats, helping their fellow hunters remain at large for longer periods. At sea for months--or even years--those raider sailors lucky enough to survive were hailed as heroes when they returned home.

An omnibus edition of two collections of deeply eccentric autobiographical essays by Lord Fisher, the father of the Dreadnought and of the battle cruiser.

From the preface to the first volume, Memories:

Readers of this book will quickly observe that Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher has small faith in the printed word; and those who have enjoyed the privilege of having " his fist shaken in their faces" will readily admit that the printed word, though faithfully taken down from his dictation, must lack a large measure of the power-the " aroma," as he calls it-which his personality lends to his spoken word.

Had Lord Fisher been allowed his own way, there would have been no Book. Not for the first time in his career, the need of serving his country and his country's Navy has over-ridden his personal feeling. These "Memories," therefore, must be regarded as a compromise ("the beastliest word in the English language"-see "The Times" of September gth, 1919) between the No-Book of Lord Fisher's inclination and the orderly, complete Autobiography which the public wishes to possess.

The book consists in the main of the author's ipsissima verba, dictated during the month of September, 1919. One or two chapters have been put together from fugitive writings which Lord Fisher had collected and printed (in noble and eloquently various type) as a gift to his friends after his death. The discreeter passages of the letters which he wrote to Lord Esher between 1903 and 1912 illustrate some portions of the life's work which-caring little for the past and much for the future, much for the idea and little for the fact-Lord Fisher has successfully declined to describe in his own words.

This revisionist history convincingly argues that the Regia Marina Italiana (the Royal Italian Navy) has been neglected and maligned in assessments of its contributions to the Axis effort in World War II. After all, Italy was the major Axis player in the Mediterranean, and it was the Italian navy and air force, with only sporadic help from their German ally, that stymied the British navy and air force for most of the thirty-nine months that Italy was a belligerent. It was the Royal Italian Navy that provided the many convoys that kept the Axis war effort in Africa alive by repeatedly braving attack by aircraft, submarine, and surface vessels. If doomed by its own technical weaknesses and Ultra (the top-secret British decoding device), the Italian navy still fought a tenacious and gallant war; and if it did not win that war, it avoided defeat for thirty-nine, long, frustrating months.

This volume focuses on naval leadership and ethics with respect to the individual leader and how his or her values and actions affect military cohesion, mission success, and the profession of arms. Moving beyond the "right and wrong" of personal ethics to examine the broader field of professional military ethics, this carefully selected collection of relevant materials from the Naval Institute's vast collection of articles recognizes the range of experience, perspectives, and opinions that are found in the sea services and argues that diversity does not preclude acceptance of common core values and standards of performance within any unit. Included are articles by Adm. Arleigh Burke and Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale that speak from long personal experience regarding the topics of integrity and moral courage.

This vivid volume describes the fascinating history of aircraft carriers, first deployed successfully in World War I by the Imperial Russian Navy, and indispensable to the Allied victory in World War II, now the strategic centerpiece of the world's most powerful navies. From their World War I deployment in the Black Sea by the Imperial Russian Navy, to their coming of age in World War II, to their role in recent conflicts in Vietnam, the Falklands, and the Persian Gulf, Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact charts the evolution of carrier systems both militarily and within broader political and diplomatic contexts. Covering both the ships and the planes they support, this convenient, authoritative handbook offers complete descriptions of carrier systems from all of the world's major navies-from their operational histories, strategic integration, and technological advancements, to the training of aircrew, the development of carrier command leadership, and the role of carriers as deterrents and diplomatic enforcers. Eighty photographs of all the important aircraft carriers from before World War I to the present, including many operated by lesser-known navies A reference section providing essential physical details, basic design information, modifications, and brief service histories for 80 aircraft carriers or classes from 1912 to the present

Admiral Topp's memoirs reflect the faith, hopes, errors, and transformations in a man's life, indeed those of a whole generation whose understanding of history and ideology were held captive by the myth of power. The terrible annihilation in World War II and, even more so, the unimaginable destructive potential of nuclear weapons, have resulted in a change in the use of power. The author's diaries and journals, along with their contemporary interpretation, illustrate the political dimension of this change.

Topp wrote this book to illuminate a segment of twentieth century history which can only be portrayed truthfully by those who themselves have lived and suffered through it. Topp also describes freely the era of the Third Reich. Even today, after long years of occupying positions of leadership, the author feels the burden of historical responsibility. In this sense his book is a statement about the ambivalence of human existence. It provides answers to the question of why a whole generation of Germans followed the mesmerizing siren song of a totalitarian regime, an experience which still looms like a shadow over the living.

Nicholas Rogers' book gives the reader a detailed and illuminating insight into the world and ways of the press gang. The press gang, and its forcible recruitment of sailors to man the Royal Navy in times of war, acquired notoriety for depriving men of their liberty and carrying them away to a harsh life at sea, sometimes for years at a time. Nicholas Rogers explains exactly how the press gang worked, whom it was aimed at and how successful it was in achieving its ends. He also shows the limits to its operations and the press gang's need for cooperation from local authorities, who were by no means prepared to support it. Written by an expert in the social history of eighteenth-century Britain, it is both well-researched and highly readable.

Exciting rescue stories on the high seas! The Coast Guard's rescue personnel are second to none, and Coast Guard air and sea rescue missions have been the subjects of celebrated newspaper accounts, books, and movies, including The Perfect Storm. The Coast Guard is one of the nation's five military services, which exist to defend and preserve the United States. In The Greatest Coast Guard Rescue Stories Ever Told, the editor has pulled together some of the finest writings about air and sea rescues that capture readers imaginations, culled from books, magazines, and elsewhere. It is an unforgettable collection, and includes stories by Kathryn Miles, Eric Hartlep, Gerald Hoover, Martha Laguardia-Kotite, Geoffrey D. Reynolds, Kalee Thompson, H. Paul Jeffers, and many others.

The construction of an important element in British national identity is explored in Naval Engagements, looking at the ways in which the navy - a major symbol of national community - was given meaning by a range of social groupings. The study is at once a cultural history of national identity, a social history of naval commemoration, and a political history of struggles over patriotism.
Examining the place that naval symbols occupied in British wartime political culture, Timothy Jenks argues that these were more relevant to patriotic discourse than the more commonly explored 'apotheosis' of the Hanoverian monarchs. He establishes the centrality of public images of admirals to the 'victory culture' and political experience of the day, tracing efforts by groups across the political spectrum to invest these figures with appropriate political capital and contemporary meaning. He engages with arguments concerning popular patriotism and the relative cohesiveness of British society. Most importantly, the book establishes the centrality of naval symbolism to the political culture of Georgian Britian. At the same time, it reveals the social practices and discourses that consistently interacted to delimit and restrain a variety of projects ostensibly designed to foster patriotism and national identity.
Patriotism was contested, this study argues, rather than consensual, and British national identity in the period was contingent, an ambivalence crucial to the manner in which naval symbols functioned.

In Post-war Japan as a Sea Power, Alessio Patalano incorporates new, exclusive source material to develop an innovative approach to the study of post-war Japan as a military power. This archival-based history of Asia's most advanced navy, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF), looks beyond the traditional perspective of viewing the modern Japanese military in light of the country's alliance with the US. The book places the institution in a historical context, analysing its imperial legacy and the role of Japan's shattering defeat in WWII in the post-war emergence of Japan as East Asia's 'sea power'.

Packed with rich detail and analysis, this exciting tale of war at sea relates the dramatic and moving true story of the sinking of the British liner Laconia and its consequences for the conduct of marine warfare. Duffy discusses in rich detail the dire and dramatic true story of the sinking of the British Liner Laconia by the dreaded U-Boat 156, a vessel crowded with 1800 Italian POWs, 103 Polish soldiers, and 463 officers and crew. As Laconia went down, U-156 surfaced and sent a signal that brought two other U-boats, an Italian submarine, and three Vichy French warships to assist with rescue operations. But on the morning of September 16, a U.S. bomber flew over U-156, now packed with several hundred Laconia survivors. The crew unfurled a large Red Cross flag. Nevertheless, the submarine was attacked. The Laconia survivors were ordered over the side into lifeboats. Damaged, U-156 left the area as other U-boats commenced rescue operations. In the wake of the incident, German Admiral Karl Donitz issued the Laconia Order demanding that all attempts to rescue Allied survivors of merchant ships be ended. The order provoked an international outcry against inhumane treatment of survivors stranded at sea. In the aftermath of the war, Donitz was charged and acquitted of war crimes in connection with this order.

This book presents the most accurate picture of the United States Marine Corps at the onset of the American Civil War and describes the actions of the Marines at the Battle of First Manassas, or as the Union called it, Bull Run. To tell the story of the actions of the U.S. Marines in the Manassas Campaign, distinguished Marine Corps historians Bruce H. Norton and Phillip Gibbons begin with Marine actions in October 1859 at Harpers Ferry, where they were instrumental in suppressing John Brown's raid on the town's Federal Armory and attempted slave insurrection. The Marines were the only professional fighting force that could respond immediately when the call for assistance came to retake the Armory, which Brown's men had seized. The Marines were led by highly professional and well-trained officers and non-commissioned officers who represented a decades-old standard of excellence well established by the eve of the Civil War. The book then discusses Marine actions at the Battle of First Manassas, the Civil War's first battle, on July 21, 1861, a story that has never been adequately or accurately told. In both engagements, the Marines proved that they were "at all times ready," as the Corps remains to this very day.

From the mid-19th century to the early Cold War, the United States has a long history with China, and that interaction has not always been positive or productive. This brief history of foreign intervention in China, viewed through the experiences of the United States Marines, examines how the occupying powers dealt with a fellow sovereign nation. In many cases this involved the partition or outright absorption of Chinese territory through naked aggression. Clark contends that, considering the past two centuries, the Chinese have good reason to distrust all foreigners, and he urges the pursuit of a badly needed rapprochement.

This is, however, also the story of the evolution of the Marine Corps as a separate service. Although an occupying force, the Marines did make considerable efforts to earn the friendship of the Chinese people. Always on the brink of extinction due to budgetary cuts and the enmity of the army and navy, the Marines managed to perform an onerous and difficult duty in a foreign land. With a resurgent China constantly testing the United States, a fellow Pacific Rim nation, every policymaker should be well aware of the often difficult history that we share and the mistakes that have been made in the past.

This book is an effort by two naval experts, one a retired Russian Naval officer, the other an American naval arms control analyst, to look at the future relationship of the world's two greatest navies following the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union. For the first time in English, readers are provided with a detailed examination of the sweeping changes in the strategy, doctrine, operations and size of both the U.S. and Russian navies in the last few years. The often frightening naval confrontations of the Cold War era have declined dramatically (but not entirely). The first tentative steps are outlined. The book offers a series of specific proposals to expand the current level of cooperation between the U.S. and Russian navies and even envisions a "strategic partnership" in the long term.

In the context of their war experience in the First World War, the changes and developments of the Executive branch of the Royal Navy between the world wars are examined and how these made them fit for the test of the Second World War are critically assessed.

In its decision of 7 December 1941 to adopt a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare--the destruction of all vessels entering a designated war zone--the United States not only dramatically reversed its previous foreign policy position of defending freedom of the seas but in doing so adopted a policy that had been one of the chief provocations for U.S. entry into World War I against Germany. Janet M. Manson contends that this decision also proved to be a watershed in U.S. foreign policy because it provided the precedent and rationale for using advanced weapons technology against noncombatants. Incorporating previously unavailable historical materials that have only recently been released through U.S. archives and compiling much information available only in archives and libraries in West Germany, this groundbreaking study provides multinational perspectives based on multiarchival research. Manson carefully considers the complex historical, political, economic, legal, and military rationale for the decision. Detailed examinations of the discourse on submarine warfare among various governmental departments and sub-departments provide not only a more accurate account of the decisionmaking process involved in these events but also reveal the crucial influence of World War I precedent on World War II practice: The U.S. relied heavily on German submarine practice in both world wars in reaching its decision to implement unrestricted submarine warfare. Manson argues that although U.S. and German systems of government and foreign policy objectives were completely different, a similar rationale prompted their adoption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Seven chapters range chronologically fromGermany's use of unrestricted submarine warfare during World War I to the American decision to adopt that policy in 1941. The final chapter identifies the implications and consequences of the decisions. This is the only scholarly work to provide detailed examinations of the decisions and the decisionmaking process from German and American perspectives. It will be standard resource for scholars and other readers investigating naval history, diplomacy, warfare, and World War II history.

A scholarly and compelling analysis of Marine Corps survival as seen through the lens of three different organizational theories, this volume is a sourcebook in management and public administration for the way of seeing view. Frank Marutollo, intimately familiar with the Marine ethic, provides a practical demonstration of how management theories can be regarded as different ways of seeing rather than predictive schemes. He applies three models--the Population Ecology Model, Resource Dependence Model, and Structural Contingency Model--to three separate case studies and evaluates their complementary nature as well as their strengths and weaknesses. This one of a kind approach to the interpretation of management theories will be of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students of management science and public administration.

As scholar and practitioner, Marutollo combines both perspectives to analyze the survival of a major organization in our culture. He selects three management theory models, develops a theoretical framework, and describes his methodology. Marutollo then sets the stage and applies each model to three case studies entitled: The Marine Corps and Military Unification, The New Navy and the Ships Guard, and Paradigms of Attack. He concludes his precise and detailed study with an overall assessment of the case study-model analysis.