Since World War II, there have been no engagements between carrier air groups, but flattops have been prominent and essential in every war, skirmish, or terrorist act that could be struck from planes at sea. Carriers have political boundaries. They range at will with planes that can be refueled in the air to strike targets thousands of miles inland. From the improvised wooden platforms of the early 20th century to today's nuclear-powered supercarriers, Hearn explores how combat experience of key individuals drove the development, technology, and tactics of carriers in the world's navies. In the early 20th century, during the days of the dreadnaughts, innovators in Europe and North America began to fly contraptions made from wood, canvas, wire, and a small combustion engine. Naval officers soon wondered whether these rickety bi-planes could be launched from the deck of a surface vessel. Trials began from jury-rigged wooden platforms built upon the decks of colliers. The experiments stimulated enough interest for the navies of the world to begin building better aircraft and better aircraft carriers. The novelty of a ship that could carry its own airstrip anywhere on the world's oceans caught fire in the 1920s and helped induce a new arms race. While the rest of the world viewed carriers as defensive weapons, Japan focused on offensive capabilities and produced the finest carrier in the world by 1940. World War II would see the carrier emerge as the greatest surface ship afloat. Since then, no war has been fought without them.

John H. Schroeder chronicles the expansion of the American Navy's peacetime role in developing the nation's overseas commercial empire during the thirty years before the Civil War. He demonstrates how the rapid acceleration of American commercial activity around the world increased pressure on the Navy to meet new economic and political demands. He analyzes how the Navy's haphazard development in the antebellum years paralleled and interacted with commercial activity, and how the end result impacted dramatically on the economic development of the United States.

This book foregrounds the role of the Royal Navy in creating the British Atlantic in the eighteenth century. It outlines the closely entwined connections between the nurturing of naval supremacy, the politics of commercial protection, and the development of national and imperial identities - crucial factors in the consolidation and transformation of the British Atlantic empire. The collection brings together scholars working on aspects of the Royal Navy and the British Atlantic in order to gain a better understanding of the ways that the Navy protected, facilitated, and shaped the British-Atlantic empire in the era of war, revolution, counter-revolution, and upheaval between the beginning of the Seven Years War and the end of the conflict with Napoleonic France. Contributions question the limits - conceptually and geographically - of that Atlantic world, suggesting that, by considering the Royal Navy and the British Atlantic together, we can gain greater insights into Britain's maritime history.

This collection of original articles addresses current policy issues for manning the U.S. Naval Reserve. The expert contributors represent several social science disciplines and approach their subject from a variety of perspectives. Some evaluate existing policy processes and make recommendations for their improvement. Others reflect on the functions and dysfunctions of the process from a theoretical standpoint. All, however, examine the formulation and implementation of policy within the specific context of contemporary changes in society. The specific issues discussed include recruitment, manpower, training, mobilization readiness, retention, organizational relevance, and societal relevance. Also considered are the sociopsychological motivations of individuals who join the reserves. The editors provide an understanding of the participation of individuals in large-scale organizations and how this relates to the problems of developing realistic policies for manning the U.S. military forces as a whole. They stress the increasing importance of the military reserves in a society where conscription and large standing armies may no longer be politically viable options. The volume also contains a current and comprehensive bibliography of research monographs and technical reports pertaining to this subject.

As a small nation in a hostile region, Israel has made defense a top priority. Tzalel takes a critical look at the naval branch of Israel's defense forces to consider its history, its performance, and its overall importance to maintaining national security. From a motley collection of illegal immigrant ships operated prior to the birth of the state, the Israelis have since the 1960s established a modern navy. However, Tzalel argues, the modernization and expansion of the Israeli navy has been driven more by an excess of funds and the lack of clearly defined priorities than by any real necessity. Like most small countries, Israel has no need to command the sea during peace or in wartime. The author examines each step of naval development by direct correlation to the perceived need for each new phase and the circumstances that led naval and military leaders to make specific choices, and he discusses the benefits of these choices on the field of battle. He hopes to map the complex relationship between the navy men, the Israeli government, and public sentiment. Although the nation has managed to create a new and impressive class of warship, the Sa'ar FAC(M) and its larger derivatives, Tzalel contends that the military logic behind such naval construction was faulty and that the nation's submarine flotilla constitutes a sheer waste of monetary and human resources.

A detailed and riveting account of the U.S. Navy's greatest mutiny and its wide-ranging cultural and historical impact The greatest controversy in the history of the U.S. Navy of the early American Republic was the revelation that the son of the Secretary of War had seemingly plotted a bloody mutiny that would have turned the U.S. brig Somers into a pirate ship. The plot discovered, he and his co-conspirators were hastily condemned and hanged at sea. The repercussions of those acts brought headlines, scandal, a fistfight at a cabinet meeting, a court martial, ruined lives, lost reputations, and tales of a haunted ship "bound for the devil" and lost tragically at sea with many of its crew. The "Somers affair" led to the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy and it remains the Navy's only acknowledged mutiny in its history. The story also inspired Herman Melville's White-Jacket and Billy Budd. Others connected to the Somers included Commodore Perry, a relation and defender of the Somers' captain Mackenzie; James Fenimore Cooper, whose feud with the captain, dating back to the War of 1812, resurfaced in his reportage of the affair; and Raphael Semmes, the Somers' last caption who later served in the Confederate Navy. The Curse of the Somers is a thorough recreation of this classic tale, told with the help of recently uncovered evidence. Written by a maritime historian and archaeologist who helped identify the long-lost wreck and subsequently studied its sunken remains, this is a timeless tale of life and death at sea. James P. Delgado re-examines the circumstances, drawing from a rich historical record and from the investigation of the ship's sunken remains. What surfaces is an all-too-human tale that resonates and chills across the centuries.

As air battles with Japanese fighter planes increased over the Pacific toward the end of World War 2, the Submarine Lifeguard League was formed to rescue Allied aviators forced to either "hit the silk" or zoom their plane into the drink. The League helped save the lives of hundreds of Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots - including the life of future President George H. W. Bush - from Japs as well as from death at sea. Author Adm. Charles Lockwood (Hellcats of the Sea, Sink 'Em All ) brings his usual flair for submarine stories to his eye-witness account of events, providing a breathless narrative of the hair-raising adventures of this little-known sub-division of the US Naval Fleet.

A respected writer of naval history, Long is most qualified to write this first biography of Mad Jack, an unusual and controversial figure in the early days of the U.S. Navy. Using family accounts and primary materials, Long recounts the 40-year naval career of this maverick naval officer and in doing so gives the low-down on how the Navy worked in its nascent years. Anyone interested in eighteenth and nineteenth century military history will find this engrossing reading.

This popularly written but scholarly study covers the unusual Navy captain, whose career spanned the globe. Long provides a chronological account of Captain Percival's early years; his command during the War of 1812; his administrative duties at the Boston Navy Yard; his trips to the Pacific; mutinies; an incident with missionaries in Hawaii and the subsequent trial; cruises to the Caribbean; South America; and the Mediterranean; a trek around the world in the mid-1840s; his retirement; and his final years. Extensive notes and a bibliographical essay guide the reader to other important sources for those studying the period. Numerous maps are also provided.

This comprehensive survey profiles one of history's greatest fighting forces, on land, sea, and air. The United States Marine Corps: A Chronology, 1775 to the Present touches upon all aspects of the Continental and U.S. Marine Corps since their inception. All major battles in all major wars are covered, along with innumerable smaller clashes and deployments abroad. The evolution of amphibious doctrine, so essential to Marine Corps activity in the 20th and 21st centuries, is likewise covered in detail, along with the rise of Marine Corps aviation. Through a diary of daily occurrences proffered in the context of greater historical events, this chronology captures the entire sweep of U.S. Marine Corps history. It follows the Corps from the American Revolution to the halls of Montezuma and the shores of Tripoli, through World Wars I and II, and up to Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and Operation ENDURING FREEDOM in Afghanistan. Entries delineate battlefield events, but also significant political and administrative changes that have affected the Marines. Notable events in the careers of generals and other individuals are included as well. Comprehensive daily coverage of wartime and peacetime activities as they have affected the U.S. Marine Corps as an institution and a fighting machine Detailed coverage of all major and many minor military engagements from 1775 through 2009, affording informative glimpses of American men and women in combat across the globe Illustrations throughout highlighting significant events and Marine Corps personalities 20 sidebars that afford greater detail and context on a variety of events and individuals A 5,000-word bibliography of the latest scholarship on U.S. Marine Corps history, organization, leadership, and battles

The French naval bases at St. Nazaire and Lorient, occupied by the Germans in June 1940, quickly became the homes of massive U-boat fortresses--nearly indestructible submarine pens, built by mostly slave labor. From these bases, the U-boats struck merchant shipping at will from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. Thousands of vessels were lost, along with vital war materiel destined for Britain and the Soviet Union. As a result, the Royal Air Force began an all-out bombardment of the two ports. Despite their extensive efforts--and those of the Americans who joined them in 1942, the fortresses would survive, surrounded by the decimated French towns and countryside. This is the story of what was, perhaps, the longest ongoing battle in Europe during the Second World War, seen through the eyes of someone who experienced much of it firsthand. The desperate battle was waged on land, air, and sea. Because the dock at St. Nazaire could house and repair Hitler's powerful warship Tirpitz, British commandos carried out a daring raid to destroy it in March of 1942. They succeeded, but with great loss of life. The defenses of these fortresses were so strong that Eisenhower would ultimately decide to seek containment rather than destruction. The 66th Division, on its way to take up the task, lost its troopship Leopoldville to a German torpedo, with a loss of 802 men. The French underground movement in the area spawned a fighting force of 40,000 men to fight alongside the Americans, but the subsequent German reprisals would ultimately destroy many families in Brittany. Yet the bases stood, and continue to stand today.

From the American Civil War and the introduction of the metal cartridge in the 1860s up to the present day, The Encyclopedia of Weapons is an accessible reference guide to the most important small arms, armoured vehicles, aircraft and ships from all around the world. The book ranges from the first Gatling guns to favourites such as the Lee Enfield rifle and the AK-47; in terms of aircraft the book includes World War I biplanes, World War II’s Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter and on to modern stealth aircraft; in naval weaponry the book features early ironclad submarines, classic ships such as Bismarck and the nuclear subs of today; from the first tanks on the Western Front in World War I, such as the Mark V Male, the book covers the development of armoured fighting vehicles, featuring such classics as the Soviet T-34 and modern tanks like the M1 Abrams. With an entry per page, each weapon is illustrated with two colour artworks – some of them cutaways – a colour or black-&-white photograph, an authoritative history on its development, production and service history and a box of essential specifications. Featuring more than 400 entries, The Encyclopedia of Weapons is a fascinating reference work on the most important tanks, guns, military ships and aircraft over the past 150 years.

Although there have been military, social, and labor histories examining sailors, this book employs the methods of cultural history to systematically integrate Jack Tar, the common seaman, into larger narratives about British national identity. If, as it has been argued, "Britishness" was defined in terms of one's contribution to military efforts, why did sailors experience so much difficulty winning acceptance as Britons? Why was that acceptance delayed until the mid-nineteenth century? In pursuit of this aim, Land develops a new approach to sailors that moves beyond earlier historical work on maritime culture.

The purpose of this book is two-fold. First, it presents in a single place a coherent account of the tumultuous naval events that took place in the Eastern Mediterranean between 1940 and 1945 during World War II. Second, the book aims to demonstrate in an interesting fashion what naval warfare in the narrow seas is really like.

Koburger demonstrates that there was a definite Allied strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean during World War II. He delineates that strategy, showing its two halves, and demonstrates the roles of Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey. Koburger contends that the Eastern Mediterranean offers an excellent example of what warfare in the narrow seas is about. He remains convinced that, in the 1990s, the narrow seas are where the wars are going to be. This book will be of interest to policymakers, the military, and military historians.

This book examines Anglo-Australian naval relations between 1945-75, a period of great change for both Australia and Great Britain and their respective navies. It explores the cultural and historical ties between the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the efficacy of communications between the services, and the importance of personal relations to the overall inter-service relationship. The author assesses the dilemmas faced by Great Britain associated with that nation's declining power, and the impact of the retreat from 'East of Suez' on the strategic relationship between the United Kingdom and Australia. The book also considers operational co-operation between the Royal Navy and the RAN including conflicts such as the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, and confrontation with Indonesia, as well as peacetime pursuits such as port visits and the testing of atomic weapons in the 1950s. Co-operation in matters of personnel and training are also dealt with in great detail, along with the co-operation between the Royal Navy and the RAN in equipment procurement and design and the increased ability of the RAN to look to non-British sources for equipment procurement. The book considers the impact of stronger Australian-American ties on the RAN and appraises the role it played in the conflict in Vietnam.

This book is about the military Sea Service Mess Night, the Sea Services consisting of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. Mess Nights are traditional, time-honored events going back to at least the 18th Century. Formal military dining has historically been a way to communicate, to celebrate special events and a way to promote unity and camaraderie. The Mess Night, although a military formation and a formal event, is also a great deal of fun. Some of today's protocol and script is not exactly matching the past. Today's Mess Night is a bit more regimented and programmed but basically reflects all that was included in the old days and also reflects some of procedures used during the days of sail. This book is written because there are no books on Mess Nights, this is a first. Like many Sea Service customs and traditions, this custom has been handed down from generation to generation unwritten. Scripts and instructions were not necessary as Mess dinners were common. The British Navy can claim a continuous, unbroken tradition and they are basically the providers of the American tradition. They host Mess dinners much more frequently than the Americans do and the entire Navy traditionally celebrates the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Americans have no set celebration and also have fewer Mess Nights. Many officers are not even aware of Mess Nights. This is because of several factors covered in the book. Hopefully, this book will stimulate greater interest in this important event. As the alcohol rule for ships rule has been loosened, it is particularly hopeful that shipboard Mess Nights can again become an event. It would be most appropriate to celebrate the event for which the ship is named or to begin the tradition of celebrating Navy Day or other famous event such as those listed in this book.