This book explains both the strategic and the operational aspects of exercising control of the sea. The struggle for sea control consists of three mutually related and overlapping phases: obtaining, maintaining and exercising sea control. It is in the phase of exercising sea control when one's strategic or operational success is exploited; otherwise, the fruits of victories achieved would be wasted. This work describes the strategy of a stronger side in wartime after a desired degree of control has been obtained, which is followed by a discussion on the objectives and main methods used in exercising sea control. The remaining chapters explain and analyze in some detail each of the main methods of exercising sea control: defence and protection of one's own and destruction/neutralization of the enemy's military-economic potential at sea, capturing the enemy's operationally important positions ashore, destroying/weakening the enemy's military-economic potential ashore and supporting one's ground forces in their offensive and defensive operations on the coast. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, sea power and naval history.

This book, first published in 1986, argues that there is a special category of medium powers in the world - such as Britain, France, India, Brazil, Japan, China and others - which have sufficient military power to do something to protect their interests but which are not a match for the superpowers. It surveys the whole range of naval warfare - equipment, operations, organisation and deployment - and discusses how each item should be tailored by the recognition of the position of the medium power. It considers alliances, a key element for medium powers, and explores how these should be handled and what use they may be expected to fulfil. The book argues that the concept of medium power, here developed thoroughly for the first time, will be extremely useful to many countries in defining their strategic role in a purposeful way.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the technology employed by the British navy changed not just the material resources of the British navy but the culture and performance of the royal dockyards. This book examines the role of the Inspector General of Naval Works, an Admiralty office occupied by Samuel Bentham between 1796 and 1807, which initiated a range of changes in dockyard technology by the construction of experimental vessels, the introduction of non-recoil armament, the reconstruction of Portsmouth yard, and the introduction of steam-powered engines to pump water, drive mass-production machinery and reprocess copper sheathing. While primarily about the technology, this book also examines the complementary changes in the industrial culture of the dockyards. For it was that change in culture which permitted the dockyards at the end of the Wars to maintain a fleet of unprecedented size and engage in warfare both with the United States of America and with Napoleonic Europe.

Discover all the foul facts behind the story of Britain and Ireland's seafaring heritage with history's most horrible headlines: cruise edition. Find your horrible sea legs with Terry Deary, the master of making history fun. From the early explorers to the Pilgrim Fathers, the horrors of the slave trade to the particular appeal of a piratical life, the Royal Navy to the Merchant Navy, ship-building tales, fishing traditions and beyond, it's all in Horrible Histories: All at Sea: fully illustrated throughout and packed with hair-raising stories with all the horribly hilarious bits included with a fresh take on the classic Horrible Histories style, perfect for fans old and new the perfect series for anyone looking for a fun and informative read Horrible Histories has been entertaining children and families for generations with books, TV, stage show, magazines, games and 2019's brilliantly funny Horrible Histories: the Movie - Rotten Romans. Get your history right here and collect the whole horrible lot Read all about it!

A Sunday Times Bestseller Electric... Outstanding. - John Shirley, Guardian HMS Coventry's job during the Falklands War was to provide early warning of approaching enemy aircraft, and fend off any incoming threat to the highly valuable ships and aircraft behind her. On 25 May, Coventry was attacked by two Argentine Skyhawks and hit by three bombs. The explosions tore out most of her port side and killed 19 of the crew, leaving many others injured. Within twenty minutes she had capsized, and was to sink early the next day. In her final moments, when all those not killed by the explosions had been evacuated from the ship, her Captain, David Hart Dyke, himself badly burned, climbed down her starboard side and into a life-raft. This is his compelling and moving story.

Recent challenges to US maritime predominance suggests a return to great power competition at sea, and this new volume looks at how navies in previous eras of multipolarity grappled with similar challenges. The book follows the theme of multipolarity by analysing a wide range of historical and geographical case studies, thereby maintaining the focus of both its historical analysis and its policy implications. It begins by looking at the evolution of French naval policy from Louis XIV through to the end of the nineteenth century. It then examines how the British responded to multipolar threat environments, convoys, the challenges of demobilization, and the persistence of British naval power in the interwar period. There are also contributions regarding Japan's turn away from the sea, the Italian navy, and multipolarity in the Arctic. This volume also addresses the regional and global distribution of forces; trade and communication protection; arms races; the emergence of naval challengers; fleet design; logistics; technology; civil-naval relations; and grand strategy, past, present, and future. This book will be of much interest to students of naval history, strategic studies and international relations history, as well as senior naval officers.

This book offers a sober appraisal of the world trade in naval weapon systems at a time when recent attacks on merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf have kept maritime security at the centre of global attention. At the same time India, outside the international non-proliferation regime, has become the first-ever customer for a nuclear attack submarine. In 1987-88, the most expensive and controversial arms sales were related to naval systems, and yet while regional navies are busy increasing their firepower, the traditional naval powers remain dependent on their sea-borne trade. In particular the book highlights critical areas in which trade in naval systems differs from the sale of land or air systems, and it discusses the implications of these differences.

Every Marine has heard stories about the legendary "China Marines" who served in China before the Second World War. Many of these stories feature the small group of Horse Marines stationed at the American Legation in Peiping who patrolled the city streets and the surrounding Chinese countryside. Riding small, tough, Mongolian ponies and armed with their Model 1913 Patton sabers, these Horse Marines protected American missionaries and businessmen from bands of roving Chinese bandits. The Horse Marines, known as the Mounted Detachment, were considered to be the elite of all China Marines. Illustrated with over 420 rare and previously unpublished Horse Marine items and photographs, including drawings and watercolors by Col. John W. Thomason, this book offers a unique perspective into the life of John R. Angstadt, one China Horse Marine.

Storm Clouds over the Pacific begins the story long before Pearl Harbor, showing how the war can only be understood if ancient hatreds and long-standing geopolitics are taken into account. Peter Harmsen demonstrates how Japan and China’s ancient enmity grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries leading to increased tensions in the 1930s which exploded into conflict in 1937. The battles of Shanghai and Nanjing were followed by the battle of Taierzhuang in 1938, China’s only major victory. A war of attrition continued up to 1941, the year when Japan made the momentous decision for all-out war; the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into the war, and the Japanese also overran British and Dutch territories throughout the western Pacific. It is the first volume in the War in the Asia Pacific series, a trilogy of books comprising a general history of the war against Japan. Unlike other histories, it expands the narrative beginning long before Pearl Harbor and encompasses a much wider group of actors to produce the most complete narrative yet written and the first truly international treatment of the epic conflict. Peter Harmsen uses his renowned ability to weave together complex events into an entertaining and revealing narrative, including facets of the war that may be unknown to many readers of WWII history, such as the war in Subarctic conditions on the Aleutians, or the mass starvations that cost the lives of millions in China, Indochina, and India, and offering a range of perspectives to reflect what war was like both at the top and at the bottom, from the Oval Office to the blistering sands of Peleliu.

Much is known about Britain's role in the Atlantic slave trade during the eighteenth century but few are aware of the sustained campaign against slaving conducted by the Royal Navy after the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition Act of 1807. Peter Grindal provides the definitive account of this little known yet important part of the British, European and American history. Drawing on original sources to provide a comprehensive and engaging narrative of the naval operations against slavers of all nations - in particular Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and Brazil, he describes how illegal traders sought to evade treaty obligations, reveals the obduracy of the USA that prolonged the slave trade, and shows how, despite inadequate resources, the Royal navy's sixty-year campaign forced slavers to expend ever greater sums top conduct their business and confront the losses inflicted by capture and condemnation. A work that will transform our understanding of the Royal Navy's campaign against the Atlantic slave trade.

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.

A fascinating look at the British naval intervention in the Baltic in 1918-20, and at the British, Soviet and Baltic nationalist fleets that fought. Following the Russian Revolution of October 1917, the Baltic states became a battleground between Russian Reds and Whites, German troops and emerging Baltic independence forces. In November 1918, the British government decided to intervene, to protect British interests and to support the emerging Baltic states. This initial small force of cruisers and destroyers was eventually augmented by other British warships, including aircraft carriers, a monitor, as well as a handful of submarines and torpedo boats. Opposing them was the far more powerful Russian Baltic Fleet, now controlled by the Bolsheviks. The campaign that followed involved naval clashes between the two sides, the most spectacular of which was an attack on the Soviet naval base of Kronstadt in June 1919 by a force of small British torpedo boats. They torpedoed and sunk the Russian cruiser Oleg, an action which effectively bottled the Baltic fleet up in port for the remainder of the campaign. Finally, in early 1920, the British squadron was withdrawn, following Soviet recognition of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This New Vanguard title explores the naval side of this little-known but strategically crucial campaign fought by the war-weary navies of Britain and Russia and by warships of the emerging Baltic states. Describing the political background to the conflict, and the key points of the naval campaign as well as the warships involved, this is a concise and fascinating account of an overlooked naval campaign that helped reshape the map of Europe.

This book thoroughly explores and analyses naval policy during the period of austerity that followed the First World War. During this post-war period, as the Royal Navy identified Japan its likely opponent in a future naval war, the British Government was forced to "tighten its belt" and cut back on naval expenditure in the interests of "National Economy". G.H. Bennett draws connections between the early 20th century and the present day, showing how the same kind of connections exist between naval and foreign policy, the provision of ships for the Royal Navy, business and regional prosperity and employment. The Royal Navy in the Age of Austerity 1919-22 engages with a series of important historiographical debates relating to the history of the Royal Navy, the failures of British Defence policy in the inter-war period and the evolution of British foreign policy after 1919, together with more mundane debates about British economic, industrial, social and political history in the aftermath of the First World War. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of British naval history.

This book undertakes an in-depth examination of the diversity in international approaches to the navy-coastguard nexus. It considers the evolving global maritime security landscape and the emergence and proliferation of maritime law enforcement agencies-collectively referred to here as "coastguards"-performing peacetime constabulary duties alongside navies. Through a cross-regional study of various countries worldwide, including those in Asia and Europe, this book reveals that there is no one optimal, "one size fits all" organizational structure. Instead, there is a wide array of drivers that influence a nation-state's maritime security architecture and its organizational approach to managing security at sea, or broadly speaking, securing its national maritime interests.

In Taiwan Straits: Crisis in Asia and the Role of the U.S. Navy, historian Bruce Elleman surveys the situation that has led to the current tensions between China and Taiwan. Starting in 1949, the final phase of the civil war in China, which ended with Communist rule of the mainland and nationalist control of Taiwan, this work explores how the 100-mile wide passage of water, known as the Taiwan Strait has served as the geographic flashpoint between the two nations. Even though U.S. Navy destroyers have patrolled this body of water from 1950 to 1979, it has seen four crises-1954-55, 1958, 1962, and, after the withdrawal of the U.S. Navy, 1995-96-that threatened to push Taiwan and China to the brink of war. Notwithstanding the role of the United States in defusing cross-strait tensions for some three decades and the cold peace that has settled in since then, the Taiwan Strait continues to be a major source of anxiety for the region and the world. Taiwan Straits: Crisis in Asia and the Role of the U.S. Navy traces the evolution of this tension between the two nations, details the history of the crises between them, and brings this story forward into the present by considering continuing sources of conflict, present diplomatic efforts by the aggrieved nations, and other key interests-from the United States and Europe to other regional powers-and future possible outcomes in the ongoing struggle between China and Taiwan relations. Simply written and cogently argued, it is the ideal source for military personnel, diplomats, and scholars and student of the modern Far East.

The first book by a former Indian naval intelligence officer on Sino-India relations, India's Maritime Strategy provides a unique insight into the Indian Navy, tracing its post-independence growth and discussing its transformation and future in the 21st century. In the context of the rise of China's maritime power in the Indian Ocean, this book provides a nuanced view of the extent and scope of India's maritime reach and the effect of this on Sino-Indian competition. Challenging the view that by developing a favourable environment alone, India could seek to maintain its balance of power with China, it is argued that despite durable bilateral security ties with most regional states, India's maritime aspirations to be the primary net security provider for the region are unsustainable in the long term. This book presents a comprehensive coverage of India's bilateral maritime security engagements with all the Indian Ocean regional states, as well as the US, France, UK and Russia. As such, it will be useful to students and scholars of Indian and South Asian politics, international relations and maritime security.

The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) revolutionized warfare at sea, on land, and in the air. This little-known naval aviation organization introduced and operationalized aircraft carrier strike, aerial anti-submarine warfare, strategic bombing, and the air defence of the British Isles more than 20 years before the outbreak of the Second World War. Traditionally marginalized in a literature dominated by the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force, the RNAS and its innovative practitioners, nevertheless, shaped the fundamentals of air power and contributed significantly to the Allied victory in the First World War. The Development of British Naval Aviation utilizes archival documents and newly published research to resurrect the legacy of the RNAS and demonstrate its central role in Britain's war effort.

A fascinating exploration of how between February 1 and March 10, 1942, three small US task forces launched several unexpected raids across the Japanese defensive perimeter in the Central and South Pacific.

After the devastating Japanese blows of December 1941, the Allies found themselves reeling with defeat everywhere in the Pacific. Although stripped of his battleships and outnumbered 10:3 in carriers, the US Navy commander-in-chief Admiral Ernest J. King decided to hit back at Japan’s rapidly expanding Pacific empire immediately, in an effort to keep the Japanese off-balance.

On February 1, 1942, Vice Admiral Bill Halsey led the US Pacific Fleet carriers on their first raid, using high-speed hit-and-run tactics to strike at the Japanese, at a time when most of the Japanese carrier fleet was in the Indian Ocean. Halsey’s aggressive commitment inspired its American participants to invent the mythical Haul Ass With Halsey" club. The last of the 1942 US carrier raids in March 1942 would form a defining moment in the Pacific War, prior to a new phase of high-seas battles between the opposing fleets.

This superbly illustrated book documents for the first time in a single volume this little-known but important World War II naval campaign. The fabulous illustrations, including maps and colour artworks, bring to life the US air and naval raids on the Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, Rabaul, Wake Island, Marcus Island, and Lae and Salamaua in northern New Guinea."

This book demonstrates the importance of the presence of the Royal Navy in South America. Historically there have been no treaty obligations and few strategic considerations in the region, yet it is frequently referred to as forming part of Britain's 'unofficial empire'. The role of the Navy in supporting foreign relations and promoting commerce is examined during a period of the twentieth century which is often associated with the decline of the British Empire. The Role of the Royal Navy in South America, 1920-1970 shows how the Royal Navy reacted to changing circumstances during the post-war decades by adopting a more pro-active attitude towards the imperative of supporting naval exports. It provides a scholarly investigation of this important peacetime role for the service and offers the first book-length study of the Navy's involvement in the region during this period.

What we want to knowis, "How come PT's?" --Captain A. D. Turnbull, Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Naval History This administrative history of PTs in World War II was prepared by the Office of Naval History in 1946. Facsimile edition.

This book analyses China's maritime strategy for the 21st century, integrating strategic planning, policy thinking and strategic prediction. This book explains the construction and application of China's military, political, economic and diplomatic means for building maritime power, and predicts the future of China's maritime power by 2049, as well as development trends in global maritime politics. It explores both the strengths and the limitations of President Xi's 'Maritime Dream' and provides a candid assessment of the likely future balance at sea between China and the United States. This volume explains and discusses China's claims and intentions in the East and South China Seas and makes some recommendations for China's future policy that will lessen the chance of conflict with the United States and its closer neighbors. This book will be of much interest to students of maritime strategy, naval studies, Chinese politics and International Relations in general.

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 a comprehensive study of the development of China's nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). It offers insights into the secretive world of nuclear submarines and ballistic missiles of the Chinese (PLA) Navy and studies how these are likely to grow in the next two decades. The volume examines the technological origins of the design and development of Chinese nuclear submarines, ballistic missiles, and their naval construction capabilities. It provides an analysis of the underlying Chinese nuclear doctrine, China's maritime geographical constraints for submarine operations, and the credibility of its sea-based deterrence. It draws upon strategy, nuclear policy, technology, geography, and operational considerations to holistically predict the likely SSBN force levels of the PLA Navy for various scenarios. The book also assesses the spectrum of threats likely from the undersea domain for India and other nations in the Indo-Pacific region. A key text on an obscure but vital facet of Chinese defence studies, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of strategic affairs, international relations and disarmament studies, peace and conflict studies, geopolitics, foreign policy, Indo-Pacific studies, and diplomacy.