This book explores the mingling of two rather different perspectives, those of the naval and aeronautical schools of thought, and the impact that they had upon one another in natural, professional and geopolitical settings. To explain the manner in which air power was incorporated into warfare between 1914 and 1945 it studies the deeds of practitioners, the limitations of technology, the realities of combat and the varying institutional dynamics and strategic priorities of the major maritime powers. It is underpinned by an appreciation of the geostrategic setting of the key maritime states, while addressing the challenges of operating in this multifaceted environment and the major technological developments which enabled air power to play an ever greater role in the maritime sphere. The potential for air power to influence warfare in the maritime environment was fully realised during the Second World War and its impact is demonstrated through an analysis of a wide range of the fleet operations and how it was utilised in the defence of trade and sea lanes. As such this book will be of interest to both naval and air power historians and those wanting a fuller perspective on maritime strategy in this period.

The 1942-43 naval campaign against German U-boats known as the Battle of the Atlantic was a major victory not only for Allied warships but also for naval intelligence. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of submarine tracking rooms in London, Washington, and Ottawa, the antisubmarine forces' search-and-destroy missions helped preserve the safety of the seaways.

Naval intelligence has been an aspect of World War II that has received scant attention. Now former naval intelligence officer Alan Harris Bath traces the coordination of Anglo-American efforts before and during the war, identifying the political, military, technological, and human factors that aided and sometimes hindered cooperation. He compares the two nations' different and often conflicting styles of intelligence gathering and reveals ways in which interagency and interservice rivalries complicated an already complex process.

Drawing on archives in the U.S., U.K., and British Commonwealth, Bath describes h ow cooperation took place at all levels of decision-making, in all theaters of war, and at all points in the intelligence cycle, from gathering through analysis to dissemination. He tells how the U.S. learned from Britain's longer experience in the war and how intelligence cooperation was always subordinated to Anglo-American political relations-and how in the final months of fighting intelligence cooperation was impeded by the governments' post-war agendas.

Although victory in the Atlantic was the capstone of this cooperative endeavor, Bath also describes how intelligence relationships fared in the South Pacific, not only between the forces of Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur but also with those of Australia and New Zealand. Throughout the book, he emphasizes the contributions of Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian naval intelligence to this cooperative effort.

As the first in-depth study of the nature, evolution, and impact of information sharing by Allied navies, Tracking the Axis Enemy is essential reading for historians and buffs alike. By showing how the Anglo-American political and cultural bonds shaped intelligence operations and how those operations shaped campaigns, it contributes a new perspective on the Allied victory.

Overturns existing thinking to show that the Royal Navy engaged professionally in war planning in the years before the First World War. It has been widely accepted that British naval war planning from the late nineteenth century to the First World War was amateur and driven by personal political agenda. But Shawn T. Grimes argues that this was far from the case. His extensive original research shows that, in fact, the Royal Navy had a definitive war strategy, which was well thought-through and formulated in a professional manner. Faced by a perceived Franco-Russian naval threat, the Admiralty adopted an offensive strategy from 1888 to 1905 based on observational blockade and combined operations. This strategy was modified after 1905 for war with Wilhelmine Germany. The book shows how specific war plans aimed at Germany's naval and economic assets in the Baltic were drawn up between 1906 and 1908 and that the strategy of primary distant blockade, formulated between 1897 and 1907, became a reality in late 1912 and not July 1914 as previously thought. The book argues that the Naval Intelligence Department, which took a lead in devising these plans, was the Navy's de facto staff. Overall, it is clear that there was a continuity underpinning British thinking about how to wage a naval war. SHAWN GRIMES received his PhD in history from the University of London and has been a Lecturer in European History at the University of Saskatchewan.

This is the biography of one of the Royal Navy's legendary pilots. BF or Daddy as he was known, started his career at Dartmouth and then spent his early seagoing years in Hong Kong, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. His wartime experiences as a Fleet Air pilot aboard HMS Glorious included the historic air strike at Taranto and the search for the Graf Spee. In May 1940 he was loaned to Coastal Command and attacked German Panzer tanks in a biplane, defended Allied troops over Dunkirk and was one of only a few naval officers to fight in the Battle of Britain. After a period as a test pilot at Boscombe Down he became one of only four Wing Leaders in the Royal Navy. His successful leadership lead to many more successes, not least the crippling of Tirpitz as part of a diversionary plan in the lead up to D-Day. He was a superb pilot, loved by all the air and ground crew under his command. His reputation as a fearless and dynamic leader remains a legend today. The book contains detailed and graphic accounts of aerial sorties and strikes throughout the dark days over Nazi Europe. Tragically he was killed in action in July 1944, one week prior to promotion and a job ashore. The book includes many of his letters and extracts from his diary.

It is a century since Mahan and his disciples taught the world that a battlefleet was indispensable to a great power. Great and not so great powers still keep powerful navies today, but we have no generally-accepted principles to explain why. In this book historians and naval officers from Britain, the United States and other countries study the use of naval power over a century, and ask what it is for, and what it can do. It will be essential reading for modern historians, policy-makers and strategists.

The Turtle and the Dreamboat is the first detailed account of the race for long-distance flight records between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy less than fourteen months after World War II. The flights were risky and unprecedented. Each service intended to demonstrate its offensive capabilities during the new nuclear age, a time when America was realigning its military structure and preparing to create a new armed service - the United States Air Force. The first week of October 1946 saw the conclusion of both record-breaking, nonstop flights by the military fliers. The first aircraft, a two-engine U.S. Navy P2V Neptune patrol plane nicknamed the Truculent Turtle, flew more than eleven thousand miles from Perth, Western Australia, to Columbus, Ohio. The Turtle carried four war-honed pilots and a young kangaroo as a passenger. The second plane, a four-engine U.S. Army B-29 Superfortress bomber dubbed the Pacusan Dreamboat, flew nearly ten thousand miles from Honolulu to Cairo via the Arctic. Although presented as a friendly rivalry, the two flights were anything but collegial. These military missions were meant to capture public opinion and establish aviation leadership within the coming Department of Defense. Both audacious flights above oceans, deserts, mountains, and icecaps helped to shape the future of worldwide commercial aviation, greatly reducing the length and costs of international routes. Jim Leeke provides an account of the remarkable and record-breaking flights that forever changed aviation.

A once-remote auxiliary air station that sprung from the mud flats of old Princess Anne County near the whistle stop of Oceana, from which it gets its name, Naval Air Station Oceana has advanced in the decades since World War II to become the navy's East Coast master jet base and one of the largest and most advanced air stations in the world. Through interviews, exhaustive research and rare and often never-before-seen photographs, author and historian Yarsinske tells the story of vision, courage and commitment that reinforce what Admiral Michael G. Mullen, then chief of naval operations, said of Oceana when he testified before the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission regional hearings on August 4, 2005, his words just as relevant today as they were then. "We know how important it is to our training. We know how important it is to our preparation for warfighting. We know how important it is to be good neighbors, and we will continue to be. Our sailors and their families - and I include my own family on that list - enjoy living in the wonderful communities of the great state of Virginia," he continued. "Mr. Chairman [Anthony Principi], I need now - your navy needs now - Naval Air Station Oceana."

Mariners made a major - but neglected - contribution to England's warfare in the middle ages. Here their role is examined anew, showing their importance. During the fourteenth century England was scarred by famine, plague and warfare. Through such disasters, however, emerged great feats of human endurance. Not only did the English population recover from starvation and disease butthousands of the kingdom's subjects went on to defeat the Scots and the French in several notable battles. Victories such as Halidon Hill, Neville's Cross, Crecy and Poitiers not only helped to recover the pride of the English chivalrous class but also secured the reputation of Edward III and the Black Prince. Yet what has been underemphasized in this historical narrative is the role played by men of more humble origins, none more so than the medievalmariner. This is unfortunate because during the fourteenth century the manpower and ships provided by the English merchant fleet underpinned every military expedition. The aim of this book is to address this gap. Its fresh approach to the sources allows the enormous contribution of the English merchant fleet to the wars conducted by Edward II and Edward III to be revealed; the author also explores the complex administrative process of raising a fleet andprovides career profiles for many mariners, examining the familial relationships that existed in port communities and the shipping resources of English ports. Craig L. Lambert is Research Assistant at the University ofHull.

'James Cable's book...has deservedly remained the classic work' - Geoffrey Till, International Relations;When Gunboat Diplomacy was first published in 1971, it broke new ground with its study of how, in peacetime and in the twentieth century, governments used their naval forces in international disputes. Now fully revised and brought up to date after the collapse of the Soviet empire and the end of the cold war, this third edition of a book that was already a modern classic has a foreword by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Julian Oswald.

'James Cable's book...has deservedly remained the classic work' - Geoffrey Till, International Relations;When Gunboat Diplomacy was first published in 1971, it broke new ground with its study of how, in peacetime and in the twentieth century, governments used their naval forces in international disputes. Now fully revised and brought up to date after the collapse of the Soviet empire and the end of the cold war, this third edition of a book that was already a modern classic has a foreword by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Julian Oswald.

The U.S. Navy SEALs boast a rich history.

In the fall of 1943, armed with only his notebooks and pencils, Time and Life correspondent Robert L. Sherrod leapt from the safety of a landing craft and waded through neck-deep water and a hail of bullets to reach the shores of the Tarawa Atoll with the US Marine Corps. Living shoulder to shoulder with the marines, Sherrod chronicled combat and the marines' day-to-day struggles as they leapfrogged across the Central Pacific, battling the Japanese on Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. While the marines courageously and doggedly confronted an enemy that at times seemed invincible, those left behind on the American home front desperately scanned Sherrod's columns for news of their loved ones. Following his death in 1994, the Washington Post heralded Sherrod's reporting as "some of the most vivid accounts of men at war ever produced by an American journalist." Now, for the first time, author Ray E. Boomhower tells the story of the journalist in Dispatches from the Pacific: The World War II Reporting of Robert L. Sherrod, an intimate account of the war efforts on the Pacific front.

The British battleship HMS "Vanguard" was built in the years 1941-1946 at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank. It was quite an unusual ship due to the fact that it was built as the largest and also the last of the British battleships, and armed with artillery towers stored since 1925, taken from the cruisers HMS "Courageous" and HMS "Glorious". It is widely regarded as Britain's best designed battleship, well-armed but also least needed. Design work began before World War II and was completed a year after its end, making it one of the longest-built ships in history. Her service, however, was quite short and lacking of interesting events. The unit was launched in 1944, and it entered service only two years later, so it did not have the opportunity to take part in World War II. The first major event in the history of the ship was the three-month journey to the British dominion of the Union of South Africa with George VI, Queen Mary and both daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Anne, on board between February and May 1947.

The Imperial Japanese Navy was a pioneer in naval aviation, having commissioned the world's first built-from-the-keel-up carrier, the 'Hosho'. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it experimented with its carriers, perfecting their design and construction. As result, by the time Japan entered World War 2 and attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941, it possessed a fantastically effective naval aviation force. Carriers would roam the Pacific with near impunity, destroying their opponents at will. This book covers the design, development and operation of IJN aircraft carriers built prior to and during World War 2. Pearl Harbor, Midway and the first carrier vs carrier battle, the battle of the Coral Sea, are all discussed.

In Sailors and Sexual Identity, author Steven Zeeland talks with young male sailors--both gay- and straight-identified--about ways in which their social and sexual lives have been shaped by their Navy careers.Despite massive media attention to the issue, there remains a gross disparity between the public perception of "gays in the military" and the sexual realities of military life. The conversations in this book reveal how known "gay" and "straight" men can and do get along in the sexually tense confines of barracks and shipboard life once they discover that the imagined boundary between them is not, in fact, a hard line.The stories recounted here in vivid detail call into question the imagined boundaries between gay and straight, homosexual and homosocial, and suggest a secret Pentagon motivation for the gay ban: to protect homoerotic military rituals, buddy love, and covert military homosexuality from the taint of sexual suspicion.Zeeland's interviews explore many aspects of contemporary life in the Navy including: gay/straight friendship networks the sexual charge to the Navy/Marine Corps rivalry the reality behind sailors'reputations as sexual adventurers in port and at sea men's differing interpretations of homoerotic military rituals and initiations sex and gender stereotypes associated with military job specialities how sailors view being seen as sex objectsEveryone interested in the issue of gays in the military, along with a general gay readership, gay veterans, and gay men for whom sailors represent a sexual ideal, will find Sailors and Sexual Identity an informative and entertaining read.Visit Steven Zeeland at his home page: http://www.stevenzeeland.com

This book tells in non-technical language how the British Navy contributed to the development of naval radar in World War 2. Addressed to the general reader, it tells not only the technical story in simple terms, but also of the operational use of shipborne radar at sea - for warning, for fire control, for fighter direction, for navigation, in all theatres of war - and particularly about the people who designed and fitted the equipment, and those who used it at sea.

With the Royal Navy's offensives in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812 came devastating raids that wreaked havoc on the small villages along its shores and the very economy of the region. American naval forces were incapable of wresting control of the Tidewater from the superior enemy forces. Then in 1814 Captain Joshua Barney, a rare American hero during the struggle, intrepidly led his Chesapeake Flotilla against the invaders, determined to contest their advance on the nation's capital and drive them from the region.

Donald G. Shomette, director of the archaeological excavation of the flotilla's flagship, substantially revises the first edition of this captivating history with new information about Barney, his crew, and the mosquito fleet of gunboats and war barges that so valiantly fought the British. He sheds new light on the efforts of the U.S. Flotilla Service to build a viable coastal defense force. Shomette details the construction and manning of the famed Chesapeake Flotilla and recounts the terrifying details of British attacks on the towns, plantations, and farms throughout the bay region.

Doomed from its conception by sparse funds and the natural limitations of the bay's coastline, the flotilla ultimately suffered defeat. Yet its efforts were not completely in vain. Turning back wave after wave of British attacks, the fleet earned an improbable victory at St. Leonard's Creek and its men went on to make heroic stands at the battles of Bladensburg and Fort McHenry in 1814.

The thoroughly updated and enlarged edition of "Flotilla" is the result of impressive research on a forgotten chapter in the development of the young nation's naval and maritime tradition.

World War II submariners rarely experienced anything as exhilarating or horrifying as the surface gun attack. Between the ocean floor and the rolling whitecaps above, submarines patrolled a dark abyss in a fusion of silence, shadows, and steel, firing around eleven thousand torpedoes, sinking Japanese men-of-war and more than one thousand merchant ships. But the anonymity and simplicity of the stealthy torpedo attack hid the savagery of warfare -- a stark difference from the brutality of the surface gun maneuver. As the submarine shot through the surface of the water, confined sailors scrambled through the hatches armed with large-caliber guns and met the enemy face-to-face. Surface and Destroy: The Submarine Gun War in the Pacific reveals the nature of submarine warfare in the Pacific Ocean during World War II and investigates the challenges of facing the enemy on the surface. The surface battle amplified the realities of war, bringing submariners into close contact with survivors and potential prisoners of war. As Japan's larger ships disappeared from the Pacific theater, American submarines turned their attention to smaller craft such as patrol boats, schooners, sampans, and junks. Some officers refused to attack enemy vessels of questionable value, while others attacked reluctantly and tried to minimize casualties. Michael Sturma focuses on the submariners' reactions and attitudes toward their victims, exploring the sailors' personal standards of morality and their ability to wage total war. Surface and Destroy is a thorough analysis of the submariner experience and the effects of surface attacks on the war in the Pacific, offering a compelling study of the battles that became "intolerably personal."

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the greatest naval engagement in history. The battle was four separate actions, none of which were fought in the Gulf itself, and the result was the destruction of Japanese naval power in the Pacific. This book is a detailed and comprehensive account of the fighting from both sides. It provides the context of the battle, most obviously in terms of Japanese calculations and the search for "a fitting place to die" and "the chance to bloom as flowers of death." Using Japanese material never previously noted in western accounts, H. P. Willmott provides new perspectives on the unfolding of the battle and very deliberately seeks to give readers a proper understanding of the importance of this battle for American naval operations in the following month. This careful interrogation of the accounts of "the last fleet action" is a significant contribution to military history.

A collection of essays on British and American maritime relationships in the 20th century together with details on the British organization of warfare, Anglo-American maritime theory, their rivalries and coalitions and their plans for dealing with a future war in the nuclear age.

A study of the political utility of navies, meant for war, but for over 40 years used in the "violent peace" of the modern era. This book considers what navies might yet do in total war and have actually done in limited war, and it studies their use in gunboat diplomacy, showing the flag, policing the coastal estate and tackling pirates and terrorists. James Cable also looks at proxy war at sea, naval arms control and the case for ocean-going navies. James Cable has also written "Britain's Naval Future", "Diplomacy at Sea", "The Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina", "Gunboat Diplomacy 1919-1979", "Political Institutions and Issues in Britain" and "The Royal Navy and the Siege of Bilbao".

The military operations of Scandinavian societies in the Viking Age depended on their ships. Different types of ships were used in order to transport troops and war supplies. Some ships were designed to conduct the speedy transport of large numbers of troops, while others were specialised cargo vessels used in military operations as carriers of supplies and sometimes troops as well. This book examines the building and use of ships for warfare in 11th century Denmark. The subjects are addressed through detailed analyses of aspects such as resources, organisational structures and naval warfare. The outcomes are a more informed understanding of 11th century Scandinavian military organisation, shipbuilding and resource management.

A new illustrated history and analysis of Italy's World War II destroyers, a formidable foe for Allied forces attempting to attack the sea lanes between Italy and North Africa. The Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marine or RM) began the Second World War with one of the largest fleets in the world. Included in it was a total of 59 fleet destroyers, with others added during the war. These were a diverse collection of ships dating back to the First World War with large destroyers built to counter ships of similar size introduced in the French Navy (the RM's historical enemy), and medium-sized ships which constituted the bulk of the destroyer force. RM destroyers were built for high speed, not endurance since they were only expected to operate inside the Mediterranean. They were also well-armed, but lacked radar. During the war, RM destroyers fought well. With the exception of a small force based in Abyssinia which fought a series of battles in the Red Sea against the British, RM destroyers were active in the Mediterranean. The primary mission of the RM during the war was to keep the supply lines to North Africa open. The Italians were largely successful in this effort, and destroyers were key. RM destroyers were present at every fleet action with the British Mediterranean Fleet. The intensity of these actions is reflected by the fact that the RM lost 51 destroyers during the war.

This new handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the issues facing naval strategy and security in the twenty-first century. Featuring contributions from some of the world's premier researchers and practitioners in the field of naval strategy and security, this handbook covers naval security issues in diverse regions of the world, from the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean to the Arctic and the piracy-prone waters off East Africa's coast. It outlines major policy challenges arising from competing claims, transnational organized crime and maritime terrorism, and details national and alliance reactions to these problems. While this volume provides detailed analyses on operational, judicial, and legislative consequences that contemporary maritime security threats pose, it also places a specific emphasis on naval strategy. With a public very much focused on the softer constabulary roles naval forces play (such as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, naval diplomacy, maintenance of good order at sea), the overarching hard-power role of navies has been pushed into the background. In fact, navies and seapower have been notably absent from many recent academic discussions and deliberations of maritime security. This handbook provides a much-desired addition to the literature for researchers and analysts in the social sciences on the relationship between security policy and military means on, under, and from the sea. It comprehensively explains the state of naval security in this maritime century and the role of naval forces in it. This book will be of much interest to students of naval security and naval strategy, security studies and IR, as well as practitioners in the field.