Grande-Bretagne - A history of the Royal Navy - World War I

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The Royal Navy has for centuries played a vital if sometimes misunderstood or even at times unsung part in Britains history. Often it has been the principal sometimes the only means of defending British interests around the world. In peacetime the Royal Navy carries out a multitude of tasks as part of government policy showing the flag, or naval diplomacy as it is now often called. In wartime, as the senior service of Britains armed forces, the navy has taken the war to the enemy, by battle, by economic blockade or by attacking hostile territory from the sea. Adversaries have changed over the centuries. Old rivals have become todays alliance partners; the types of ship, the weapons within them and the technology the how of naval combat have also changed. But fundamentally what the navy does has not changed. It exists to serve Britains government and its people, to protect them and their interests wherever they might be threatened in the world.

This series, through the numerous individual books within it, throws new light on almost every aspect of Britains Royal Navy: its ships, its people, the technology, the wars and peacetime operations too, from the birth of the modern navy following the restoration of Charles II to the throne in the late seventeenth century to the war on terror in the early twenty-first century.

The series consists of three chronologically themed books covering the sailing navy from the 1660s until 1815, the navy in the nineteenth century from the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and the navy since 1900. These are complemented by a number of slightly shorter books which examine the navys part in particular wars, such as the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II and the Cold War, or particular aspects of the service: the navy and empire, the Womens Royal Naval Service, the Royal Marines, naval aviation and the submarine service. The books are standalone works in their own right, but when taken as a series present the most comprehensive and readable history of the Royal Navy.

Duncan Redford
National Museum of the Royal Navy

The role in Britains history of the Royal Navy is all too easily and too often overlooked; this series will go a long way to redressing the balance. Anyone with an interest in British history in general or the Royal Navy in particular will find this series an invaluable and enjoyable resource.

Tim Benbow
Defence Studies Department, Kings College London at the Defence Academy of the UK

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the Royal Navy Submarine Museum for making so many pictures from their archives available to me. In particular I cannot thank the various curators, archivists and keepers of pictures who have assisted me in preparing this book enough. They have invariably been extremely helpful; rather than simply deal with a request, they have gone further, providing me with a source or picture that I should have asked for as well as the one I did request. Most of the illustrations used in this book derive from the former! In purely alphabetical order, my thanks are due to Captain Richard Cosby of Maritime Originals, Stephen Courtney, Curator of Photographs, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Barbara Gilbert, Archivist, Fleet Air Arm Museum, Debbie Turner-West, Keeper of Photographs, Royal Navy Submarine Museum, and Stuart Wheeler, Assistant Archive and Library Manager, The Tank Museum. My special thanks to Jenny Wraight, Librarian, Royal Naval Historical Branch, for making available the Grand Fleet Battle Orders and the contemporary Signal Book, and to General von Wilcken for his assistance in German linguistic usage; for example, without his efforts I would not have known that the German battlecruiser was known as Von Der Tann , and not, as would be expected, von der Tann . I am also indebted to Admirals James Baldrick and David Cooke for advice and screening out major technical howlers.

While all of those who have provided paintings and photographs have made every effort where appropriate to contact copyright holders, they take no responsibility for any copyright implications that may arise as a result of the publication of the images they have supplied.

I have received much helpful advice, loans of out-of-print books and technical corrections from many friends and former colleagues. However, any remaining errors are mine, for not listening enough!

Mike Farquharson-Roberts

Map 1. The North Sea, including the Western Approaches