Brown - Nelson to Vanguard

For much of the war, British warships were designed in the Grand Pump Room Hotel, Bath, since demolished. (Authors collection)

The size and hence the capability of major warships was limited by the treaties but there were no such limits on the power of most weapons. This was brought out clearly by Stanley Goodall, Director of Naval Construction (DNC) from 1936 to 1944, in a paper of 1937 It is unusual to get such a clear view of the action as seen from the top. A brief biographical note follows.

To some extent, British naval thinking concentrated on a rerun of Jutland in which Fleet Air Arm torpedo bombers would slow the enemy battlefleet which would then be engaged and sunk by the guns of the RN. As Controller and as First Sea Lord Admiral Chatfield dominated the Board. He stated his priorities as being to rebuild the battlefleet, to increase our cruiser strength to a minimum of 70 and to free the Fleet Air Arm from Air Ministry control. As Beattys Flag Captain at Jutland, Chatfield had become a firm advocate of heavy armour which had a major effect on the design of battleships and carriers. One may also see the influence of Admiral Henderson in advancing many aspects of technology. It was, indeed, an era of great menChurchill, Chatfield, Henderson, Oswyn Murray (Permanent Secretary to the Board) and Goodall himself.

Smaller ships were not entirely forgotten but successive reviews of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) suggested that trade protection against German submarines could be provided by older destroyers and the few sloops with trawlers in coastal waters. The ASW picture up to the fall of France goes far to justify this approach. After many failures, successful prototype landing craft for men and light tanks had been developed by 1939.

At the end of the previous volume, it was suggested that many promising technical developments died about 1923. Machinery lagged further and further behind the USN while welding made only very slow progress, and longitudinal framing was only introduced for destroyers in 1937. The first post-war ships had a very heavy anti-aircraft armament for the day but this lead was lost, particularly in control aspects. Much thought was given to protecting battleships from high-level bombing and torpedoes but it was thought that for smaller ships their manoeuvrability was sufficient protection. For what seemed good reasons the threat of the dive bomber was discounted.

This book concludes my series on British warship design: Before the Ironclad, Warrior to Dreadnought and The Grand Fleet. I was too much involved in later ships to attempt a dispassionate account though there may be a more personal memoir. The first generation of post-war ships are, however, included as showing the perceived lessons of the war.

One must make special mention of John Campbell who up to his death in 1998 was such a help on armament matters to so many writers. George Moore allowed me to use the fruits of his research in the PRO and other record collections. He and Iain McCallum read all my drafts and made most valuable suggestions. Many of those who worked on these designs are still alive and have made important contributionsJ C Lawrence, E McNair, A J Vosper, and F H Yearling. The author served in several of the ships described during training for the RCNC. John Roberts has been most helpful with illustrations. Thanks are due to L Leventhal for permission to use material in . Robert Gardiner and his team at Chatham have done their usual splendid work.

As before the selection of photos has been assisted by the secretaries of the Naval Photograph Club and the World Ship Society, presently F Lindegaard and Dr R O Osborne. Both societies hold sales of photos which I have attended over the last half-century and it has not been possible to trace the origin of all those used and I apologise for any unwitting use of someones material.