Archive Results For: Interwar
Portugal and the Spanish Civil War at Sea, 1936–1939
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Portugal was already monitoring the political situation in Spain very closely since left-leaning Republican governments were seen to pose a major threat to the regime of António Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970), the dictatorial ruler of Portugal. The ensuing conflict, which would set the standard for […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Interwar
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Bellingshausen in Britain: Supplying the Russian Antarctic expedition, 1819
In August and September 1819 the first Russian Antarctic expedition, commanded by Captain Bellingshausen, visited Britain to purchase navigational and scientific instruments, charts and books. Using documents in the Russian Naval Archives, this article describes the visit in detail and reflects on what this information tells us about the framing of the expedition and the […] Read More
Filed under: Interwar | Antarctic
Subjects include: Logistics | Science & Exploration
Book Review -‘Progressives in Navy Blue: Maritime strategy, American empire and the transformation of US naval identity 1873–1998’ by Eric Grove
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the United States navy was transformed. The ‘old navy’ of wooden cruisers devoted to constabulary duties and monitors to be mobilized for coast defence was transformed into a steel navy primarily organized for war. Its capabilities were demonstrated against Spain in 1898. This has traditionally been seen […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | WW1 | Interwar | WW2 | Other (Twentieth C) | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C) | Pacific
Subjects include: Navies | Shipbuilding & Design | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review – ‘The US Navy: A concise history’ by Johan Francke
In this concise history, Craig L. Symonds describes, among other issues, the role played by political decisions and political debate in the formation of the US Navy and, similarly, the influence of technological innovation. For the supporters of maritime policy, the importance of the navy was a matter of projecting state power and self-confidence. Others […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | Interwar | WW2 | American Revolution | Post WW2 | American Civil War | Eighteenth Century | Nineteenth Century | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Twentieth Century
Subjects include: Navies
Book Review – ‘The Royal Navy in the Age of Austerity 1919–22: Naval and foreign policy under Lloyd George’ by Richard Dunley
The historiography of the Royal Navy in the periods before and during the First World War has grown and developed in an extraordinary fashion over the past 10 to 15 years. This has fundamentally changed how we view the organization which fought the conflict from a political, social, technological and strategic perspective. This development tends […] Read More
Filed under: English Channel | Interwar | Twentieth Century | Pacific
Subjects include: Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review-‘Spoils of War: The fate of enemy fleets after the two World Wars’ by A. Dodson and S. Cant
This most interesting new publication by Aidan Dodson and Serena Cant has been aimed at filling a long-noted gap in the histories of the fleets of the defeated nations of the First and Second World Wars after hostilities had ceased, describing the ultimate fates of the surrendered vessels by destruction and accident. It serves as […] Read More
Book Review-‘Trading by the Wind: Sea diaries 1919–1923’ by G. Wicksteed, edited by B. Tyler
Godfrey Wicksteed (1899–1997) came from a prominent dissenting family with Quaker connections, so it is no surprise that he became a conscientious objector in the First World War, though taking the option of enlisting in what was still the Merchant Service was not common. There his service was as deck boy and ordinary seaman with […] Read More
Filed under: Interwar
Subjects include: Biography
Book Review-‘U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve ‘They Are Marines’: Uniforms and equipment in WorldWar II’ by J. Moran
The United States Marine Corps has a mantra ‘First to Fight.’ They are also ‘Last to Adapt’ having been traditionally resistant to societal changes. Reportedly, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Joseph F. Dunford, who just retired as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the sole service head to oppose […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | Interwar | WW2
Subjects include: Miscellaneous
Book Review-‘Planning and Profits: British naval armaments manufacture and the military–industrialcomplex, 1918–1941’ by C. W. Miller
The evolution of British warship building infrastructure between the two World Wars has long been a significant historiographical issue, attracting attention in Churchill’s war memoirs, official histories, academic monographs, broader surveys of British strategic capacity, industrial performance, and specific aspects of warship construction. Christopher Miller’s contribution, developed from a PhD written in the Glasgow University […] Read More
Filed under: Interwar
Subjects include: Weapons
Book Review-‘Recollections of an Unsuccessful Seaman’ by L. Noake, (ed.) D. Creamer
Len Noake (1887–1929) was a seaman. He trained aboard HMS Conway and then began a 20-year career in the mercantile marine serving aboard deep sea and coasting vessels in a variety of roles from quartermaster to first officer. In his dying days he wrote his memoirs in the form of a 235-page journal illustrated with […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | Interwar
Subjects include: Biography | Merchant Marines
Book Review-‘Victory Without Peace: The United States Navy in European waters, 1919–1924’ by W. Still
Admiral William Sims’ Pulitzer Prize winning memoir and history of the First World War was entitled Victory at Sea and set a high bar for the books on the naval conflict that would follow over the next century. Victory Without Peace: The United States Navy in European waters, 1919–1924, the third book in a series […] Read More
Filed under: Interwar
Subjects include: Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review-‘With the Royal Navy in Peace and War: O’er the dark blue sea’ by B. B. Schofield
Born in 1895, Vice-Admiral B. B. Schofield first donned a naval uniform in 1908 when Britain’s empire, merchant navy and Royal Navy were at their apogee. It was an exciting time, one of great technical innovation; the era of the dreadnought, the submarine, torpedo and mine, precision gunnery, wireless, and aircraft. And it was a […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | Interwar | WW2 | Post WW2
Subjects include: Biography