Archive Results For: Post WW2
The Royal Navy’s Principal Warfare Officer Course, 1972–2015
The Principal Warfare Officer (PWO) course, which trains officers to direct warships on operations, has for the last 40 years been a key determinant in how the Royal Navy has fought. Four of the last six First Sea Lords, the professional heads of the Royal Navy, have been PWOs. This article explains why the course […] Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Other (location)
Subjects include: Administration | Battles & Tactics
On a New Bearing: the Reorganized Royal Australian Navy at War in Vietnam
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) made a modest but important commitment of a single destroyer to the Vietnam War on a rotational basis between March 1967 and September 1971. The contrast between the deployments of the American-designed and built Charles F. Adams class guided missile destroyers and the British-designed Daring class destroyer, HMAS Vendetta, represented the […] Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Pacific
Subjects include: Navies | Shipbuilding & Design | Strategy & Diplomacy
Note: The Port of Glasgow
A number of photographs showing the river and port of Glasgow have been discovered in the Museum. Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Internal Waterways
Subjects include: Art & Music | Harbours & Dockyards | Merchant Marines
A Crisis that Never Came: the Decline of the Antarctic Whaling Industry in the 1950s and 1960s
The twentieth-century Antarctic whaling industry had from the beginning been led by Norwegian companies and companies from a few other nations with strong Norwegian ties, especially Britain. This article analyses the decline and final closure of this part of the industry in the 1950s and 1960s. The nations that had dominated the industry were then […] Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Antarctic
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing
Note: ‘A Difficult Peson to tackle’: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Gerard Noel
The discovery of additional papers belonging to Sir Gerard Noel has brought to light some details which he might have wished to suppress at the height of the controversy at the end of his serving career. Ranging from the period during which he was a junior sea lord to the China station, and then to […] Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (location)
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Biography | Weapons
‘Hit Hard, Move Fast and Sustain Action’: the Replacement of the Royal Navy’s Amphibious Warfare Squadron and the Rationale for HMS Fearless and HMS Intrepid
This article examines the circumstances in which the old ships and craft of the post-1945 Royal Navy’s Amphibious Warfare Squadron were replaced by the new assault ships HMS Fearless and Intrepid. It analyses the impact on the requirement for amphibious forces of the change in emphasis in the late 1950s from major war contingencies to a new focus on […] Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Other (location)
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy | Weapons
The Society Annual Lecture 2008: The Sea and British National Identity
The author reflects on the sea and the British national identity by considering the two most recent occasions when Britain was threatened with invasion, by Napoleon and Hitler, dispelling some of the myths and drawing certain conclusions, including his belief that survival has imbued the British with a lasting self-respect. The author seems less concerned […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Napoleonic War | English Channel | North Sea | WW2 | Post WW2
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy
“The Empire Strikes Back”: the Falklands/Malvinas Campaigns of 1982
The chronology of the Falklands war is recounted with comments on logistical and operational constraints. Historical conclusions arising from the campaign, their intrinsic interest and current relevance are discussed. The ability of navies to maintain a global reach has not been seriously addressed or lessons learned. Expeditionary warfare is expensive. Carrier borne aircraft were unable […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Post WW2
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Naval Aviation | Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy | Submarines | Weapons
Exodus Explained: the Fate of Ships Sold from Norway, 1970–1987
From 1977 to 1987 the Norwegian merchant marine declined by almost 80 per cent by tonnage. This article describes the reasons for the collapse, and argues that there were two primary causes: first, the post-OPEC shipping crisis forced numerous Norwegian owners to sell ships; second, the high cost of registering in Norway pushed some ships […] Read More
Filed under: North Sea | Post WW2
Subjects include: Merchant Marines
Dutch Whaling after the Second World War: Private Initiative and State Involvement
The activities of the Dutch in entering the whale-catching industry in what was to be the declining years of the industry are set out comprehensively. In a period when oils and fats were in short supply after World War 2, to the change in demand away from whale oil to vegetable oil, coupled with the […] Read More
Filed under: Post WW2 | Antarctic
Subjects include: Whaling & Fishing