The Royal Navy and Maritime Power in the Twentieth Century

This book adopts an innovative new approach to examine the role of maritime power and the utility of navies. It uses a number of case studies based upon key Royal Navy operations in the twentieth century to draw out enduring principles about maritime power and to examine the strengths and limitations of maritime forces as instruments of national policy.
Individual chapters focus on campaigns and operations from both World Wars and a series of post-1945 crises and conflicts from the Palestine Patrol in the 1940s to Royal Navy operations in support of British policy in the 1990s. Each case study demonstrates critical features of maritime power including: operations during the transition to war; fleet operations in narrow seas; logistics; submarine operations; the impact of air power on maritime operations; blockade; maritime power projection; amphibious warfare; jurisdictional disputes and the law of the sea; and, peace support operations.
The contributors to this book all have considerable experience lecturing on these issues at the United Kingdom Joint Services Command and Staff College, where maritime campaign analysis is used to teach the principles of maritime power to officers of the Royal Navy. The book combines an authoritative examination of critical Royal Navy operations during the twentieth century with a sophisticated analysis of the nature of maritime power. As such it is of both historical interest and contemporary relevance and will prove equally valuable to academic historians, military professionals and the general reader.

Foreword Admiral Sir Julian Oswald Introduction Ian Speller Chapter 1. The Transition to War: The hunt for the Goeben and Breslau, 1914 Andrew Gordon Chapter 2. Sea Control in Narrow Waters: The battles of Taranto and Matapan Jon Robb-Webb Chapter 3. Sea Denial, Interdiction and Diplomacy: The Royal Navy and the Role of Malta, 1939-43 Greg Kennedy Chapter 4. Air Power and Evacuations: Crete, 1942 Stephen Prince Chapter 5. Amphibious Operations: The Royal Navy and the Italian campaign, 1943-1945 Christopher Tuck Chapter 6. Complex Crises: The Royal Navy and the Undeclared War with Vichy France, 1940-1942 Stuart Griffin Chapter 7. Quarantine Operations: The Royal Navy and the Palestine Patrol Geoffrey Till Chapter 8. Maritime Jurisdiction and the Law of the Sea Stuart Thomson Chapter 9. Naval Diplomacy: Operation Vantage, 1961 Ian Speller Chapter 10. Operations in a War Zone: The Royal Navy in the Persian Gulf in the 1980s Warren Chin Chapter 11. Peacekeeping, Peace Support and Peace Enforcement: The Royal Navy in the 1990s Andrew Dorman

Ian Speller is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Modern History at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. His research interests include maritime strategy and military history, with a particular emphasis on expeditionary operations.He is the author of The Role of Amphibious Warfare in British Defence Policy, 1945-1956 (Palgrave, 2001)