"Royal Navy and Maritime Book Reviews" PROVIDED BY - Rob Jerrard
Conway Maritime Press, Anova Books Reviewed in 2010
Empire of the Seas
Edition: 1st
Format: HB Cloth Bound with Jacket
Illustration note:250 paintings, artworks and photographs, many in colour
Author: Brian Lavery
ISBN: 9-781-8448-6109-5
Publishers: Conway Maritime Anova Books
Price: £20
Publication Date: 2009
Publisher's Title Information
The year 1588 marked a turning point in our national story. Victory over the Armada transformed us into a seafaring nation and it sparked a myth that one day would become a reality - that the nation's new destiny, the source of her future wealth and power lay out on the oceans.
This book tells the story of how the navy expanded from a tiny force to become the most complex industrial enterprise on earth; how the need to organise it laid the foundations of our civil service and our economy; and how it transformed our culture, our sense of national identity and our democracy.
Exploring deeper into the themes raised by the television series, Brian Lavery documents the progress of the Royal Navy from late Tudor times to the First World War. He discusses its relationship with the state and the British people, analyses the tactics and initiative that created dramatic victories, and the failures and incompetence that lead to disaster.
Rising through the administrative brilliance of Pepys, Anson and Lord Sandwich and the inspirational leadership of Blake, Hawke and Nelson, the Royal Navy became the most powerful force in the world. But the conviction of Britain's navy as undisputed ruler of the waves encouraged a sterility in strategic thinking and complacency during the 'long peace' of the nineteenth 'century leading to the bruising experience of the Battle of Jutland.
The Author
Brian Lavery is a Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and a renowned expert on the sailing navy. In 2007 he won the prestigious Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award. His naval writing was further honoured in 2008 with the Society of Nautical Research's Anderson Medal. His book, Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation 1793-1815, has become the classic work on the subject and was used as a technical reference by Peter Weir and his crew during the filming of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Other recent titles by him include: We Shall Fight on the Beaches (2009); In Which They Served (2008) and Churchill Goes to War (2007). Brian Lavery was Series Consultant on the BBC series.
Struggle for the Middle Sea
Edition: 1st
32 photographs and maps
Format: Hardback
Author: Vincent O'Hara
ISBN: 9-781-8448-6102-6
Publishers: Conway Anova Books
Price: £20
Publication Date: 2009
Publisher's Title Information
A detailed and lucid analysis of the war in the Mediterranean, extensively researched from Italian and US as well as British, French and German sources
Reaches provocative but well-founded conclusions, re-examining the evidence to sidestep many of the myths that surround this campaign
A comprehensive and focused overview of all major actions and engagements in the Mediterranean right up to 1945
The Mediterranean Sea was the most fiercely contested body of water throughout the Second World war. Its strategic importance was at the centre of Naval and wider military thinking on the part of both Allied and Axis powers, and its waters witnessed a huge variety of actions and operations. These included carrier strikes, battle-line shootouts, cruiser-destroyer engagements, convoy attacks, coastal actions, amphibious assaults and bitter submarine campaigns. Despite such immense significance, however, most recent literature concerned directly with the Mediterranean war has been sparse and incomplete.
This book is a fresh study of the conflict, analysing the respective actions and performances of each of the five major naval powers involved in the Mediterranean - Britain, Italy, France, the USA and Germany. This takes place within the broader framework of a chronological, operational narrative of the entire five year campaign and further, examines without partisanship, the national imperatives that dictated much of the action. As a result, many of the popular myths that surround the modern view of the Mediterranean naval war are dispelled - for example, that Britain enjoyed a moral advantage over Italian forces, that the French were merely puppets of the German command, and that the North African campaign contributed to the eventual Allied victory. While the book concentrates on the key 1940-43 period, it also expands in scope to document the Kriegsmarine's improvised but remarkably successful fighting withdrawal at sea until 1945, an aspect of the later stages of conflict which has widely been ignored.
Such fresh viewpoints, depth of detail and wider perspectives - not to mention some controversial (though well-substantiated) conclusions - are supported by extensive research drawn from Italian and French as well as British, US and German sources. It will appeal to Naval professionals and historians as well as attracting a popular readership, and contains numerous lessons concerning littoral warfare and use of the sea that have particular resonance today.
The Author
Vincent P. O' Hara is a naval historian and the author of The German Fleet At War2004) and The US Navy Against the Axis2007). His work has also appeared extensively in periodicals and annuals including MHQ, World War II Quarterly, Storia Militaire and Conway's own Warship. He holds a history degree from the University of California, Berkeley
Praise For The Book
`Many previous histories of the war in the Mediterranean have been coloured by an implicit acceptance of a well-established mythology. Vince O'Hara brings a fresh approach to the conflict in this theatre by exploring the strategic objectives and the performance of the major combatants in a balanced way. His extension of the account to include the French and the Americans is to be commended.' John Jordan, Editor, Warship
`O'Hara steamrolls the chauvinism and "common knowledge" that have obscured what actually happened in the Mediterranean, and gives his readers what they have come to expect - both sides of a gritty story.' Richard Worth, Author Of Fleets Of World War II
We Shall Fight On The Beaches - Defying Napolean & Hitler, 1805 and 1940
Edition: 1st
Author: Brian Lavery
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9-781-8448-6101-9
Publishers: Conway - Anova Books
Price: £20
Publication Date: 2009
Publisher's Title Information
`The alarm of invasion is now more active than ever... and the whole island is in a state of vigilance, activity and solicitude.' BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, 1805
As England, in spite of the hopelessness of her military position, has so far shown herself unwilling to come to any compromise, I have decided to begin to prepare for, and if necessary carry out, an invasion of England.' ADOLF HITLER, JULY 1940
I refuse to believe that an enemy could ever get near enough to the Metropolis when the whole of England was up in arms; when patriotism was firing one of the bravest nations in Europe; and when that nation was fighting for all it held most dear and most sacred.' GENERAL DUMOURIEZ, 1804
`Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war ... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour".' WINSTON CHURCHILL, JUNE 1940
…we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender' Churchill made this defiant statement in his speech to the Commons on 4 June 1940 shortly after the BEF's rapid evacuation from Dunkirk. All that now stood between Hitler and Britain was a short stretch of water. The French on this particular occasion were Britain's allies, but just over a hundred years previously it had been their leader who had eyed Britain from across the Channel. Britain's proximity to the continent had always made it beguiling to prospective invaders. As well as the kudos of taking out a formidable opponent, Britain's fall would be accompanied by the gain of her overseas colonies and wealth, and, in Churchill's words again: 'it is that chance which has excited and befooled the imaginations of many Continental tyrants.' Brian Lavery, an established authority on the Napoleonic Wars and Second World War, articulates the parallels and defining features of these tumultuous periods in our history. He looks at the style and competence of politicians and military commanders, the leadership and example of great men such as Nelson and Churchill, examines unexplored official papers and looks at the war situation as seen by great literary figures such as Jane Austen and Evelyn Waugh, as well as the thoughts and concerns of volunteers and servicemen and women. It provides a unique insight into two distinct periods during which the British national identity was forged and strengthened.
The Author
Brian Lavery
Brain Lavery is one of Britain's leading naval historians and a prolific author. He was, until recently, Curator of Naval History at The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and is a renowned expert on the sailing navy.