Royal Navy Grand Fleet 1914-18: Britain’s Last Supreme Naval Fleet

80 pages

Mike Farquharson-Roberts PhD (Mar Hist)

This book from Osprey follows a recognisable and familiar format, viz, excellent illustrations and succinct text. It comprises five chapters and a one page bibliography. After a short introduction, the first chapter sets out ‘The Fleet’s purpose’ which in five pages covers Mahan (but no mention of Corbett), ‘Risk theory’ and the all important observation “his [Jellicoe’s] fleet’s main task was to prevent the Germans from breaking the economic blockade, which would eventually bring Germany to its knees.”

Subsequent chapters deal with ‘Fleet Fighting power’ which covers the technical aspects, including the actual composition of the Grand Fleet in 1914 and at Jutland. The longest chapter, in 31 pages, covers what would now be termed C3I, as well as the bases the Fleet operated from, personnel matters and logistics. The next chapter covers combat and analyses the fighting, particularly but not exclusively the Battle of Jutland. The authors conclusion that “…it was the Grand Fleet which had emerged victorious from Jutland and it would continue to control the North Sea battleground until the end of the war” [reviewer’s italics], is difficult to fault and emphasises that the primary role of the Grand Fleet was to stop the Germans breaking the blockade.

The only quibble is with the back cover blurb (which probably wasn’t written by the author), German warships were not ‘better designed’.

This book is magnificent, it covers an immense amount of ground, with a surprising amount of detail packed in to 80 pages. The artwork, both photographs and maps and other illustrations is outstanding. It is difficult to know who is the intended readership? However, at this price, it is recommended to readers of the Naval Review, if only to be loaned to those who question what the Royal Navy actually did in the First World War.