News, Articles and Comment

Ed. Sixteen years ago, in response to a History Today article for the 66^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Rules of the Game author Andrew Gordon examined the question of the strategic significance of the air battle (in which FAA pilots took part), and emphasized the RN’s role in stopping the German invasion before it could begin. Republished here from NR 95/1 for the 83^rd anniversary of the Battle. A 15 minute read.

Ed. In July 1997 (NR 85/3, p. 202) Lt G D Franklin reviewed the experience of the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) in the war against Japan, observing that, although the valuable combat lessons paid dividends in Korea, by the time of the Falklands conflict they had seemingly been forgotten. Republished here for the 78^th anniversary of VJ Day. A 25 minute read.

Ed. With a laudable desire for linguistic clarity worthy of David Watkin Waters, Dr Mark Barton considers the language barrier impacting the cultivation of Joint and Service-wide consensus of concept meaning in operational planning. A 10 minute read.

Ed. In his analysis of strategic lessons to be drawn from the Second World War [40/4. p. 432], Captain S. W. Roskill, RN, wrote, “It took much ‘sad experience’ to show that Malta could have been properly defended and could have been kept in use as a base.” Roger Plumtree reconsiders the Maltese narrow margin with the question in mind: was Roskill wrong? A 15 minute read.