News, Articles and Comment

Ed. In this second instalment of his reflections on the Battle of the Atlantic [84/1, p. 68], former Naval Staff historian David Waters, wary of the pernicious abuses of language so frequent in military affairs, asked the difficult question of why the convoy lessons of the First World War were not learnt before the Second. Republished here as part of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. A 20 minute read.

Ed. In 1995 staff historian David Waters began publishing in the NR [83/4, p. 349] a series of commentaries on the Battle of the Atlantic, a subject he had mastered while working on The Defeat of the Enemy Attack upon Shipping (1957). He was inspired in this case by the renewed naval history discourse, evident in a review of S. Howarth and D. Law, eds., The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1945 (1994), the International Naval Conference on the battle held in Liverpool in 1993, and related writings in the NR [83/1, p. 84 & 83/2, p. 159]. Republished here as part of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. A 15 minute read.

Ed. Originally presented at St. Nick’s Church, Liverpool, on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023, as part of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic NR Chairman Vice Admiral Sir Clive Johnstone examined the conflict in Ukraine today, and emphasized how the WRNS of the Second World War were vital to the defeat of the U-boat threat. A 10 minute read.

Ed. In 1952, during his work on The War At Sea, 1939-1945, official historian Stephen Roskill published in the NR [40/4, p. 432] this appraisal of the Royal Navy’s strategic role in the Second World War, with particular attention to the subject of convoy operations and trade protection. Reprinted here as part of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. A 15 minute read

Ed. Former Naval Staff historian D. W. Waters originally presented this essay as the Presidential Address to the British Society for the History of Science in 1978. It was reprinted in the NR over two volumes in 1984 [72/3 & 72/4]. Waters’ conclusions, based on the rigorous data analysis conducted for the Defeat of the Enemy Attack upon Shipping (1957), demonstrated mathematically the superiority of escorted convoys over independent sailings during the U-boat conflicts of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. Reproduced here as part of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. A 40 minute read.

Ed. In a June 1946 article for the Commonwealth and Empire Review, Admiral Sir Frederic Dreyer detailed the vital importance of anti-submarine warfare for the protection of Britain’s merchant shipping. An expanded version of the article was published in the NR [34/3, p. 243], with Admiral Dreyer taking to task the ‘bomber mafia’ who had favoured the strategic destruction of Germany over the imperative to protect Britain’s convoy lifelines. Admiral Dreyer’s article is republished here as part of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. A 20 minute read.

Ed. The first of a two-part series, as a diversity and inclusion resource for Black History Month, the author examines the role of black labour in the Atlantic maritime system, from which the Royal Navy’s black sailors were drawn during the 18th century. This instalment focuses on the tragedy of black slavery as a component of the Atlantic system, and the remarkable achievements of those slaves who nevertheless became Royal Navy sailors. A 30 minute read.

Ed. By the Editor – Charles Lightoller’s story demonstrates the difference an individual can make during a crisis, given courage, versatility, commitment to duty – and a peculiar degree of luck. A 15 minute read.

Ed. The author surveys the naval career of John Perkins, a black Jamaican and contemporary of Nelson, whose buccaneering career in the Caribbean met with considerable success and embodied the Royal Navy’s trade interdiction mission in those waters. A 15 minute read.