News, Articles and Comment

Ed. Continuing the ‘Fun in the Navy’ theme, the author recalls service aboard the Porpoise-class submarine HMS Sealion.

Ed. The authors reflect on the wartime record of Col Nicoll ‘Nick’ Galbraith, US Army staff officer, who was captured at Corregidor and spent three and a half years as a Japanese POW. Originally published in the Colorado Springs Gazette. A 10 minute read.

Ed. For Remembrance Day, the author provides narratives of two RN submarine patrols, highlighting the versatility and steadfastness of British submariners during ‘the offensive’ as Stephen Roskill phrased it. A 15 minute read.

Ed. The author provides a biographical history of his father, Lt R S Frost RNR, a consummate professional who served aboard liners in the interwar period and met his fate as a Mediterranean submariner during the Second World War. A 20 minute read.

Ed. Churchill’s final volume of his war memoirs is titled Triumph and Tragedy: the theme of the volume is “how the great democracies triumphed and so were able to resume the follies which had so nearly cost them their life.” What did Churchill mean by tragedy? Was he referring to the incredible loss of life caused by the firestorms of Dresden and Tokyo or by the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Or was he lamenting the tragedy that, for most of Eastern Europe, he foresaw that one jackboot was to be replaced by another. As it wasn’t just the democracies that triumphed, the most successful victor of the Second World War was indeed Stalin claiming territories and spoils both in Europe and in Asia. Once again, we risk another tragedy as it looks increasingly likely the jackboots are on the rise.

Ed. The author outlines the current online Admiralty Interview Board (AIB) format, considered ponderous and impersonal, and proposes a reversion to the pre-Covid method of RN officer selection. A 15 minute read.

Ed. Our correspondent proposes a challenge for the NR’s readership: The author, who is aged 89 and has contributed many articles over the years to the NR, more in a humorous vein than a serious one, takes a look back at the Royal Navy in war and peace over the past century and ponders some of its lighter social changes. A 5 minute read.

Ed. An extensive and personal investigation into the microhistory of HMS Wager, a W-class destroyer that operated with the British Pacific Fleet (BPF). Written for the 80^th Anniversary of VJ Day.

Ed. This article, the second in a trilogy, focuses on the development of situational assessment by naval commanders, utilising then recent historical examples to demonstrate the synergistic properties of intelligence in modern warfare. Reproduced from the NR‘s Archive, originally published in August 2007 [95/3, p. 245]. A 30 minute read.