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“Much fresh material . . . an excellent historical narrative of the events leading up to the Great Scuttle, the terrible day itself and its aftermath.” —Warships: International Fleet Review On June 21, 1919, the ships of the German High Seas Fleet—interned at Scapa Flow since the Armistice—began to founder, taking their British custodians completely by surprise. In breach of agreed terms, the fleet dramatically scuttled itself, in a well-planned operation that consigned nearly half a million tons, and 54 of 72 ships, to the bottom of the sheltered anchorage in a gesture of Wagnerian proportions. This much is well-known, but more than a century after the “Grand Scuttle” many questions remain. Was von Reuter, the fleet’s commander, acting under orders or was it his own initiative? Why was June 21 chosen? Did the British connive in or even encourage the action? Could more have been done to save the ships? Was it legally justified? And what were the international ramifications? This new book analyzes all these issues, beginning with the fleet mutiny in the last months of the war that precipitated a social revolution in Germany and the eventual collapse of the will to fight. The Armistice terms imposed the humiliation of virtual surrender on the High Seas Fleet, and the conditions under which it was interned are described in detail. Meanwhile the victorious Allies wrangled over the fate of the ships, an issue that threatened the whole peace process. Using much new material from German sources and a host of eyewitness testimonies, the circumstances of the scuttling itself are meticulously reconstructed, while the aftermath for all parties is clearly laid out. The story concludes with “the biggest salvage operation in history” and a chapter on the significance of the scuttling to the postwar balance of naval power. This is an important reassessment of the last great action of the First World War.
Analyzes the fleet mutiny in the last months of the War that precipitated a social revolution in Germany and the eventual collapse of the will to fight. The Armistice terms imposed the humiliation of virtual surrender on the High Seas Fleet, and the conditions under which it was interned are described in detail. Meanwhile the victorious Allies wrangled over the fate of the ships, an issue that threatened the whole peace process.
Anglo-German naval rivalry before 1914 had been expected to culminate in a cataclysmic fleet action in the North Sea once war was declared, a battle upon which the outcome of the war would depend: yet the two fleets met only once, at Jutland in 1916, and the battle was far from conclusive. ??In his own account of the war in the North Sea, first published in 1920, Admiral Scheer, the German commander at Jutland, gives his own explanation for the failure of either fleet to achieve the decisive victory expected of it, particularly the failure of his own operation plans that resulted in the battle of Jutland. ??This book is an invaluable account of one of the most important theatres of the First World War, written by one of its most senior commanders.
While bookshelves groan with works on the capital ships of the German Third Reich, there is little in English devoted to their predecessors of the Second Reich, so this new book will fill a clear gap in its study of German cruisers of the period, from wooden-hulled corvettes, through the fusion of ‘overseas’ and ‘home’ vessels into the modern small cruisers that evolved and fought in the First World War. The book covers the full range of cruising vessels operated or ordered by the Imperial German Navy between 1871 and 1918, excluding the large cruisers, previously covered by the author’s companion volume The Kaiser’s Battlefleet. These include corvettes, avisos, sloops, torpedo cruisers, III- and IV-class cruisers and small cruisers, and are described and arranged in a chronological narrative. This includes both design and operational histories, the latter continuing down to the end of ships’ service after the fall of Imperial Germany, and it is accompanied by an extensive selection of many rare photographs. The ships’ technical details are tabulated in the second half of the book which also includes sketches of ships’ internal layouts and armour and changes in appearance over time. The authors have made extensive use of archival material, particularly relating to the political and technical background to design and procurement, and present a developmental history of this ship class which is unique in the English language. It will have huge appeal to all those with an interest in the German navy and to those who have been waiting avidly for the sequel to The Kaiser’s Battlefleet.
it ensured that friction over the Taiwan Strait did not escalate into a full-blown war. In fact, the Taiwan Patrol Force did its job so well that virtually nothing has been written about it. U.S. Navy ships acted both as a buffer between the two antagonists and as a trip wire in case of aggression. The force fulfilled the latter function twice in the 1950s -- during the first (1954-55) and second (1958) Taiwan Strait crises --
“A compelling, dramatic account of the Royal Navy's last great sea battle.” —Robert K. Massie, Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times–bestselling author of Dreadnought More than a century later, historians still argue about this controversial and misunderstood World War I naval battle off the coast of Denmark. It was the twentieth century’s first engagement of dreadnoughts—and while it left Britain in control of the North Sea, both sides claimed victory and decades of disputes followed, revolving around senior commanders Admiral Sir John Jellicoe and Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty. This book not only retells the story of the battle from both a British and German perspective based on the latest research, but also helps clarify the context of Germany’s inevitable naval clash and the aftermath after the smoke had cleared.
For over 40 years, Warship has been the leading annual resource on the design, development, and deployment of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, this latest volume combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery, and much more, maintaining the impressive standards of scholarship and research with which Warship has become synonymous. Detailed and accurate information is the keynote of all the articles, which are fully supported by plans, data tables, and stunning photographs.
Originally published in 1980 ‘Luxury’ Fleet (the phrase was Winston Churchill’s) was the first history of the Imperial German navy from 1888 to 1918. After tracing the historical background to German naval ambitions, the first two sections of the book analyse Admiral Tirpitz’s programme of building a battle fleet strong enough to engage the Royal Navy in the North Sea. The author shows the fleet in its European setting and describes the warships and the attitudes of the officer corps and seamen. The final section of the book discusses the tactical deployment of the German fleet during the First World War, both in home waters and overseas; and it weighs the balance between those who supported fleet actions in preference to those who favoured cruiser and submarine warfare.
Dramatic, illustrated account of the biggest naval battle of the First World War. On 31 May, 1916, the great battle fleets of Britain and Germany met off Jutland in the North Sea. It was a climactic encounter, the culmination of a fantastically expensive naval race between the two countries, and expectations on both sides were high. For the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, there was the chance to win another Trafalgar. For the German High Seas Fleet, there was the opportunity to break the British blockade and so change the course of the war. But Jutland was a confused and controversial encounter. Tactically, it was a draw; strategically, it was a British victory. Naval historians have pored over the minutiae of Jutland ever since. Yet they have largely ignored what the battle was actually like for its thousands of participants. Full of drama and pathos, of chaos and courage, JUTLAND, 1916 describes the sea battle in the dreadnought era from the point of view of those who were there.
A deep dive into the biggest salvage operation in history: the recovery of German warships—the Allies’ spoils of World War I—from Scottish waters. On Midsummer’s Day 1919 the interned German Grand Fleet was scuttled by their crews at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands despite a Royal Navy guard force. Greatly embarrassed, the Admiralty nevertheless confidently stated that none of the ships would ever be recovered. Had it not been for the drive and ingenuity of one man there is indeed every possibility that they would still be resting on the sea bottom today. Cox’s Navy tells the incredible true story of Ernest Cox, a Wolverhampton-born scrap merchant, who despite having no previous experience, led the biggest salvage operation in history to recover the ships. The 28,000-ton Hindenberg was the largest ship ever salvaged. Not knowing the boundaries enabled Cox to apply solid common sense and brilliant improvisation, changing forever marine salvage practice during peace and war.