Penguin Classic Military History S.
2 total works
The catastrophe which overtook Europe from 1914 to 1918 was a conflict so terrible and so gigantic that it is referred to simply as "The Great War". In this text, Corelli Barnett traces the history of the war from its origins in a Europe wracked with political and ethnic tensions, through the years of bitter struggle, appalling losses and destruction on a titanic scale, to its bitter end in the fatally-flawed armistice of 11th November 1918.
Against the background of the Royal Navy's great strength in 1918 and its depleted state in 1939, the author relates the operational story of World War II at sea in Europe and the Far East. He explores the problems of command, control and intelligence; of the dominant personalities and inter-relationships such as between Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admirality and later, Prime Minister; and the economic, technological and industrial aspects such as ship design, the building industry and Britain, together with her sea power, in decline at the end of the war.