Churchill's Navy

CHURCHILL’S NAVY by Brian Lavery

(Conway Maritime - £40) ISBN-10: 1844860353

Brian Lavery is best known for his work on the sailing navy and with a charming modesty prefaces this latest work with an acknowledgement that this is new territory for him. Modelled on his earlier work Nelson’s Navy, this book looks at the ships, the men and the organisation of the Royal Navy in World War II. It would be easy to dismiss it as a coffee table book, but that would do a great injustice to such a model of concision and clarity. It does not tell the tale of the Navy’s battles and engagements during the war, but is a very well written literary equivalent of a jigsaw, taking the various pieces of naval life and creating a succinct picture of the organisation at work. It is heavily and well illustrated, but it is the author’s helpful structure and attention to detail which makes this such an excellent work.

The book sets the scene with a short description of the pre-war period and the nature of society at that time. It continues with an account of the wartime operations of the navy briskly condensed into eight pages. The heart of the book is then an examination and description of every aspect of the work and life of the Navy at a period of rapid expansion, which presents the reality of how the navy worked, albeit sometimes imperfectly. It begins by examining the structure of naval power from the Admiralty and the various Sea Lords through Admirals, Fleets and areas of command, skills such as navigation and logistics. A third section considers enemies and allies, charmingly including the RAF and the Army, although in which category they fall is left unclear. Section Four describes the ships - their design, ship building, propulsion, armament, sensors, rigging, anchors and boats. Section Five on naval society and culture highlights manning, medicine, discipline and customs. Section Six on Officers and Ratings looks at the roles and responsibilities of each in general and of the various branches in particular, including sections on the Marines and Wrens. Section Seven describes the Fleet and its management and routines as well as the role of each class of ship and the state of each of the major bases both at home and abroad. Section Eight applies the same descriptive approach to naval aviation and Section Nine to the Submarine Service. Section Ten considers Escorts, Section Eleven Coastal Forces and finally Section Twelve on Amphibious Forces.

The whole is richly illustrated with over three hundred pieces of war art, photographs, posters, charts and drawings and is handsomely produced. Everything is here from knots to rivets, from the intricacies of mooring a Sunderland Flying Boat, to a map of Plymouth Dockyard at war, to the layout of a submarine depot ship. These are always interesting and well reproduced, but it is not always clear what their relevance is to the text in hand and some of the specially drawn diagrams seem over-fussy, but this -and the very small number of misprints - are counsels of perfection. Lavery has also obviously read widely round the subject and incorporates a well chosen and judicious range of reminiscences on various aspects of life at sea and ashore. The book is in many ways a very basic primer to the wartime structure of the Royal Navy. But it is easy to forget that the men of Churchill’s Navy are fading into history, while its methods and mores are also of another age. Those who actually know wartime naval life at first hand are a diminishing band. Lavery has uncovered that life with concision and clarity.