British Naval Staff In The First World War

Product Description

Winner of the Society for Nautical Research's prestigious Anderson Medal 2010. Nicholas Black examines the role of the Naval Staff of the Admiralty in the 1914-18 war reassessing both the calibre of the Staff & the function & structure of the Staff. He challenges historians such as Arthur Marder & naval figures such as Captains Herbert Richmond & Kenneth Dewar who were influential in creating the largely bad press that the Staff has received subsequently showing that their influence has at times been both unhealthy & misinformed. The way in which the Staff developed during the war from a small overstretched & often manipulated body to a much more highly specialised & successful one is also examined reassessing the roles of key individuals such as Jellicoe & Geddes & suggesting that the structure of the Staff has been misunderstood & that it was a rather more sophisticated body than historians have traditionally appreciated. Black also looks at how the Staff performed in various major naval issues of the war: the role of the Grand Fleet the war against the U-boat the Dardanelles Operation & the implementation of the economic blockade against Germany. Overall the book complements & at times challenges both operational histories of the war & biographies of the leading individuals involved. NICHOLAS BLACK is Head of History at Dulwich College.