Abstract
This book is essentially a collection of documents, consisting of selected despatches written by British admirals during the Second World War. As the author acknowledges in his introduction, since these despatches were destined for public consumption, they cannot be read simply as balanced and dispassionate accounts. With careers at stake, the possibility of political intervention and inter-service rivalries, there were numerous factors that might influence the despatches’ content. In the case of the Second World War, there was a considerable lag between when the despatches were written and when they were published in The London Gazette. None of the despatches became public until after the war concluded; a despatch on the disastrous convoy PQ17 to Russia, for instance, was not published until 1950.
The book begins with a report on an action against the Italian fleet off Calabria on 9 July 1940, when the Royal Navy and the Italians struggled for control of the Mediterranean. Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, submitted his despatch on the action in January 1941, months after the battle took place, and it was not published until 1948. As his despatch illustrates, these summaries offered the opportunity to throw bouquets and brickbats at both forces. Cunningham, for example, was impressed by the enemy destroyers’ use of smoke screens, but disappointed by the torpedo attacks of the British Fleet Air Arm. His highest praise was reserved for the ‘obsolescent’ Royal Navy aircraft carrier Eagle and its commanding officer Captain A. M. Bridge (p. 18). Cunningham was also the author of the despatch on the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm raid against the Italian fleet at Taranto on 11 November 1940. From the despatch, the real ‘hero’ that emerges is the aerial reconnaissance carried out by RAF Glenn Martins aircraft based at Malta.
Not surprisingly, the despatches of Admiral Sir John C. Tovey, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, often reflected a defensive tone when describing convoys to Russia. He alludes to the disappointing contribution made by the Russian side, the frequent rejection of his plans, suggestions and proposals by the Admiralty and the vagaries of the weather. By contrast, following a successful raid on the Vaagso and Maaloy islands off Norway in December 1941, Admiral Tovey was effusive in praising the conception and execution of the operation. Some despatches, whether consciously or not, reflect a tendency toward understatement. In reporting on the Dieppe raid of August 1942, which resulted in a sixty percent capture or casualty rate, Captain J. Hughes Hallett conceded that numerous ‘minor mistakes’ were made (p. 171). At least some despatches explicitly highlight the historical significance of events. In reporting the seaborne phase of the Normandy invasion (Operation Neptune) in June 1944, Admiral Sir Bertram H. Ramsay describes it as ‘the greatest amphibious operation in history’ (p. 189) with ‘the largest single minesweeping operation that had yet been undertaken in war’ (p. 205).
Each of the book’s eight chapters is provided with a concise and informative introduction. In addition to the actions mentioned above, there are chapters on the battle of Crete in May–June 1941, and the small units of Coastal Forces which operated in the English Channel and Mediterranean during 1943–1944. The despatches are weighted toward the early phases of the war, and none of the reports deal with the Far East–Pacific theatre. I believe that the book might have benefitted from more annotations. What, for example, were the ‘Duplex pistols’ referred to (pp. 36, 50)? There are numerous references to ‘E-boats’ in the text, but an explanatory footnote does not appear until the last chapter. Most of the notes are ‘Admiralty footnotes’ rather than explanations by the author.
The book includes a good collection of 31 photographs that will appeal to the general reader. I believe the despatches themselves will mainly be of interest to researchers with an interest in the specific actions covered. While the despatches cannot always be taken at face value, they nevertheless provide authoritative accounts which help cut through the fog of war. They include abundant factual information from the weather conditions to the number of casualties, and are of undoubted value in sorting out the chronology of events.