Naval Power in the Twentieth Century

Naval Power in the Twentieth Century PDF

Author: N.A.M. Rodger

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1349138606

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It is a century since Mahan and his disciples taught the world that a battlefleet was indispensable to a great power. Great and not so great powers still keep powerful navies today, but we have no generally-accepted principles to explain why. In this book historians and naval officers from Britain, the United States and other countries study the use of naval power over a century, and ask what it is for, and what it can do. It will be essential reading for modern historians, policy-makers and strategists.

China as a Twenty-First Century Naval Power

China as a Twenty-First Century Naval Power PDF

Author: Michael A McDevitt

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 1682475441

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Xi Jinping has made his ambitions for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) perfectly clear, there is no mystery what he wants, first, that China should become a "great maritime power" and secondly, that the PLA "become a world-class armed force by 2050." He wants this latter objective to be largely completed by 2035. China as a Twenty-First-Century Naval Power focuses on China's navy and how it is being transformed to satisfy the "world class" goal. Beginning with an exploration of why China is seeking to become such a major maritime power, author Michael McDevitt first explores the strategic rationale behind Xi's two objectives. China's reliance on foreign trade and overseas interests such as China's Belt and Road strategy. In turn this has created concerns within the senior levels of China's military about the vulnerability of its overseas interests and maritime life-lines. is a major theme. McDevitt dubs this China's "sea lane anxiety" and traces how this has required the PLA Navy to evolve from a "near seas"-focused navy to one that has global reach; a "blue water navy." He details how quickly this transformation has taken place, thanks to a patient step-by-step approach and abundant funding. The more than 10 years of anti-piracy patrols in the far reaches of the Indian Ocean has acted as a learning curve accelerator to "blue water" status. McDevitt then explores the PLA Navy's role in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. He provides a detailed assessment of what the PLAN will be expected to do if Beijing chooses to attack Taiwan potentially triggering combat with America's "first responders" in East Asia, especially the U.S. Seventh Fleet and U.S. Fifth Air Force. He conducts a close exploration of how the PLA Navy fits into China's campaign plan aimed at keeping reinforcing U.S. forces at arm's length (what the Pentagon calls anti-access and area denial [A2/AD]) if war has broken out over Taiwan, or because of attacks on U.S. allies and friends that live in the shadow of China. McDevitt does not know how Xi defines "world class" but the evidence from the past 15 years of building a blue water force has already made the PLA Navy the second largest globally capable navy in the world. This book concludes with a forecast of what Xi's vision of a "world-class navy" might look like in the next fifteen years when the 2035 deadline is reached.

Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century

Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century PDF

Author: Richard Hough

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2003-05-27

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1468304534

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The major naval powers—Britain, America, Russia, and Japan—have all played a part in the theater of war at sea over the last one hundred years. Naval fighting has always been a rapidly developing affair, and in no century have changes been so swift and fundamental. In 1905, when this book begins, the first major engagement between ironclad fleets—the Battle of Tsu-Shima—took place in the Far East and decided the outcome of the Russo-Japanese war in Japan’s favor. What follows are the mighty sea battles of our century, graphically reconstructed for the reader. Victories, defeats, and mutinies at sea, from the battle with the Bismarck to the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal.

At War at Sea

At War at Sea PDF

Author: Ronald H. Spector

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2002-04-30

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0140246010

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Beginning with a gripping account of one of the most decisive naval battles in history-the 1905 battle of Tsushima between the Japanese and Russians-and ending with the sophisticated missile engagements of the Falklands and in the Persian Gulf, naval historian Ronald Spector explores every facet of the past one hundred years of naval warfare. Drawing from more than one hundred diaries, memoirs, letters, and interviews, this is, above all, a masterful narrative of the human side of combat at sea-real stories told from the point of view of the sailors who experienced it. Exhaustively researched and fascinating in detail, At War at Sea is a monumental history of the men, the ships, and the battles fought on the high seas. "Superb . . . Spector's account provides evocative and fresh perspectives on cultures, technologies and innovations that influenced sailors' lives and shaped naval warfare." (The San Diego Union-Tribune) "Monumental . . . Many books have recorded the history of the United States Navy, but few have meshed that history with that of all other major navies-an unusual comparative technique that brings into often startling relief the virtues and flaws of our own navy." (The Washington Post)"

Great Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century

Great Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century PDF

Author: Jean-Yves Delitte

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2020-10-21

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1682475638

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In the history of civilizations, sea power has always played a preponderant role. This symbol of a nation's scientific and military genius has very often been the deciding factor during major conflicts, putting the names of several clashes down into legend. With this collection, Jean-Yves Delitte and Giuseppe Baiguera plunge into the heart of three of the twentieth century's greatest naval battles. TSUSHIMA. Newly opened to the world, Japan found itself to be weak and subject to the whims of larger nations. What followed was decades of industrialization and modernization as Japan sought to catch up to advanced nations and control its own destiny. In 1905, when Japan's expansionist policies clashed with the Russian Empire over Korea, Japan was poised to flex its muscle and stun the world using the same naval supremacy that opened its borders half a century earlier. JUTLAND. May 31, 1916: the British Royal Navy and the German Kaiserliche Marine are preparing to confront one another in the North Sea off the Danish coast of Jutland. This will be the final great confrontation of World War I by sea and one of the greatest epic battles in the history of seafaring. Despite heavy losses, which are greater than the Germans', the English reaffirm their naval supremacy over the seas of the world, and Germany, all too conscious of having escaped disaster, will opt to confine the majority of its ships to its ports. MIDWAY. December 7, 1941: the Empire of Japan strikes an early blow against the United States Navy at Pearl Harbor. In just a matter of hours, the era of the battleship would come to an end and the age of the aircraft carrier would begin. In June 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy and its carrier fleet would try to seize the initiative again by attacking the island of Midway. What unfolds is an epic carrier duel, the likes of which the world has never seen. In the end, Japan would never recover from the losses at Midway, and the United States would carry this momentum until Japan's ultimate defeat.

Navies in Modern World History

Navies in Modern World History PDF

Author: Lawrence Sondhaus

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2004-05-04

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9781861892027

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"Navies in Modern World History traces the role of navies in world history from the early nineteenth century, through both World Wars, to the onset of the twenty-first century. Lawrence Sondhaus examines the navies of Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Japan, Brazil, Chile and the Soviet Union, demonstrating the variety of ways in which these countries have made decisive use of naval power, and the challenges these navies faced when assembling equipment and stores, training sailors, and undertaking various missions, and shows in what ways the results helped change the course of modern world history." "This book also deals with aircraft carrier design and naval aviation in the second half of the twentieth century, and the leading role of navies and shipbuilders in key technological innovations of the nineteenth century and early twentieth, including advances in steam power, armour, guns and torpedoes. Today, technological break-throughs are centred around naval stealth and maritime propulsion systems. Special attention is devoted to the evolving state of naval technology, showing how the relative industrial capabilities of seafaring countries have been reflected in their maritime building programmes, providing an important link between the evolution of modern national fleets and the broader history of the period." Editeur

British and American Naval Power

British and American Naval Power PDF

Author: Phillips O'Brien

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 1998-04-23

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 0313370346

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U.S. and British naval power developed in quite different ways in the early 20th century before the Second World War. This study compares, contrasts, and evaluates both British and American naval power as well as the politics that led to the development of each. Naval power was the single greatest manifestation of national power for both countries. Their armies were small and their air forces only existed for part of the period covered. For Great Britain, naval power was vital to her very existence, and for the U.S., naval power was far and away the most effective tool the country could use to exercise armed influence around the world. Therefore, the decisions made about the relative strengths of the two navies were in many ways the most important strategic choices the British and American governments ever made. An important book for military historians and those interested in the exercise and the extension of power.

The Royal Navy and Maritime Power in the Twentieth Century

The Royal Navy and Maritime Power in the Twentieth Century PDF

Author: Ian Speller

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-02

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 113426982X

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This book adopts an innovative new approach to examine the role of maritime power and the utility of navies. It uses a number of case studies based upon key Royal Navy operations in the twentieth century to draw out enduring principles about maritime power and to examine the strengths and limitations of maritime forces as instruments of national policy. Individual chapters focus on campaigns and operations from both World Wars and a series of post-1945 crises and conflicts from the Palestine Patrol in the 1940s to Royal Navy operations in support of British policy in the 1990s. Each case study demonstrates critical features of maritime power including: operations during the transition to war; fleet operations in narrow seas; logistics; submarine operations; the impact of air power on maritime operations; blockade; maritime power projection; amphibious warfare; jurisdictional disputes and the law of the sea; and, peace support operations. The contributors to this book all have considerable experience lecturing on these issues at the United Kingdom Joint Services Command and Staff College, where maritime campaign analysis is used to teach the principles of maritime power to officers of the Royal Navy. The book combines an authoritative examination of critical Royal Navy operations during the twentieth century with a sophisticated analysis of the nature of maritime power. As such it is of both historical interest and contemporary relevance and will prove equally valuable to academic historians, military professionals and the general reader.

Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond PDF

Author: Phillips Payson O'Brien

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-11

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1136335609

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This work examines how the navies of Great Britain, the USA, Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, France and Italy confronted the various technological changes posed during different periods in the 20th century.

British Naval Intelligence through the Twentieth Century

British Naval Intelligence through the Twentieth Century PDF

Author: Andrew Boyd

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2020-08-30

Total Pages: 757

ISBN-13: 1526736608

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An acclaimed military historian examines the vital role of British naval intelligence from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Cold War. In this comprehensive account, Andrew Boyd brings a critical new dimension to our understanding of British naval intelligence. From the capture of Napoleons signal codes to the satellite-based systems of the Cold War era, he provides a coherent and reliable overview while setting his subject in the larger context of the British state. It is a fascinating study of how naval needs and personalities shaped the British intelligence community that exists today. Boyd explains why and how intelligence was collected and assesses its real impact on policy and operations. Though he confirms that naval intelligence was critical to Britains victory in both World Wars, he significantly reappraises its role in each. He reveals that coverage of Germany before 1914 and of the three Axis powers in the interwar period was more comprehensive and effective than previously suggested; and while British power declined rapidly after 1945, the book shows how intelligence helped the Royal Navy to remain a significant global force for the rest of the twentieth century.