wise virgins.......
British Seapower and Procurement Between the Wars by G.A.H. Gordon.
Hard to recommend this 300 page book too highly. Gordon starts early with a couple of quotations to sum up the thrust of his work.
Firstly Sir George Barlow in 1924 “ There are a certain amount of foolish virgins and a certain number of wise virgins, and the Admiralty are the wise virgins because they will have oil in their lamps”
And secondly G.C. Shaw in 1938 “ Supply... forms the basis on which rests the whole structure of war, it is the very foundation of strategy and tactics”
The Admiralty, thankfully, rode roughshod over the Treasury’s sensibilities and regulations during the period of rearmament and thus made the most of Britain’s latent potential capacity for the production of the wherewithal for the RN to fight the forthcoming war.
Given the lessons learnt during the Kaiser War and the considerable historical benefits that Britain gained during that conflict in comparison to France and America it would have been a stunning dereliction of duty if this had not been the case.
Gordon also compares the British approach with that of the German approach which he concludes was much more directed towards the accumulation of war stocks rather than planning for the total subsumption of her industry to the war effort.
And finally, of course, the ultimate reality that the first 18 months of the war cost Britain 85% of her dollar and gold reserves and that in the absence of American realisation of the consequences of a British defeat that led to lend lease and the American entry to the war there would have been little option but to stop fighting.
Gordon’s hero in this tale is, I think rightly, Chatfield, who both as Third and later First Sea Lord did much that hindsight has proved to be right and sensible. A turnaround for a man who did more than most as Beatty’s Flag Captain to frustrate the efforts of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet during the Kaiser War.
There are, as always, conflicting views but there you go.
It is always a sign of a good book that the reading of it adds another dozen books to one’s Abe Books want list. This particular book, a most felicitous present, has been read in the past and will be read again in the future.
wise virgins.......
British Seapower and Procurement Between the Wars by G.A.H. Gordon.
Hard to recommend this 300 page book too highly. Gordon starts early with a couple of quotations to sum up the thrust of his work.
Firstly Sir George Barlow in 1924 “ There are a certain amount of foolish virgins and a certain number of wise virgins, and the Admiralty are the wise virgins because they will have oil in their lamps”
And secondly G.C. Shaw in 1938 “ Supply... forms the basis on which rests the whole structure of war, it is the very foundation of strategy and tactics”
The Admiralty, thankfully, rode roughshod over the Treasury’s sensibilities and regulations during the period of rearmament and thus made the most of Britain’s latent potential capacity for the production of the wherewithal for the RN to fight the forthcoming war.
Given the lessons learnt during the Kaiser War and the considerable historical benefits that Britain gained during that conflict in comparison to France and America it would have been a stunning dereliction of duty if this had not been the case.
Gordon also compares the British approach with that of the German approach which he concludes was much more directed towards the accumulation of war stocks rather than planning for the total subsumption of her industry to the war effort.
And finally, of course, the ultimate reality that the first 18 months of the war cost Britain 85% of her dollar and gold reserves and that in the absence of American realisation of the consequences of a British defeat that led to lend lease and the American entry to the war there would have been little option but to stop fighting.
Gordon’s hero in this tale is, I think rightly, Chatfield, who both as Third and later First Sea Lord did much that hindsight has proved to be right and sensible. A turnaround for a man who did more than most as Beatty’s Flag Captain to frustrate the efforts of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet during the Kaiser War.
There are, as always, conflicting views but there you go.
It is always a sign of a good book that the reading of it adds another dozen books to one’s Abe Books want list. This particular book, a most felicitous present, has been read in the past and will be read again in the future.