BEGINNING & END

In September 1939, the heart of the British & Commonwealth Navies were centuries old traditions and 200,000 officers and men including the Royal Marines and Naval Reserves. At the very top as professional head was the First Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound.

Warship Strengths

The Royal Navies, still the largest in the world in September 1939, included:

15 battleships & battlecruisers, of which only two were post-World War 1. Five 'King George V' class battleships were building.

7 aircraft carriers. One was new and five of the planned six fleet carriers were under construction. There were no escort carriers.

66 cruisers, mainly post-World War 1 with some older ships converted for AA duties. Including cruiser-minelayers, 23 new ones had been laid down.

184 destroyers of all types. Over half were modern, with 15 of the old 'V' and 'W' classes modified as escorts. Under construction or on order were 32 fleet destroyers and 20 escort types of the 'Hunt' class.

60 submarines, mainly modern with nine building.

45 escort and patrol vessels with nine building, and the first 56 'Flower' class corvettes on order to add to the converted 'V' and 'W's' and 'Hunts'. However, there were few fast, long-endurance convoy escorts.

Included in the totals were the Commonwealth Navies, including:

Royal Australian Navy - six cruisers, five destroyers and two sloops;

Royal Canadian Navy - six destroyers;

Royal Indian Navy - six escort and patrol vessels;

Royal New Zealand Navy, until October 1941 the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy - two cruisers and two sloops.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The Fleet was reasonably well-equipped to fight conventional surface actions with effective guns, torpedoes and fire control, but in a maritime war that would soon revolve around the battle with the U-boat, the exercise of air power, and eventually the ability to land large armies on hostile shores, the picture was far from good.

ASDIC, the British answer to the submarine, had limited range and was of little use against surfaced U-boats, and the stern-dropped or mortar-fired depth charge was the only reasonably lethal anti-submarine weapon available. The Fleet Air Arm (FAA), recently returned to full control of the Navy, was equipped with obsolescent aircraft, and in the face of heavy air attack the Fleet had few, modern anti-aircraft guns. Co-operation with the RAF was limited although three Area Combined Headquarters had been established in Britain. Coastal Command, the RAF's maritime wing, had only short range aircraft, mainly for reconnaissance. And there was little combined operations capability.

On the technical side, early air warning radars were fitted to a small number of ships. The introduction by the Germans of magnetic mines found the British Navy only equipped to sweep moored contact mines. Finally, the German Navy's B-Service could read the Navy's operational and convoy codes.

As the war progressed, the British & Commonwealth Navies expanded rapidly with large construction programmes, particularly escort carriers, destroyers, corvettes, frigates, submarines, landing ships and craft.

By mid-1944, 800,000 officers and men and 73,000 WRNS were in uniform.

Vastly improved radars and anti-submarine weapons had been introduced, and the tactics to use them effectively, were honed to a fine pitch.

Ship-borne and land-based aircraft became vital in the life and death struggle against the U-boat, the only concern Prime Minister Winston Churchill retained throughout six years of war.

Huge combined operations landings took place with air superiority usually assured.

Although not defeated, magnetic, then acoustic and finally pressure mines were kept under control.

Perhaps of greatest single significance, the 'Ultra' operation against the German Enigma codes allowed the Allies to penetrate to the very heart of German and Axis planning and operations.

In short, in a war that started with Polish cavalry and ended with the Anglo-US atomic bomb, the British & Commonwealth Navies faced new and continuing threats and learnt to deal with them technically, operationally and above all, successfully.

But the human price was high ....

British & Commonwealth Naval Casualties, not including RAF and Army personnel killed in maritime operations, for example, Coastal Command, Defensively-Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) etc. was:

Royal Navies - 50,758 killed, 820 missing, 14,663 wounded

Women's Royal Naval Service - 102 killed, 22 wounded

Merchant Navy - 30,248 lost through enemy action

BATTLE HONOURS,
Single Ship Actions & Royal Marine Corps Memorable Dates
1939-45

1939

ATLANTIC 1939-45 - Theatre, escort & support group ships in North Atlantic from Equator to Arctic Circle, 3rd September-May 1945

NORTH SEA 1939-45 - Theatre, all waters from Southend-on-Sea, Thames Estuary north to Shetland Isles, excluding Norwegian coastal waters

ENGLISH CHANNEL 1939-45 - Theatre, Southend-on-Sea, Thames Estuary round to Bristol, Bristol Channel; Western limit line from Ushant, France to Scilly Islands, SW England

RIVER PLATE 1939 or "Graf Spee" Action - Battle, off Uruguay, S America, 13th December 1939

1940

NORWAY 1940-45 - Campaign & theatre, North Sea from 8th April to June 1940, thereafter Norwegian coastal waters as far N as Tromso, 8th April 1940-May 1945

ADMIRAL HIPPER 1940 - HMS Glowworm, Single-ship action off coast of Norway, 8th April 1940

NARVIK 1940 - Two battles, N Norway, 10th & 13th April 1940

DUNKIRK 1940 (Operation Dynamo) - Evacuation, N coast of France, 28th May-4th June 1940

SCHARNHOST 1940 - HMS Acasta & Ardent, Single-ship action off coast of Norway, 8th June 1940

BISCAY 1940-45 - Theatre, Ushant to Cape Ortegal, from 12W to French coast

MEDITERRANEAN 1940-45 - Theatre, entire Mediterranean to line Cape Trafalgar/Cape Spartel just W of Gibraltar, June 1940-May 1945

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