The Royal Navy, Seapower and Strategy Between the Wars Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I started off with the disadvantage that I had met Stephen Roskill and his wife Elizabeth on three occasions and admired him immensely. I bought all his books from Naval Policy between the Wars onwards and three of them have his inscription in them. So you will understand that I am strong admirer of Roskill. As well I found him to be a brilliant raconteur. That somebody should be writing a book apparently from its title to be covering the same ground as Roskill's 'Naval Policy betwen the Wars', I almost took to be a personal insult against myself.
Having read Christopher Bell's book three times, I cannot commend it strongly enough to readers with an interest in the Royal Navy in this era. In general it looks at the RN more from a strategy point of view and shows just how important the Singapore/Japanese thinking was for the Admiralty from 1919 to 1941. There is much new material refered to in the book, many times using sources not considered by Roskill.
Rather than dwelling on the negatives of the inter-war years, Christopher Bell shows how the RN largely managed to rebuild itself into an effective fighting machine for WW2, with the exception of the Fleet Air Arm planes.
The book is well written, is jargon free and is well composed and nicely paced.
If Roskill had been alive, I know he would have given the book a good review. There is no greater compliment.

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