White Ensign: The British Navy at War, 1939-1945 Review

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(More customer reviews)For several hundred years a relatively small island off the northwest coast of the Eurasian land mass managed to project its power and influence throughout the world, hitting at least a magnitude higher that what `should' have been its weight. One of the principal mechanisms for projecting its power was its navy. This book is the "swan song," of that navy, and quite a song it was. Though the "few" in the RAF in the Battle of Britain may have been more famous, it was the global reach, and the dedication of the many who served in the Royal Navy that was an indispensable aspect of Britain's and the Allies ultimate victory in the Second World War. Roskill has written the best single volume account of the Royal Navy in action in World War II.
The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 led Britain and France to declare war, but their armies and air forces took no action initially, and this period was dubbed the "phony war." The exception was the Navy, and there is an excellent chapter on the Royal Navy winning a battle it "should," on paper, have lost, when the cruiser Exeter and the destroyers Ajax and Achilles took on the pocket battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee, off the River Plate, in South America, sinking the German ship in December, 1939. Prior to America entering the war, there were numerous other significant actions: on the strategic scale, both the fight to maintain supply conveys from America against the constant U-boat threat, and the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk, in the late spring of 1940, following the collapse of France, were essential victories, though hard-slogged, and with casualties. Also during this period there was an immense tactical victory, when the Royal Navy took on the fastest and most powerful battleship the Germans had, the Bismarck, sinking it in May, 1941. Only 110 of a crew of 2000 plus survived; still, a much better percentage than the three who survived from the HMS Hood, sunk in the same battle. Roskill only briefly covers one of the more controversial intra-Allied actions of the war, when the British Navy sank much of the French Navy in the port of Oran, so that it would not become a German asset. Almost 1300 French sailors lost their lives in this action.
Only three days after America's entry into the war, disaster struck the Royal Navy when two of its most powerful capital ships, the battleship, HMS Prince of Wales, and the heavy cruiser, HMS Repulse, were sunk in the South China Sea, by Japanese aircraft. The lessons of this disaster reverberate today. Air Power is essential, and without air `cover,' ships are just `sitting ducks." Six months later, the Americans were able to effectively use airpower, based on four aircraft carriers, to defeat the Japanese in the Battle of Midway, usually cited as the turning point in the Pacific War.
Throughout the war, the Mediterranean was viewed as the responsibility of the Royal Navy, and the battles against the Italians and the Germans are recounted. The ship which had the most famous name in the history of the navy, the Ark Royal, which, in this re-incarnation, was an aircraft carrier, was lost to a submarine's torpedo. The sister ship of the Bismarck, the Tirpitz, which had been sheltered in a Norwegian fjord, was eventually taken out by the R.A.F. The navy concentrated on the supply conveys, including those through the Arctic, to support Russia. The navy also played essential logistical and support roles in the landings in North Africa, Italy, and, of course, D-Day.
The book contains numerous black and white photos of the navy in action, and the major battles are accompanied by excellent maps. There are also appendixes covering the statistics of the war, and a valuable index. Roskill's book is not aimed at the general reader. It was first issued in 1960, but if you have the interest in this important facet of the Second World War, there is no better book on the British Navy at War. 5-stars.


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