The Last Century of Sea Power, Volume 1

H. P. Willmott

Description

The first volume of a magisterial study of naval power in the 20th century

The transition to modern war at sea began during the period of the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Spanish-American War (1898) and was propelled forward rapidly by the advent of the dreadnought and the nearly continuous state of war that culminated in World War I. By 1922, most of the elements that would define sea power in the 20th century were in place. Written by one of our foremost military historians, this volume acknowledges the complex nature of this transformation, focusing on imperialism, the growth of fleets, changes in shipbuilding and armament technology, and doctrines about the deployment and use of force at sea, among other factors. There is careful attention to the many battles fought at sea during this period and their impact on the future of sea power. The narrative is supplemented by a wide range of reference materials, including a detailed census of capital ships built during this period and a remarkable chronology of actions at sea during World War I.

Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Maps
List of Appendices
Part I. Introduction. Definitions and Terms of Reference
Chapter 1 The Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895
Chapter 2 The Greco-Turkish war of 1897
Chapter 3 The Spanish-American War of 1898
Chapter 4 The Shifting Balance of Power
Part I Appendices
Part I Notes
Part II. Introduction: From Port Arthur to Bucharest, 1898 to 1913
Chapter 5 The Russo-Japanese War: The First Phases
Chapter 6 The Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima and its Aftermath
Chapter 7 The Dreadnought Naval Race
Chapter 8 Prelude to the First World War
Part II Appendices
Part II Notes
Part III. Introduction: From Sarajevo to Constantinople, 1914 to 1922
Chronology of the First World War at Sea
Chapter 9 The First World War: The War in Northern Waters
Chapter 10 The First World War: Tsingtao and the Dardanelles
Chapter 11 The First World War: Naval Support of Operations in Africa
Chapter 12 The First World War: Action in the Baltic
Chapter 13 The First World War: The Black Sea, Otranto Strait, and Other Matters
Chapter 14 The Legacy of the First World War
Part III Appendices
Part III Notes
Part IV. Conclusion: Not so much Finis as . . .
Part IV Appendix
Part IV Notes
Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• World War I
• Military
• Naval
• Première Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 09 juin 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9780253003560
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE LAST CENTURY OF SEA POWER
THE LAST CENTURY OF SEA POWER

Volume One: From Port Arthur to Chanak, 1894-1922
H. P. Willmott
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
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2009 by H. P. Willmott
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Willmott, H. P.
The last century of sea power : from Port Arthur to Chanak, 1894-1922 / H.P. Willmott.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-35214-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Naval history, Modern-19th century. 2. Naval history, Modern-20th century. I. Title.
D362.W68 2008
359 .0309041-dc22
2008015018
1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09
Dedicated to FY1645 and in Praise of Toleration, Uncertainty, and Dissent
CONTENTS
List of Maps
Preface and Acknowledgments
Part 1. Definitions and Terms of Reference
Introduction
ONE
The Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895

Appendix 1.1. The Pacific and the East Indies in the Nineteenth Century
TWO
The Greco-Turkish War of 1897
THREE
The Spanish-American War of 1898

Appendix 3.1. The Actions in the Philippines and the American Order of Battle

Appendix 3.2. The Campaign on Puerto Rico
FOUR
The Shifting Balance of Power

Appendix 4.1. The German 1898 Building Program

Appendix 4.2. The Boxer Rebellion and South Africa
Part 2. From Port Arthur to Bucharest, 1898 to 1913
Introduction
FIVE
The Russo-Japanese War: The First Phases

Appendix 5.1. Submarines and the Russo-Japanese War

Appendix 5.2. The Japanese Attack at Port Arthur, 8 February 1904

Appendix 5.3. The Second and Third Blocking Operations

Appendix 5.4. The Order of Battle in the Action of 10 August 1904

Appendix 5.5. The Fate of Russian Ships with the 1st Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur
SIX
The Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima and Its Aftermath

Appendix 6.1. The Fate of Russian Ships with the 2nd and 3rd Pacific Squadrons

Appendix 6.2. Japanese Warships Sunk and Damaged at the Battle off Tsushima

Appendix 6.3. The Campaign on Sakhalin

Appendix 6.4. The Opening of the Portsmouth Conference
SEVEN
The Dreadnought Naval Race

Appendix 7.1. British and German Battleship and Battlecruiser Programs and Construction, 1905-1914: Summary by Year

Appendix 7.2. British and German Capital Ship Programs and Construction, 1905-1913

Appendix 7.3. The Battleships and Battlecruisers of the Major Powers, 1905-1913
EIGHT
Prelude to the First World War
Part 3. From Sarajevo to Constantinople, 1914 to 1922
Introduction

Appendix Part 3.Intro.1 British Trade in the First World War

a. The Volume of Imports Entering British ports in 1913, 1917, and 1918 by Commodities

b. Cargoes and British Ports, 1913-1919

Appendix Part 3.Intro.2 Shipping and the Major Allied and Neutral Powers in the First World War: Gains and Losses
NINE
The War in Northern Waters

Appendix 9.1. The Battle off Heligoland, 28 August 1914

Appendix 9.2. The Battles off Coronel, 1 November, and the Falklands, 8 December 1914

Appendix 9.3. The Battle off the Dogger Bank, 24 January 1915

Appendix 9.4. The Battle of Jutland, 31 May-1 June 1916

Appendix 9.5. The Scale of Convoy Escorts Assigned to Various Ports, 1917-1918 and the Expansion of the British Navy between 1914 and 1918

a. The Scale of Convoy Escorts assigned to Various Ports, 1917-1918

b. The Wartime Expansion of the British Navy

Appendix 9.6. Convoys and Losses: May 1917-November 1918

Appendix 9.7. U-boat and Shipping Losses in the First World War

a. Total German U-boat, Aggregate Allied and Neutral, and British Shipping Losses to Enemy Action and Sinkings by German Regional Formations in the First World War

b. German Figures Relating to the Sinkings of Allied and Neutral Merchantmen by Submarines and by Regional Commands

Appendix 9.8 The Campaign against Shipping: High Seas and Coastal Convoy Sailings and Losses

a. Convoys to and from British Waters

b. Coastal and Short-Haul Convoys
TEN
Tsingtao and the Dardanelles
ELEVEN
Naval Support of Operations in Africa
TWELVE
Action in the Baltic
THIRTEEN
The Black Sea, Otranto Strait, and Other Matters

Appendix 13.1 Other German Units outside European Waters

Appendix 13.2 Russian Destroyer and Torpedo-Boat Losses in the Baltic and Black Seas
FOURTEEN
The Legacy of the First World War

Appendix 14.1 Warship and Auxiliary Losses, 1914-1918

a. Tabular Representation of Warship and Auxiliary Losses of the Allied and the Central Powers, 1914-1918

b. Battleships and Battlecruisers Lost in the Course of the First World War

Appendix 14.2 The Arrival of British Imperial and Dominion Formations in Europe
Part 4. Not So Much Finis as . . .
Conclusion
Appendix Conclu.1 The Battleships, Battlecruisers, Aircraft Carriers, and Cruisers with the British Navy, 1913 and 1935
Chronology of the First World War at Sea
Notes
Selected Bibliography
General Index
Index of Warships, Auxiliaries and Merchantmen, and Submarines
MAPS
MAP 1.1. The Japanese Perspective: The main theaters of operations in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, 1984-1895 and 1904-1905, respectively.
MAP 2.1. The Greco-Turkish War of 1897: The Thessaly and Epirus sectors.
MAP 3.1. The Battle of Manila Bay, 1 May 1898.
MAP 3.2. The naval battle off Santiago de Cuba, 3 July 1898.
MAP 5.1. The Russo-Japanese War: The initial Japanese operations.
MAP 5.2. The Russo-Japanese War: Second- and third-phase Japanese operations.
MAP 6.1. The journey of the 2nd Pacific Squadron from Europe to the Far East, October 1904-May 1905.
MAP 6.2. The action off Tsushima, 27-28 May 1905.
MAP 8.1. The Italian-Turkish and Balkan wars: The Balkan peninsula.
MAP 8.2. The Italian-Turkish and Balkan wars: The Aegean.
MAP 9.1. The North Sea: The perspective of the British Grand Fleet.
MAP 9.2. The Southwest Approaches, English Channel, and southwest North Sea.
MAP 10.1. The moment of the mine: The Dardanelles operation, 18 March 1915.
MAP 12.1. The Baltic theater of operations: The Russian perspective.
MAP 13.1. The Black Sea theater of operations: The Russian perspective.
MAP 13.2. The Mediterranean theater of operations.
MAP 13.3. The Adriatic theater of operations.
MAP 14.1. The dismemberment of Turkey under the terms of the Treaty of S vres.
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
V ERY RESPECTFULLY, AND in light of lengthening shadows of mortality, I would in these few lines set out two matters that together provide the raison d tre of The Last Century of Sea Power . The first matter, relating to one s own rationale as a historian, is something that I had never committed in public, but it is provided here because it forms the basis of the approach to the subject that in its turn gave rise, per se, to The Last Century of Sea Power . This first matter, the shaping of one s own philosophy and career, really has its basis in three episodes, only two of which will be presented here, both of which were only minutes in length.
The first of these episodes was really the first time I thought, and I was some 24 years of age and had just presented my first lecture. A matter of months before I had completed two years post-graduate study at university, and my thesis subject was the Liberal governments and the Navy Estimates/dreadnought building program, 1906-1910, and because I had worked on these subjects I understood navies and therefore I understood the U.S. Navy and therefore I understood the Pacific War, 1941-1945-or that was how logic (of a kind) ordained that I was the member of the department obliged to give this specific lecture. I gave the lecture and at its end my head of department came to me and told me that the lecture had been very good indeed and that he had much enjoyed it: he congratulated me and told me that the lecture had been very well organized and delivered. I went to my office, sat down at my desk, lit a cigarette-how things have changed!-and sat there a moment, and then the thought crossed my mind: I had described the Pacific War but had not explained any aspect of it. I realized, with a start, that my head of department really did not understand the difference between description and explanation, betwee