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Largely narrated through eyewitness testimony, this book chronicles the untold story of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s vital contribution to the Falklands War. Far from being ‘auxiliary’, the RFA’s ships were in the thick of the fighting from the very beginning.
Set up in August 1905, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary was originally a logistic support organization, part of the Navy proper but run on civilian lines, comprising a miscellaneous and very unglamorous collection of colliers, store ships and harbor craft. Just over a century later it has evolved beyond recognition: its ships compare in size, cost and sophistication with all but the largest warships, and the RFA itself has developed into an essential arm of all three Services. It is truly the Fourth Force as it is known to its own personnel and without it, the current worldwide deployment of British service men and women would be simply impossible.This book charts the veritable revolution that has ...
Set up in August 1905, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary unofficial motto: Ready for Anything was originally a logistic support organisation, Admiralty-owned but run on civilian lines, comprising a miscellaneous and very unglamorous collection of colliers, store ships and harbour craft. This book charts its rise in fleet strength, capability and importance, through two world wars and a technical revolution, until the time when naval operations became simply impossible without it. Its earliest tasks were mainly freighting supplying the Royal Navys worldwide network of bases but in wartime fleets were required to spend much longer at sea and the RFA had to develop techniques of underway replenishment....
Here is the exhaustive and exhilarating story of HMS Venomous, one of sixty-seven V&W destroyers built at the end of the Great War that were to play a key role in the struggle to keep the sea lanes open in the Atlantic, Home Waters and the Mediterranean during the following war. Her story was perhaps the most memorable of all her class. When war broke out she was to find herself in the front line as the German blitzkrieg swept across Europe in 1940 and the V&Ws made high speed dashes across the Channel to bring troops and civilians back from Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, and prepared for the expected invasion. Later that year she and her sister-ships escorted the Atlantic convoys which suppl...
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This book argues that the UK, as a post-modern globalised state, will require means to have influence over events and opponents that threaten the UK's interests in the 21st century, and that its means is the Royal Navy. However, unlike other studies, this research emphasizes the role of logistics, especially afloat support logistics and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. In doing so, the author rejects the current theory underpinning military operations at distance, that distance degrades capability, and posits an alternative theory, that time is the key factor, for maritime-based forces. The UK must reengage with its maritime status and maintain a maritime-based capability to protect its interests in the new maritime century as a leader within the international community. The book will be of use to scholars and researchers interested in naval history and defence policy.
Britain's peacekeeping role in Southeast Asia after World War II was clear enough but the purpose of the Commonwealth in the region later became shadowy. British involvement in the wars fought in Vietnam between 1946 and 1975 has been the subject of a number of books--most of which focus on the sometimes clandestine activities of politicians--and unsubstantiated claims about British support for the United States' war effort have gained acceptance. Drawing on previously undiscovered information from Britain's National Archives, this book discusses the conduct of the wars in Vietnam and the political ramifications of UK involvement, and describes Britain's actual role in these conflicts: supplying troops, weapons and intelligence to the French and U.S. governments while the latter were in combat with Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnamese.
The Falklands Saga presents abundant evidence from hundreds of pages of documents in archives and libraries in Buenos Aires, La Plata, Montevideo, London, Cambridge, Stanley, Paris, Munich and Washington DC, some never printed before, many printed here for the first time, in English and, where different, in their original languages, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin or Dutch. It provides the facts to correct the fallacies and distortions in accounts by earlier authors. It reveals persuasive evidence that the Falklands were discovered by a Portuguese expedition at the latest around 1518-19, and not by Vespucci or Magellan. It demonstrates conclusively that the Anglo-Spanish agreement of...
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