1st Edition

Anglo-American Naval Relations, 1917-19

By M. Simpson Copyright 1991
    668 Pages
    by Routledge

    668 Pages
    by Routledge

    The working relationship between the Royal Navy and the US Navy began in a tentative and stuttering fashion in the dark days of 1917 and prior to the American entry into World War One they were largely unacquainted. Relations between the individual members of the two services in distant waters appear to have been cordial but at the highest level there was no real contact, since Britain’s main concern was with the more menacing Imperial German Navy. It was the German announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare from February 1917 which ensured the two would work together, but America’s involvement was gradual and uncertain until late March, and hostilities were finally declared on April 6.

    Extensive use has been made of American sources, including the Navy Department records at the National Archives, and the papers of the secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, Admirals W S Benson and W S Simms (Library of Congress), W V Pratt (Naval Historical Centre), together with material from all the papers of President F D Roosevelt and various British publications.

    PART I: Preliminary Discussions, January to April 1917, PART II: American Entry into the War, April to June 1917, PART III: General Co-operation, May 1917 to May 1919, PART IV: Anti-Submarine Warfare, April 1917 to December 1918 PART V: The Grand Fleet, June 1917 to December 1918, PART VI: The North Sea Barrage, April 1917 to November 1918, PART VII: The Mediterranean, July 1917 to February 1919, PART VIII: The Western Hemisphere, May 1917 to January 1919, PART IX Britannia, Columbia and the Struggle for Neptune's Trident, April 1917 to May 1919.

    Biography

    Michael Simpson was educated at Cambridge, Ohio State and Glasgow Universities and was lecturer
    in History and American Studies at Swansea University since 1966. He was General Editor for the
    Navy Records Society between 1994 and 2000.