Naval Policy Between the Wars, Vol. 1: The Period of Anglo-American Antagonism, 1919-1929

The great enigma of the period between the wars—how was it that Germany, defeated and allegedly disarmed, was able within 20 years to turn the tables on the victors and to come within an ace of world domination?—has been studied from many angles. Economics, ideologies, the conflicts between nations and between classes, the characters of statesmen and the consequences of the peace treaties—all these have been scrutinized for any light they might throw on the question. But no independent scholar has hitherto been able to examine the sources, still less to write the history of defense police in this tragic and bewildering period.

Here at last is a first and very substantial step toward that end. Captain Roskill, the foremost authority on recent naval history, has based this book on the fullest use of British and American official archives and on a wide range of private papers in both countries, including the Royal Archives at Windsor.

As a history of naval policy in that period when the aircraft was threatening to displace the battleship as the arbiter of sea power this book will be indispensable to any student of warfare. There is much original material on the war, of intervention in Russia, on the Greco-Turkish war and the Chanak incident as well as such matters as the secret rearmament of Germany under the Weimar Republic, the effect of the Washington naval treaty on the Japanese, and the conduct of international conferences.

The main theme of the book is that stated in its subtitle, but there is also a discussion of the struggle between the protagonists of the aircraft and the battleship, both in Britain and America, the squabbles between the Allies over the disposal of the German Fleet, the attempts to achieve security through disarmament and the impact of the League of Nations on international affairs. Captain Roskill has been at pains to understand and convey to the readers the characters and outlook of the principal politicians of all parties and of the leading servicemen who influenced naval policy during the period.