The Crisis of British Sea Power

This work is a close examination of the conditions surrounding and precipitating the last gasp of British naval hegemony and events that led to its demise. Great Britain undertook a massive naval building program in the late-1930s in order to deter aggression and secure dominance at sea against her nascent enemies, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. But the failure of the policy of Appeasement to deter war or delay it into the early 1940s left the building program only partially complete, and the exigencies of war led to the cancellation of the critical but costly and time-consuming "Lion" class battleships, and the slow delivery of the "1940 battlecruiser" (HMS Vanguard) and two vital fleet carriers. Adding to these issues, the fall of France spurred the USA to initiate her own, even larger, naval building program, and together with the entry of the powerful and capable Imperial Japanese Navy completely overwhelmed Britain's position as the world's premier naval power. This book will be of value to those interested in the history of the Second World War, British strategy, and the British navy.

James P. Levy is the author of The Royal Navy's Home Fleet in World War II (2001) and Appeasement and Rearmament (2006). He earned his doctorate in Modern History from the University of Wales and teaches at Hofstra University.

1. Prelude to crisis: May 1941 to November 1941 2. Crisis: December 1941 3. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul January-March 1942 4. The nadir of Royal Navy fortunes April-July 1942 5. An Anemic Recovery: August and Operation "Pedestal" 6. Finding its place in a new world: September through December 1942