Jacket blurbs

This monumental work is not only an absorbing study of British naval history over the past fifty years, but also the vivid autobiography of a distinguished sailor who has played a leading part in the shaping of our modern Navy and been intimately acquainted with the great naval personalities of the period. Sir Frederic was Captain of the Iron Duke at Jutland; Jellicoe's Chief of Staff after World War I; a Sea Lord in Lord Beatty's Board of Admiralty; and, later, C.-in-C. of the China Station, 1933-1936. During World War II he was first Commodore of North Atlantic convoys and subsequently Chief of Naval Air Services. Admiral Dreyer is one of Jellicoe's literary trustees and has included in this book a considerable amount of information about that great Admiral. During the six appointments in which he worked with jellicoe, the latter instructed Dreyer in his views on Naval Warfare.

This important book will undoubtedly join the ranks of enduring writings about the Royal and Merchant Navies.

ADMIRAL SIR FREDERIC DREYER, who went to sea in 1893, served for three years afloat as Gunnery Officer to Admiral of the Fleet Sir A. E. Wilson, V.C., O.M., and at the Admiralty with Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, G.C.B., O.M., and in six appointments with Jellicoe, including being Captain of H.M.S. Iron Duke in the Battle of ‘Jutland and later his Chief of Staff on Empire Cruise (February 1919 to February 1920) "to advise India and the Dominions how they could best contribute to the Naval Defence of the Empire". Very unfortunately for the British Empire, Jellicoe's advice was not taken when the Washington Naval Conference sat in 1921. We paid for that in blood and tears in the Pacific in the Second World War. Later he was for two and a half years one of Beatty's Sea Lords, and Beatty then got him appointed to command the Battle Cruiser Squadron for two years, and in addition Dreyer administered two large aircraft-carriers.
After that Admiral Dreyer was again a Sea Lord for two and a half years and then for three years Commander-in-Chief, China Station. He was the last holder of that office to visit Japan, and retired in 1939. He gave warning of the Japanese menace, and lectured at all our War Colleges on returning to England in 1936. He persuaded the Admiralty in the last two and a half years before war broke out to prepare the Merchant Navy for war.

For the first winter of the Second World War he served as Commodore of North Atlantic Convoys, and then held the following posts: Anti-invasion duty with G.O.C.-in-C. Home Forces, visiting the beaches of the British Isles and advising how to step invaders landing; Chairman of a Committee..to report on the progress of our anti-U-Boat warfare. (They reported few U-Boats sunk. At the end of the war their very unpopular report was found to be entirely correct) ; Inspector of Merchant Navy Gunnery, to teach the Merchant Navy how to shoot down Goering's aircraft attacking at masthead height; that disposed of that deadly menace. Chief of Naval Air Services (1942-43).

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter
1My Early Days (1878-96)
2 Sub-Lieutenant and Lieutenant (1896-1903) .
3 Naval Progress (1805-1907) (Lord Fisher's tremendous achievement) .
4 Gunnery Lieutenant (1903-7)
5 Service in the Dreadnought, and at the Admiralty, and in the Vanguard (1907-10)
6 Flag Commander to Jellicoe (1910—I2)
7 My First Commands (H.M.S. Amphion and Orion) (1912-14) .
8 Outbreak of the First World War (1914)
9 Before Jutland (1914-15)
10 The German Fleet's Failure (1914-15) .
11 The Battle of Jutland (31st May to 1st June, 1916) .
12 Jellicoe's Note on "Errors made in Jutland Battle", &c.
13 Jellicoe's Changes in Tactical Orders after the Battle of Jutland .
14 The Grand Fleet after Jutland ( June to November, 1916) .
15 Jellicoe as First Sea Lord (1917)
16 At the Admiralty (1917-18) .
17 Chief of Staff to Jellicoe on Empire Mission in H.M.S. New Zealand (February 1919 to February 1920) .
18 At the Admiralty and in Command of H.M.S. Repulse (1920-23)
19 A War Course, then a Lord of the Admiralty and Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (1924-27)
20 Command of the Battle Cruiser Squadron (1927-20)
21 A Lord of the Admiralty and Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (1930-33)
22 Commander-in-Chief China Station (1933-36)
23 My return from China and Afterwards (1936-39) .
24 Rebuilding the British and U.S. Navies (1933-45)
25 The Outbreak of the Second World War. Commodore R.N.R. of Ocean Convoys (1939-40)
26 Anti-Invasion Duty (1940) .
27 Chairman of Admiralty Committee on the Assessment of U-Boat Losses (1940) .
28 Staving off the Deadly Menace of Goering's Masthead-height Aircraft Attacks on Allied Merchant Shipping
29 Chief of Naval Air Services (1942-43)
3o My Struggle to Obtain More Aircraft to Protect North Atlantic Convoys
31 The Merchant Navy is our Jugular Vein
32 Fire-watching and other Activities ( 1943-45 and 1948)

Addendum Chapter

1. One Look Back .
   In the years before the First World War, with notes on the Armada, Trafalgar, Crimea and Shell-fire. Tsushima—First World War. Jutland and First Battle of the Atlantic.
   Jellicoe on a year's Empire Mission to India, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, gives valuable advice about War in the Pacific.
   The Washington Naval Treaty in 1922 reduces British to a one- hemisphere Navy.
   Carrier-borne air strikes.
   Anti-aircraft gunnery.
   Japanese Naval Exercises and remarkable torpedoes.
   Invention of Radar and Asdics. Outbreak of the Second World War. U.S.A.'s rgio Two-Ocean Naval Expansion Bill. The Japanese Pearl Harbour treachery, 7.12.41. War in the Pacific.
   A Note on Russia and Germany and Italy in the Second World War. Account of Battle of the River Plate.
   A Comparison of maritime war in the two World Wars, the lessons learnt in the First being used in the Second.
   A brief note concerning China between the years 1920 and 1949
2. A Brief Note on the Five Successive Generations of the Dreyer Family who Fought the Germans

Index

There are "POSTSCRIPTS TO CHAPTERS", Information to enable students of naval war to appreciate the Battle of Jutland, . . . and many other subjects, Photographs, Jutland battle diagrams and maps.

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