On this day in 1918, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines conducted one of its most daring raids in history, after which eight VCs were awarded. The target was the entrance of the canal from Zeebrugge to Bruges in Belgium. By blocking the exit from the canal with sunken blockships the Admiralty hoped to prevent the German flotillas of U-boats and destroyers based in Flanders from gaining access to the Channel and southern North Sea. 25% of all Allied shipping losses were due t

It is often mistakenly believed that it was the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare that brought the USA into WW1 on 6 April 1917. Some even think it was the sinking of the Lusitania, but she was sunk on 7 May 1915. Few people are aware of how the pacifist president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, was influenced to declare war by the activities of a department of the Admiralty under the leadership of its wily Director of the Naval Intelligence Division, Ca

In October 1909, Britain’s Secret Service was formed and headed by Commander Mansfield Cumming. Cumming was born on 1 April 1859 and joined the Royal Navy in 1871. In 1889, he changed his surname to Smith-Cumming following his marriage to a wealthy heiress. Unfortunately, his career in the RN was cut short on account of his recurring sea sickness and he settled in Bursledon the River Hamble in Hampshire as a retired officer specialising in boom defence. However, he was re

This month in 1942, Commander Fleming, Naval Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI), put forward a memorandum to his boss, Admiral Godfrey, entitled ‘ Proposal For Naval Intelligence Commando Unit ’. He had gained the idea from the success of a similar unit of German Military Intelligence ( Abwehrkommando ). The objective of the new British unit was, ‘to accompany forward troops when a port or naval installation is being attacked and, if the attack is success

This weekend the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) celebrated in Sydney Harbour the 125th anniversary of its formation on 1 March 1901. Throughout its history there have been close bonds with the Royal Navy and the two navies fought together in both World Wars. In my WW1 submarine novel, The Custom of the Trade , I describe the operations of HMAS AE1 in the Dardanelles and I have based much of the first of my WW2 novels on WW2 mine disposal teams, They Have No Graves as Yet , on

The Royal Naval Division fought as infantry and with distinction in Gallipoli and on the Western Front from the first few weeks of WW1 right through to the end. It was regarded as one of the finest fighting units and thus, was often assigned some of the toughest tasks and, accordingly, suffered a higher percentage of casualties than many of the army divisions. 47,000 sailors and marines were killed or wounded during the war. But why were sailors serving in the trenches alo

The first of the E -class submarines was launched in 1913 and the class was to prove to be the backbone of the Royal Navy’s submarine fleet. Unlike their predecessors, these submarines were capable of operating out of sight of land for several weeks and equipped with diesel engines (the petrol engines tended to catch fire!). The boats (as submariners called them in self-deprecation) served in the North Sea, Baltic and Dardanelles. The Royal Australian operated two of the s

This week 109 years ago, on 8 March 1917, the first Russian Revolution broke out. Clearly, it had a devastating effect on the Tsarist monarchy, but, also, on the conduct of the war on the Eastern Front. Less well-known is the impact it had on Britain’s Baltic Submarine Flotilla. Commander Francis Cromie Royal Navy was in command of six E-class and five smaller C-class submarines in the Baltic. The submarines were there to stop the German import of iron ore from Sweden, so

Hugh Syme was born on 20 February 1903 in a suburb of Melbourne. I have posted several times on the subject of Britain’s most decorated WW2 hero, John Bridge, but Syme was the only other officer to be awarded both the George Cross and two George Medals. Syme was a keen yachtsman and, on the outbreak of WW2, he joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR). He subsequently volunteered to join a contingent of other RANVR personnel sailing to Britain in late 194

A few years ago, I approached Admiral of the Fleet Lord Michael Boyce to request he write a foreword for my second WW1 submarine novel, Where the Baltic Ice is Thin . When I was a junior officer on the staff of Captain Tenth Submarine Squadron, Lord Boyce was Captain Submarine Sea Training in the same building, so our paths crossed. Many years later, when I retired from the Royal Navy to join Goldman Sachs, our paths crossed once more when he was the Chief of Defence Staff

Strategic bombing is designed to destroy a country's ability to wage war by bombing from the air the enemy's infrastructure, such as factories, railways, and refineries, so essential for the production and supply of war materials. The strategy was, of course, heavily employed by the Luftwaffe , RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF during WW2, but the original concept was introduced by the Royal Navy in WW1. It was agreed that the Royal Flying Corps would concentrate on reconnais

John Bridge was born on 5 February 1915. At the outbreak of WW2, he was a school master teaching physics in Sheffield, but despite being a pacifist, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). He was one of eight physics masters who volunteered for the Royal Navy's new Rendering Mines Safe (RMS) units. The Germans were dropping one-ton magnetic mines on Britain’s cities to create terror and destruction and the Admiralty needed brave men with scientific knowledge to

I have long admired the literary works of John Buchan, author of The Thirty Nine Steps , and last year, was pleased to visit the museum dedicated to his memory in Peebles. However, aside from his fame as an author, Buchan made a significant contribution to Britain’s war effort in WW1 and he went on to be a great politician and statesman. He died in office as the Governor General of Canada in 1940. Buchan served as Private Secretary to Lord Milner in southern Africa from 190

As Australia celebrates its National Day, I pay tribute to the brave Australian submariners of HMS AE2 in WW1. The submarine was one of two E -class boats built for the Royal Australian Navy. It’s ship’s company comprised a mix of Australian and British sailors, but the commanding officer was an Irishman, Lieutenant Commander Hew Stoker, an actor and cousin of Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula . AE2 joined a squadron of British and French submarines at Tenedos, an island

Most people have heard of Walter Owen Bentley’s achievements in the automotive industry. Not only did he found Bentley Motors (selling it to Rolls Royce in 1931), but he was later a design engineer for Lagonda and Aston Martin, too. However, in researching the sequel to my WW1 naval aviation novel, The Wings of the Wind , I discovered that Bentley had served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) during WW1 and designed two brand-new aero engines for the RNAS. Bentley had al

It was reported in the news this week that the UK Government plans to amend the law to allow the mobilisation of retired servicemen aged up to 65 for ‘warlike preparations’ in the face of the growing threat in Europe from Russia. Those who have suggested that the age has been set too high might wish to note the example of Sir Walter Cowan. Cowan was born in 1871 and joined the Royal Navy in 1884. He saw action in the Battle of Omdurman and the Boer War, and in 1917, was app

Sopwith was a pioneer of aviation and his designs had a massive impact on the nascent Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). In June 1912, he established the Sopwith Aviation Company at Brooklands. His Chief Test Pilot was Harry Hawker. Whilst the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was constrained to purchasing their aircraft from the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, felt that the RNAS had unique requirements. As a result, whereas the RFC be

On 4 March 1941, Lieutenant Harold Newgass, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), was awarded the George Cross for an extraordinary piece of courage on the night of 28 November 1940 in Liverpool. That night, the Luftwaffe bombed the city and dropped a pair of magnetic mines on the gasworks at Garston in the south-west of Liverpool. Newgass had served as a Territorial Army officer in France during WW1 and rose to the rank of captain, but on the outbreak of war, he immediatel

On 25 December 1914 aircraft of the Royal Naval Service conducted the world’s first bombing raid launched from the sea.  Three cross-Channel steamers were especially converted to carry seaplanes and together, twelve miles north of Heligoland ,they launched seven seaplanes.  Their target was the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven.  Unfortunately, the raid was hampered by low cloud and thick fog inland, so the aircraft had to approach the target at very low altitude, exposing them to a

The English-born Irish Nationalist Robert Erskine Childers is famous for his writing of The Riddle of the Sands, now a film starring Michael York and Simon MacCorkindale. He wrote the book in 1903 as a warning to the British government of the coming of war with Germany and the need to make preparations against invasion. He was an avid sailor and based his book on his sailing experiences off the Frisian coast. As a fervent believer in the British Empire, he volunteered to s