Sondhaus, Lawrence. Navies of Europe

Naval War College Review, Wntr, 2004 by Christopher Bell

Sondhaus, Lawrence. Navies of Europe. London: Longman, 2002. 256pp. $26.95 O'Brien, Phillips Payson. Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Portland, Ore.: Frank Cass, 2001. 360pp. $63

Since the onset of the industrial revolution, navies have continuously struggled with the challenges posed by technological change. In Navies of Europe, Lawrence Sondaus examines this problem from a European perspective. Sondhaus chronicles the fortunes of both great and minor powers beginning in 1815, at a time when the navies of Europe still dominated the globe, up to the present day.

Compressing nearly two hundred years of naval history into a single volume is a difficult task, but this work is a solid introduction to the subject for the general reader. The book provides a clear overview of the major technological developments of the modern era, including such important events as the transition from sail to steam, the advent of the armored warship, the dreadnought revolution, and the rise of naval aviation. It also offers a lucid account of naval operations during these two centuries. As might be expected, the two world wars receive the most detailed treatment, but the author is equally adept at recounting, and explaining the importance of, numerous lesser-known naval operations.

One of the book's greatest strengths is its attention to the navies of minor European powers, which are usually overlooked entirely in surveys of this period. These small states were seldom on the cutting edge of naval innovation, but their fleets were still significant from a national or regional perspective. Minor powers could and did possess navies for purposes that were often unrelated to those of their larger or more powerful neighbors. Sondhaus never lets these lesser navies dominate the narrative--their inclusion sometimes reads like an afterthought--but he consistently strikes a fair balance between Europe's different states.

Europe may no longer be able to dominate the world's sea-lanes as it once did, but this book provides a useful reminder that European naval forces, though overshadowed by the United States in both resources and capabilities, remain at the forefront of technology and innovation, and continue to be capable of performing a wide variety of missions on relatively short notice.

Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond examines some of these same navies in greater depth but also includes chapters on two non-European powers, the United States and Japan. The title, however, is somewhat misleading. The fifteen articles in this collection actually pay very little attention to naval combat during the twentieth century--nearly all the chapters focus on peacetime naval policy, warship construction, and technology.

It is also worth noting that not all the states examined receive equal treatment. Italy and France drop out of the volume after their entry into the First World War, while Germany and Japan disappear with the outbreak of World War II. The United States, however, does not appear until 1919, and the Soviet Union is included only in the section on the Cold War. Britain's navy is the only one to appear in all sections of the book, and the period before World War I is only partially covered with a previously published article by Nicholas Lambert on Admiral Sir John Fisher and the concept of flotilla defense in 1904-1909.

None of this is meant as criticism, however, as the volume was clearly not intended to serve as a comprehensive naval history of the twentieth century. Both the general reader and the specialist will find much of interest here. Leading scholars in the field have written the individual chapters, and the overall quality of the contributions is high. The book's highlights include insightful overviews of the U.S. and British navies during the Cold War era by George W. Baer and Eric Grove, and a piece on the current and future direction of the Royal Navy by Geoffrey Till. Because the authors are able to examine specific navies and periods in some detail, this volume illustrates more effectively than Navies of Europe the full range of political, economic, and technological factors that typically shape a state's naval policy.

CHRISTOPHER BELL

Dalhousie University