Sources
Over 95 per cent of the written material in this volume is based on official Admiralty documentation held in what was the Public Record Office (now The National Archives) at Kew in London. Most of the remainder came from official files held in the US Archives in Washington DC, with a small percentage taken from institutional publications and finally, a selection of commercial titles.
What follows is a general look at a few of the documents consulted, and with each example there are a few words of description (a complete list of official source material is given in the Bibliography).
For the chronological list of events, encounters and engagements, material in the ADM 199 group formed the great bulk of the data, while information for the summaries came from a wide variety of files spread over several ADM groups.
There are currently around 300,000 Admiralty files listed at The National Archives. Some of these are not bound into hardcover volumes but held together by string tags. Occasionally this has the effect of crumpling the sheets to the extent that they tear badly and are unable to be read in full. Documents contained in these types of files are often not in any real order, having been thrown together with little thought for future historical reference. There are instances of accounts that form part of a narrative that have been included in the files; their contents commented upon, and then for reasons unknown, removed. For example, the cruiser Bonaventure’s action with the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in late December 1940: the file notes the inclusion of Bonaventure’s narrative, with specific reference to the performance of main armament. Their Lordships were particularly interested in this aspect as this was the first time that the 5.25in armament had been used in combat. Going through the file, one notes the absence of the cruiser’s report. As the file is a hard-cover bound volume and there is no trace of anything being removed, this can only mean that Bonaventure’s report was removed before the file was bound, prior to being transferred to archival status. At the time of writing (October 2017) the author has not located the missing account.
The more files that are consulted, the more likely that the researcher/historian will come across ambiguities, omissions, contradictions and errors in the official records. Some of these are subtle, some are not. The more complex the account, then the greater the percentage of the above.
It helps to read ALL the individual ship accounts of a battle, because the main narrative will rarely cover everything that happened. The main narrative can be a selection and rejection account, and although generally accurate, it is also never absolutely complete. In addition to reading the narratives, it always pays to read the attached minutes made by various interested parties. They are always pertinent and of value.
It is common when consulting official papers as opposed to commercial publications that the former, in so many instances, contradicts the latter. For example, the claim that the Bismarck was never hit by torpedoes fired by destroyers on the night of the 26/27 May 1941. When one reads (IN FULL) the individual destroyer accounts, one is left in no doubt that the Bismarck was indeed struck, and more than once.
For the assiduous toiler there will be unexpected rewards: It has long been somewhat of a mystery as to why Admiral Tovey (C-in-C Home Fleet) formed his search pattern in the manner that he did, in the aftermath of the sinking of the Hood, and post-war written interviews between Admiralty and Tovey that were conducted while he was still active did nothing to clear things up. However, buried in a minor file that was produced after Tovey had retired, was the answer, and it related to the inaccurate number of shore DF stations known to the Chief Navigating Officer of the Home Fleet. The error led directly to the explanation of Tovey’s chosen course, proving that it pays to look at files and documents that appear from their titles to be of little or no value. Always look, never assume. One WILL find things of use. A good example of this was the material extracted from the diary of South Atlantic Command covering the January to June 1941 period, as it gave the intelligence taken from enemy radio transmissions coupled with DF-ing, as to how cruisers were then deployed as a counter to armed merchant raiders. Most of the diary entries are routine and mundane, but threaded through, here and there, are gems.
For the summary on cruiser anti-invasion duties, the diaries for the various Home-area Commands were invaluable, with data as to deployment and especially ship readiness, i.e., those vessels under repair or refit; for what reasons, and for how long they would be non-operational. The Northern Patrol diaries might appear to some to be of minimal interest, however, the overview that the entries give, especially the end-of-month summaries, offer an insight into just how arduous this type of work was, especially for the smaller ships, and the cumulative effects of continual very bad weather. The diaries do show just how valuable were the liners taken into naval service and converted into armed merchant cruisers. Although the effect of weather upon ships and the operations of the Northern Patrol are written about in official publications and histories, such as the major work by Captain Roskill, a full reading of the monthly Northern Patrol diary entries bring home to the reader just how awful the environment was. The entries have a relentless effect on a reader, that other writings seldom have.
The Home Fleet and Mediterranean Fleet diaries are full of items of substance, that other Command diaries do not have. The Mediterranean diary from June 1940 to December 1941 could not be fuller, and as expected, it stimulated a raft of official writings dealing with all forms of combat experience, ones that the Home Fleet did not enjoy. There are no Mediterranean Fleet diaries for the period of April and May 1941, probably because of the sheer volume of actual combat. In its place are a series of narratives that describe in great detail the entire Cretan campaign, including an account of the land battles. These narratives are in effect a history, and in bound volume form, take up several hundred pages of an ADM 199 file. Normally, diary entries are very much an abbreviated account of events, and the resumption of the Mediterranean Fleet diaries in June 1941 shows this, and even though that month was full of intense action (the Syrian campaign), only the briefest coverage is given in the diary entries.
Entries will sometimes include notes on ship refits, e.g. in the Mediterranean Fleet diaries there is reference to the removal of cruiser catapults in order to install light Italian 20mm Breda anti-aircraft (AA) mountings, the cruisers Neptune and Orion being noted in this respect. In the December entries there is mention of the cruiser Naiad acting as a fighter directing ship for night fighters operating out of Alexandria; it should be noted that German night bombers were active over the Suez Canal in late 1941. Items such as this do not give details as to the results of such events, and the author can find no outside reference to flesh it out, but just the mention of things like this are of interest. At the end of each monthly entry there are usually remarks by the C-in-C on a variety of subjects. These can be long or short, detailed or not, but always of value. The style of the monthly summary would sometimes vary depending on the circumstances and pressures of the moment. Researchers should note that depending upon the intensity and duration of events, following the correct procedure in terms of paperwork was sometimes/often put aside; the month of June 1941 for the Mediterranean Fleet is a good example of this. For some events, the written descriptions appear to be very complete; the Bismarck affair from beginning to end is one of them, while others such as the encounter at First Sirte are thin to say the least.
Of particular interest were the German Naval Staff war diaries. In the immediate post-war years these were translated into English and later put onto microfilm. Unfortunately the monthly entries from September 1940 to December 1941 appear to be missing. However, the earlier entries offer fascinating snippets of information, such as the account of problems with faulty torpedoes and how they were solved. As expected there is a complete absence of anything political in the entries. Where checking of the entries was possible, no significant differences between British and German accounts were found.
As a general overview of German surface deployment and policy, the volume ‘German Surface Warships; policy and operations in WWII’ by former Admiral Weichold proved to be more than useful. Compiled in the post-war years from official German documentation, Weichold did not hold back with his opinions, and his accounts of the problems that the German Navy had with their machinery was illuminating at minimum. Volume VI of the GC&CS histories, ‘The German Navy’ provided useful supplementary data.
Weichold had been the chief German liaison officer to the Italian Naval High Command in Rome, and he was designated after to write histories of the Italian Navy in the 1939–43 period, a task for which he was well suited. The titles were:
A. Axis Naval Policy and Operations in the Mediter ranean 1939–43.
B. The War at Sea in the Mediterranean Parts I and II 1940–43.
These offer a third-party view into many aspects of the Italian Navy at several levels. Weichold’s opinions of the Italian Navy are, to put it mildly, damning! But, as part of his duties he had access to Italian naval reports, operational orders, deployments and policy, and so even allowing for a certain amount of ‘axe-grinding’ his accounts cannot be dismissed, and line up with British operational narratives and those assessments that were made through intelligence sources at the time, and confirmed at a later date after the fighting had ended.
Royal Navy action reports sometimes contain comments, blunt at times, on the Italian Navy. Admiral Cunningham who was the C-in-C of the Mediterranean Fleet from the beginning of the war to March 1942 did not hold back in putting his views in writing. His detailed comments that appear in various documents, e.g. Fighting Experiences, and the Mediterranean Fleet diaries are cutting, and like those of Weichold, have merit. Useful for assessing Italian tactics were the various track charts of surface engagements and events; of special interest is the one in ‘The Royal Navy and The Mediterranean Vol II (phase II)’, that shows the movements of British and Italian warships during the destruction of the Italian convoy ‘Beta’ on the night of 9 November 1941 by Force ‘K’ out of Malta. This track chart was compiled from official RN and Italian reports, and show the tracks of certain Italian destroyers leaving the scene of the battle out to a distance of approximately 17 miles; see the author’s opinions on this in ‘Final Thoughts on the Italian Navy’. The command structure, communications and the physical make-up of the Italian Navy came from the GC&CS history, Vol XVI ‘The Italian Navy’ by Dorothy Atkinson. Additional information came from Vol XX ‘The Mediterranean’ by F Jones, and Vol XXI ‘The Mediterranean’ by Thornton.
The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean
Vol I, 1939 – October 1940.
The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean
Vol II Phase I. Air and Sea Power, November 1940–
December 1941 .
Vol II Phase II. Support to the Army ,
June–September 1941.
By Commander Titterton R N, written 1952.
Published commercially in 2002 by Frank Cass Publishers, London.
Produced as a classified history for official internal use, that used British, German and Italian documentation to supplement and correct earlier battle summaries. It remained under cover until 2002 when it was published commercially. Well-written, balanced and with substantial detail on many individual battles and encounters. Commander Titterton is somewhat gentle in describing the efforts of the Italian Navy, possibly for post-war political reasons.
Confidential Admiralty Fleet Orders
These were published during wartime on a frequent and regular basis, and dealt with topics on every aspect of ship operation, equipment, weaponry, tactics, damage control, electronics etc.
Confidential Books
These publications covered a vast range of subjects from the bureaucratic to the partially dramatic; a great number deal with the operations of the many marks of guns and mountings, plus all other types of weapons, communications, firefighting, codes etc. Several thousand were published in the 1939–45 time frame, and for many years were housed in the Naval Historical Branch in London. When this office moved to Portsmouth, Hampshire, access to these books ceased, despite their being downgraded to archival status.
Battle Summaries
These are accounts of specific battles, events and operations over time frames and geographical areas. The details of a number of Mediterranean convoys, shore bombardments, invasions. Various cruiser and destroyer actions outside of the well-known ones are described. All are drawn from official narratives, diaries and logs, and although not always complete they give a very good starting point for future in-depth research by historians. Many of these summaries were subject to revised editions as additional data came to light; e.g., the Bismarck affair is a good example of this practice. There are also a number of expanded Battle Summaries, e.g., Arctic Convoys, which has 193 numbered pages, with many charts and maps that supplement the story.
Ship Damage Reports
An extensive series of files that describe in detail the action damage sustained by individual warships in wartime.
History of British Sigint (Signals Intelligence) from GC&CS
Currently (2017) the published list numbers 107 volumes, of which only a small percentage is available to the public. Those that are, contain information that underpins the history of WWII in a manner that many other official histories do not. Much of the data in the code breaking summaries came from these volumes.
Official Histories from GC&CS
A multi-volume archive that describes in detail the organisation and make-up of the German and Italian navies in wartime, with the emphasis on the Germans; covering U-boats, surface units, small battle units etc. Extremely useful when used together with the Sigint histories. Some of the data in the summaries on the German and Italian navies were drawn from these volumes.
Papers and Files from the Naval Intelligence Division and Operational Centre
Very much a mixed bag, and many of the files individually are a mixed bag, being a thrown-together collection of individual sheets that cover a wide range of reports, assessments etc that deal with German activity, procedures and equipment. Included are translations of essays by former German flag officers, such as Dönitz, Krancke, Heye. Admiralty weekly and quarterly intelligence reports, combined intelligence committee daily reports, Ultra bulletins and others, proved very useful.
The Naval ‘Y’ Service in Wartime
A short, twenty-page, mainly bureaucratic history, but one that lays out the foundation of the service, and therefore valuable.
Mediterranean Fleet Gunnery Experience 1940–1
This file, which does not have an archive reference, contains a varied group of papers, including detailed notes on the gunnery aspect of the Bismarck affair.
The section on Mediterranean Fleet Gunnery Experience is a detailed, to the point assessment of the Italian and Royal Navy’s performance in battle.
Some Developments in Naval Tactics 1939–45
Written soon after the war, this file is a general overview of weapons and tactics in the light of six years of operational experience. A number of naval encounters are described, but not all of them are referenced by name or date or location or ship names. This made using the file difficult and a little frustrating.
Handbook on the Use of VS Special Equipment 1945
Essentially a catalogue of wartime Infra-Red (Special Equipment). This was of some general use as it contained some background historical data.
Handbook for Naval Rangefinders and Inclinometers vol 1
A general description of rangefinders.
Handbook for Naval Rangefinders and Inclinometers 1945
Stereoscopic Rangefinders and Training of Stereoscopic Rangetakers 1945
A training manual.
Radio Warfare 1941–50
A collection of loose reports gathered together in an unbound folder. This file deals with the interception of enemy signals and the countering of same, including the fit of equipments to ships at sea. There is a docket on anti-jamming devices for electronic and non-electronic forms. Most of the information is technical or semi-technical in nature, involving design specifications, policy etc. The author found it interesting as it describes to some extent the very early work and shipborne fits, which do not seem to appear anywhere else in the written literature.
Progress in Tactics 1939
There were several editions produced. This one is a 100-page handbook that describes tactics in all forms, plus security, communications, night fighting, reconnaissance etc. It is useful, because it can be compared to later editions that cover the changes that the war brought about.
The Pocket Gunnery Book 1945
A general description of guns, control systems, gunnery, gun mountings, ammunition and the marriage of radar to high- and low-angle gunnery.
Home Fleet Technical Orders 1943
This file has a collection of assessments, tactics, fleet orders, recommendations etc from the period March 1940 until well into 1943. Much of the documentation is amendments, supplements and addenda to existing papers. A varied lot, but of great interest.
Fleet Tactical Instructions
Various dates of issue. Contents generally as for Home Fleet Technical Orders above.
HMS Dido. War Orders Book
Every warship was issued a book specific to that ship that described in detail, how the ship was organised for combat, for damage control, breakdowns and operation during various states of readiness. Dido’s War Order Book appears to have been the only one to have survived out of several thousand. This one was located in the US archives in Washington DC.
HF/DF in Ships 1934 –54
A collection of documents that span the development of DF equipment, along with many examples of the operational use of same. Special attention is given to North Atlantic convoy actions. Of interest are the very early (late 1930s) experiments on ships at sea with High-Frequency Direction-Finding (HF/DF). There are also accounts of VHF and UHF developments. The first practical HF/DF sets are covered (3/41) in detail. as are the first of the VHF/DF sets (mid-1942).
Gunnery Review January 1945
This was a regular publication that covered all aspects of gunnery, tactics, accuracy et al. This particular issue has some brief accounts of late-war surface actions.
General Review of Electronics and Research in the German Navy
A series of lectures delivered by Dr Heinz Schlicke in July 1945. There were ten in all, describing among others, U-boat camouflage, radar and search receivers, infra-red equipment and direction-finding at sea. Published by the Division of Naval Intelligence, November 1945.
German Battlecruiser and Light Cruiser Developments 1945
A review of all German cruiser designs from 1934 to 1944 that were under consideration but never completed. Compiled from captured German naval archives, the file has several detailed plans of ships that never were.
New German Battleship and Carrier Development
Similar to the above, but not as extensive.
ASDIC in Cruisers
A brief but detailed history of the fitting and use of ASDIC in cruisers. Well written and informative.
Admiralty Use of Special Intelligence in Naval Operations
A nearly 400-page history that gives a brief but useful introduction as to how ‘Special Intelligence’ was used operationally in Home waters, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
INSTITUTIONAL PUBLICATIONS
Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects
The Royal Navy at the Outbreak of War. The Repair and Upkeep of H M Ships and Vessels in War. The Work of the Admiralty Ship Welding Committee. Notes on the Behaviour of H M Ships During the War.
The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland
Fire Fighting in H M Ships.
The Mariners’ Handbook 1973 Edition.Published by The Ministry of Defence .
A useful reference for using the correct terms for weather conditions, sea states etc.
Admiralty Charts for the Mediterranean, and Pilot Charts for the North Atlantic, The Arctic and the Mediterranean
The large scale of these charts gives a better feel for distances than a small-scale map, while the pilot charts give a month-by-month coverage of weather conditions, that have not changed in any meaningful way over the last 100 years.
Kingsley, F, The Development of Radar Equipments for the Royal Navy, 1935-45
An impressive item, compiled in the main from records of HM Signal School, and the Admiralty Signal School. It concentrates on the use of radar combined with various weapons and weapons systems. It steps outside of radar to describe the development of High Frequency Direction Finding, and on this subject the coverage in unfortunately incomplete and spotty, especially for the late 1930s into 1940. The story of radar countermeasures is also thin. However, overall, and partly because of the sources consulted, this book is worth reading.
COMMERCIAL PUBLICATIONS
British Mechanical Gunnery Computors.
Brooks, John
Fire Control for British Dreadnoughts.
Brown, David K
From Nelson to Vanguard.
Written by a former Deputy Director of Naval Construction, from the perspective of a ship designer. Almost all of the writing tends to be semi-technical, but is useful for outlining some of the problems encountered in producing warships within strict displacement limitations. The sources for the book are to a large degree taken from constructors' notebooks, which for decades were unavailable to the public. There are no specific examples of design and construction that relate to specific battles or encounters with the enemy, but the book is nevertheless of value.
Friedman, Norman
British Cruisers: Tw o World Wars and After.
One of a series of design histories by a well-known author who uses almost 100 per cent official documentation for his work. In this volume, every class of cruiser is very well covered and supplemented by numerous detailed line drawings. For those that wish to know the design history of every cruiser class, this volume is mandatory reading.
NOTES ON NOTES
It is normal in a serious book to provide endnotes, or chapter notes, or footnotes. I however, decided after some thought and discussion with friends and fellow writers, to eschew this practice, for the following reasons:
(i) Endnotes
I dislike them. A reader’s concentration is broken by having to note the reference to the text and chapter heading, and to then locate the note itself in the back of the book; a time consuming and irritating practice.
(ii) Chapter notes
As above, but to a lesser extent.
(iii) Footnotes
Although I find these to be of value and usually acceptable, especially those given in official histories, they are very much selective, as indeed they have to be. If one were to include footnotes for the summary sections in a comprehensive manner, there would often be more space devoted per page to the notes than to the actual text. With this in mind, I decided to reference generally, the more provocative statements that appear in the summaries, ones that describe the German and Italian navies. There will no doubt be some that will dispute the data in parts of this work, but apart from the few commercial publications listed (all of which have used official material), everything else has come directly from official sources.
INTERNET SOURCES
There is currently (2017), great reliance placed upon using the internet for information; and for non-serious works that deal with naval subjects of the Second World War, this may be acceptable. However, there is no substitute for researching and using original official source material. Data found on the internet is so very often unsourced, but even when it is, the references are often commercial ones. On occasions, official documentation is available, but there are unfortunately many instances where these have been incorrectly copied. A serious researcher must be careful when relying on retyped material, especially when it is found on the internet. This author has personally noted his own writings incorrectly copied and referenced, and almost always posted by persons who remain very anonymous. Material is sometimes updated, frequently without the update being dated! Internet material in certain cases is subject to peer review, and or, fact checked, however and quite often the reviewer’s name is unknown, which makes said peer review absurd. And … when real names are attached, they do not give their credentials, which makes any review subject to review!