The Royal Navy in the Cold War Years, 1966–1990 - Retreat and Revival

At 740 pages, Edward Hampshire has produced a book which is daunting to read from cover to cover. The content might not please everyone, since it contains long tracts on political and strategic aspects of decisions affecting the Royal Navy's during the second part of the Cold War. It takes 1966 as the starting point, perhaps because the decisions regarding the future of strike aircraft carriers and operations east of Suez were about to be taken. These would dramatically alter the shape and role of the Navy. The new CVA-01 carrier was cancelled, the carrier force was to be run down, and the withdrawals from East of Suez, Mediterranean and the South Atlantic (except the ice patrol ship) were imminent. The Navy would concentrate on its NATO East Atlantic role, especially anti-submarine warfare. This represents the 'Retreat' part of the book's subtitle. The 'Revive' part is very questionable: it seems tor refer to the decisions made after the Falklands conflict, which reversed some of the cuts proposed in the 1981 defence review. These did not however reverse the long term trend of decline in the size of the Navy, measured though personnel and ship numbers, which was experienced throughout the period covered in the book. The coverage of the politics behind the various defence reviews is exhaustive, and adds much to the existing literature on the subject, as a result of the author's access to, and knowledge of, official documents. However, these aspects tend to be covered at the expense of operational aspects, which also suffer from many errors. Just to give two examples: the pump jet propulsor was fitted to all the Swiftsure class except the first boat, and it was thus not new to the Trafalgar class boats, which all had this feature (rather than all but the first boat as Hampshire says). The Ton class minesweepers used in the Fishery Protection Squadron were not converted to patrol ships - they retained their sweeping gear.

It is now possible for the entire Cold War Period to be assessed more objectively and informatively than ever before. Until recently, as far as the Royal Navy was concerned, the narrative had concentrated almost exclusively on decline amidst the final dismantling of Britain’s once vast empire. However, this book’s strapline, ‘Retreat and Revival’ implies that the years under scrutiny, 1966-1990, did not witness a terminal reduction in capability but rather a re- adjustment to a much-changed, post-war world. Edward Hampshire makes best use of the experience and knowledge he gained by working for a number of years at the National Archives at Kew and currently at the Ministry of Defence’s Naval Historical Branch. It is now over thirty years since the end of the period covered in his book, meaning that the Government and MoD files of the time are open for public scrutiny. His ability to utilise a vast amount of information and to interpret it in an accessible form for the reader is possibly the most remarkable achievement of this fine work. The book starts with arguably the darkest moment, at least in modern Royal Navy history, the cancelling of the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth in 1966. The maintenance of the carrier strike force had long been the lynch-pin the RN relied upon to justify its large slice of the annual defence budget. However, the creation of the Ministry of Defence in 1964 had removed the Admiralty’s direct line to government and the Navy found itself faced with an increasingly sceptical succession of politicians and officials ready to question the relevance of the maritime dimension while ‘hell-bent’ on cost-cutting. Hampshire describes the effect on the RN during very difficult years in the 1970s from a wide perspective encompassing a range of issues – amongst them strategy, warship design, procurement, leadership and also personnel, recruitment and retention, service pay, dockyards, shore establishments and much more. Vitally, the Navy was forced to justify its existence in the face of calls for a diminishing defence budget to be spent primarily on a European, land-based strategy. A number of factors contributed to the way in which the RN was able to extricate itself and to formulate a more coherent strategy whilst painfully coming to terms with what was affordable. Following a nadir reached in 1981, the vagaries of history assisted through the unexpected intervention of the Falklands War and later the outcomes of the US Maritime Strategy which greatly favoured the RN. However, it is the fate of successive Royal Naval warship designs which rightly remain at the heart of this narrative, whether successful or not in procurement and successful or otherwise in service. The road to at least a semblance of revival was difficult and the legacy of that time is discernible to this day - as is evident in each issue of this magazine. If you are interested in our recent naval history, this book is a must for your Santa list.