The Lion and the Eagle: Anglo-German Naval Confrontation in the Imperial Era - 1914-1915: Volume 2

2014 | Biography

The second volume of The Lion and The Eagle covers the months between the outbreak of war in 1914 and the conclusion of the 'Clearing of the Seas' in the Spring of 1915. This relatively short timespan encompassed a disproportionately large number of naval actions and campaigns that spanned every ocean of the globe and represented the most intensive, and extensive, period of naval warfare in the entire conflict. The account covers the disastrous, for the British, escape of the Goeben to Turkey, the Battle of the Heligoland Bight, and the subsequent East Coast raids that culminated in the Battle of the Dogger Bank. Outside the European sphere, it describes the prolonged operations involved in disposing of Germany's overseas detachments and countering their war against trade. The battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands are fully related and re-assessed, as is the epic cruise of the Emden. Essentially, this is a history of the period when the two flawed titans, Churchill and Fisher, were at the helm of naval affairs in the British Admiralty, and when Germany had its greatest opportunities to dispute Britain's maritime supremacy.

David J. Gregory (Author)