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NAVIES OF EUROPE
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To my mother, Marcella Sondhaus – my first teacher

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Navies of Europe
1815–2002

LAWRENCE SONDHAUS
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PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED

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First published in Great Britain in 2002

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CONTENTS

List of maps and plates vii

Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Maps xv
1 From Sail to Steam, 1815–40 1
2 Midcentury Transitions, 1840–55 23
3 The Emergence of the Armored Warship, 1855–78 50
4 Torpedo Warfare, Cruisers, and the Jeune École, 1878–89 85
5 The Battleship Renaissance, 1889–1906 106
6 The Dreadnought Era and First World War, 1906–22 140
7 The Interwar Period and Second World War, 1922–45 204
8 European Navies in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–91 275
9 The Present and Future of European Navies 322
Bibliography 338
Index 353
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LIST OF MAPS AND PLATES

Map 1 Atlantic Ocean xv

Map 2 Mediterranean Sea xvi
Map 3 Baltic Sea, North Sea and western Pacific Ocean xvii
Map 4 Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean xviii
Plate sections, at centre of book
Plate 1 British ship of the line Thunderer (left) and Austrian frigate
Guerriera (center) in the bombardment of Sidon (26 September 1840).
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 2 The German fleet of 1848–52. Historische Sammlung der
Marineschule Mürwik.
Plate 3 British ship of the line Agamemnon in the bombardment of
Sevastopol (17 October 1854). Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 4 The Anglo-French Baltic fleet (1854). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 5 French armored frigate Gloire (1860). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 6 British armored frigate Warrior (1861). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 7 British turret ship Captain (1870). Naval Historical Center (US),
Basic Collection.
Plate 8 Prussian paddle steamer Loreley (left) and screw corvette
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VIII N AV I E S O F E U R O P E , 1 8 1 5 – 2 0 0 2

Arcona (center) engage Danish warships at the Battle of Jasmund (17

March 1864). Historische Sammlung der Marineschule Mürwik.
Plate 9 Austrian screw ship of the line Kaiser, the day after engaging
Italian ironclads at the Battle of Lissa (20 July 1866) Naval Historical
Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 10 Italian battleship Duilio (1880). Naval Historical Center (US),
Basic Collection.
Plate 11 German turret ship Preussen (1876) of the Grosser Kurfürst
class, with casemate ship Hansa (1875) in background. Historische
Sammlung der Marineschule Mürwik.
Plate 12 German Sachsen-class battleship (1878; pictured in 1895).
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 13 French protected cruiser Milan (1885). Naval Historical
Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 14 French protected cruiser Sfax (1887). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 15 British protected cruiser Blake (1892). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 16 German torpedo boat (mid-1880s) with battleship Sachsen
and rigged warships in background. Historische Sammlung der
Marineschule Mürwik.
Plate 17 German Siegfried-class coastal battleship (pictured in early
1890s). Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 18 French submarine Gymnote (1888). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 19 British pre-dreadnought Royal Sovereign (1891). Naval
Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 20 German Gazelle-class light cruiser (pictured circa 1900).
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 21 German pre-dreadnought Kaiser Wilhelm II (1900), of the
Kaiser Friedrich III class. Historische Sammlung der Marineschule Mürwik.
Plate 22 German pre-dreadnought of the Deutschland class (1906).
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 23 German armored cruiser Scharnhorst (1907). Naval Historical
Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 24 French submarine Narval (1900). Naval Historical Center (US),
Basic Collection.
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L I S T O F M A P S A N D P L AT E S IX

Plate 25 HMS Dreadnought (1906). Naval Historical Center (US), Basic

Collection.
Plate 26 German battle cruiser Von der Tann (1911). Naval Historical
Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 27 British battle cruiser Lion (1912). Naval Historical Center (US),
Basic Collection.
Plate 28 German dreadnought of the König class (1915). Naval
Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 29 Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Tegetthoff (1913). Naval
Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 30 British carrier Argus (1918). Naval Historical Center (US), Basic
Collection.
Plate 31 Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Viribus Unitis sinking in
Pola harbor (1 November 1918) after being mined by Italian saboteurs.
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 32 British battle cruiser Hood (1920). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 33 German ‘pocket battleship’ Admiral Graf Spee (1936). Naval
Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 34 Soviet battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolutsia (ex-Gangut) in
1936, after modernization. Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 35 Italian battleships Littorio and Vittorio Veneto (1940). Naval
Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 36 German battleship Bismarck (1940). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 37 German battleship Tirpitz (1941), on station in Norway.
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 38 British carrier Ark Royal (1938). Naval Historical Center (US),
Basic Collection.
Plate 39 German S-boat (1939). Naval Historical Center (US), Basic
Collection.
Plate 40 British batttleship Queen Elizabeth in 1943, after repairs.
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 41 French carrier Arromanches (ex-British Colossus) off Vietnam.
Naval Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 42 British cruiser Belfast off Korea (1952). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
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X N AV I E S O F E U R O P E , 1 8 1 5 – 2 0 0 2

Plate 43 French helicopter cruiser Jeanne d’Arc (1964). Marine

Nationale, France.
Plate 44 Italian cruiser Caio Duilio flanked by two destroyers and two
frigates, pictured in early 1970s. Naval Historical Center (US), Basic
Collection.
Plate 45 Soviet Sverdlov-class cruiser, pictured in 1957. Naval
Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 46 Soviet submarine of the ‘Golf’ class, pictured in 1965. Naval
Historical Center (US), Basic Collection.
Plate 47 Soviet carrier Novorossiysk (1982). Naval Historical Center
(US), Basic Collection.
Plate 48 French carrier Charles de Gaulle (2001). Marine Nationale,
France.
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PREFACE

During the first decades of the modern era, as in the early modern
period culminating in the wars of the French Revolution and
Napoleon, the leading navies of Europe were the leading navies of the
world. As industrialization revolutionized naval warfare, the navies of
Europe continued to shape the international paradigm of sea power, as
they had in the age of the wooden sailing ship. The first great non-
European naval powers, the United States and Japan, emerged in the
1890s, and became the leading naval powers of the world by the late
1930s, but as they rose to prominence the organization, training, and
matériel of their fleets continued to reflect models established in
Europe. The operations of the navies of Europe are central to the stories
of the First and Second World Wars as well as the post-1945 Cold War,
when the Soviet Union built the most powerful navy ever assembled by
a European country. At the onset of the twenty-first century, the navies
of Europe remain a vital factor in the broader international arena. Some
(the British, French, German, and Italian) have a greater significance
than at any time in the past fifty or sixty years, while others (the
Spanish and Dutch) enjoy a status relative to their peers that they have
not known in 200 years.
This history will trace the rise of the modern navies of Europe, culmi-
nating in the First World War, and the subsequent decline, reconcep-
tualization, and rebirth of European naval power in the decades since
1918. From the introduction of steam propulsion to the present era of
high technology, an understanding of the success or failure of naval
operations requires an understanding of the importance of technolog-
ical developments in naval warfare. Thus the operational history of the
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XII N AV I E S O F E U R O P E , 1 8 1 5 – 2 0 0 2

navies of modern Europe will be presented with special attention to the

evolving state of naval technology, from the breakthroughs of the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries (in steam power, armor, artillery
and torpedoes) through the second half of the twentieth century (in
aircraft carrier design and naval aviation in general) to the dawn of the
twenty-first century (in naval stealth technology, propulsion systems,
and warship design). Because the relative industrial capabilities of sea-
faring countries have been reflected in their naval building programs, a
focus on industrial development will provide an important link
between the matters investigated in this study and the broader history
of the period.
The task of writing a general history of this length compels the author
to make difficult decisions as to what to include, for it is not possible
to provide complete coverage of the entire period. Matters related to
naval personnel, including comparisons in training, education, and
promotion policies, are omitted except when these factors have such a
direct bearing on the operational effectiveness of a navy as to warrant
inclusion as part of the explanation of its performance in wartime.
Description of broader economic, political, and diplomatic factors
affecting the navies of Europe has been kept to the minimum necess-
ary to orient the reader.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Heather McCallum for giving me the opportunity

to publish this volume. I am grateful to the University of Indianapolis
for a semester of leave to work on the manuscript, and to interlibrary
loan staff of Krannert Memorial Library for facilitating much of my
research. For their assistance in my quest to secure photographs, I
would like to thank Jack Green, Robert Hanshew, and the staff of the
Curator Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC, as well as
Captain Michel de Monval of the French Navy and Kapitänleutnant
Kraus of the German Federal Navy.
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MAPS

+ Hood (1941)
Denmark Strait

Lusitania (1915) +
Brest
Bismarck (1941) + Saint-Nazaire
Bordeaux
Halifax
Ferrol
Azores
Cadiz

Bermuda
Canary Islands

Santiago (1898) Cape Verde Islands

Martinique
Dakar

Simonstown

+ Dresden (1915)

Coronel (1914) River Plate (1939)

Falklands (1914, 1982)

South Georgia (1982)

0 950 1900 miles

0 1500 3000 km

Map 1 Atlantic Ocean

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0 250 500 miles

0 400 800 km
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Nikolaiev

Map 2 Mediterranean Sea

Odessa
Kinburn
Trieste
Venice Rijeka Sochi
Genoa
Pola Sevastopol
Page xvi

La Spezia

AD
La Seyne BLACK SEA

RI
Toulon Ancona + Szent István (1918) Batum

AT
IC Sinope (1853)
Barcelona SE
Lissa (1866)
A
Constantinople
Rome Cattaro Trebizond
Naples Brindisi Durazzo (1918)
Cape St. Vincent (1833) Bosporus
Taranto Valona
Cartagena Dardanelles
Gibraltar Cape Teulada (1940)
Punta Athens Smyrna
Oran Bizerta Stilo (1940) Piraeus
Algiers
Tunis Navarino (1827)
Cape Bon (1941)
Cape Matapan (1941)
Malta Cape Spada (1940) Tripoli
Crete (1941) Beirut
Sidon
Tripoli Acre
Derna
Alexandria
Sirte Gulf (1941, 1942)
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Spitsbergen

Barents Sea (1942)

North Cape (1943)

Altenfjord-Kåfjord
Severomorsk
Murmansk
Tromso

Narvik
Archangel

Severodvinsk

Trondheim
Lake Ladoga
Sveaborg (1855) Vyborg
Bjorko
Scapa Flow Helsinki
Bergen Oslo St. Petersburg
Kronstadt
Reval
Stavanger Moon Sound (1917)
Christiansand
Gotland
rak
gge
Rosyth ka
Ka
S

Libau
ttegat

Jutland (1916)
Dogger Bank (1915) Copenhagen

Helgoland Jasmund Baltiysk

(1864, 1914, 1917) Kiel (1864) Danzig
Texel Island (1914)
Bremerhaven

Portsmouth Wilhelmshaven
Antwerp
0 150 300 miles
Cherbourg Zeebrugge
Le Havre Ostend 0 250 500 miles

Map 3 Baltic Sea, North Sea and western Pacific Ocean

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Petropavlovsk

Vladivostok
Port Arthur

Sea of Japan (1904)

Tsingtao
Yellow Sea (1904) Tsushima (1905)

Okinawa (1945)
Honk Kong
Min River (1884)
Chuenpi (1839, 1841)

Amoy (1841)
Dehalak
Camranh Bay Manila Bay (1898)
Socotra

Trincomalee
Colombo Ceylon + Prince of Wales and Repulse (1941)
(1942)
Singapore

Emden (1914) + Java Sea (1942)

+ Königsberg (1915)
Surabaya
Diego Suarez (1942)
Darwin

Sydney

0 950 1900 miles

0 1500 3000 km

Map 4 Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean