March 18, 2015

Finest Hour 160, Autumn 2013

Page 49

Abstract By Antoine Capet

HMS DREADNOUGHT (1906-1919), INSPIRED BY ADMIRAL JOHN FISHER, LATER CHURCHLL’S FIRST SEA LORD, WAS THE PROGENITOR OF A GENERATION OF FAST, POWERFUL BATTLESHIPS, WITH ALL-12-INCH GUNS AND A SPEED OF 21 KNOTS. SHE WAS BEING REFITTED AND DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND IN 1916, BUT SHE WAS QUICK ENOUGH TO RAM AND SINK A SURFACED SUBMARINE, THE ONLY SUCH ACCOMPLISHMENT BY A BATTLESHIP.

Christopher M. Bell, “On Standards and Scholarship: A Response to Nicholas Lambert,” in War in History 20:3, June 2013, pages 381-409.

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This article examines Nicholas A. Lambert’s criticisms (“On Standards: A Reply to Christopher Bell, War in History 19, 2012) of Professor Bell’s article, “Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution Reconsidered: Winston Churchill at the Admiralty, 1911-1914” (War in History 18, 2011).

Christopher Bell’s article challenged revisionist claims that in July 1914 the Royal Navy was on the verge of implementing a “naval revolution” based on radical ideas attributed to Admiral Sir John Fisher. Bell argues that Lambert’s criticisms are unfounded and provides additional evidence to support an alternative interpretation of British naval policy in the period 1912-14. Important changes were undoubtedly underway on the eve of the First World War, but the revisionists exaggerate Fisher’s influence and oversimplify an inherently complex decision-making process. The Admiralty’s plan to substitute torpedo craft for some of the battleships in its 1914 programme was intended to bolster a conservative strategy, and the changes under consideration were essentially evolutionary in nature.


Dr. Capet is Professor of British Studies at the University of Rouen, France, and editor of several collections on Britain’s 20th century diplomatic and military policy.

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