Published in 1998, David A. Thomas's Battles and Honours of the Royal Navy is accessible enough for a ten-year-old enthusiast while still offering surprises to a naval-history professor. Its cover identifies HMS Alexandra during the 1882 bombardment of Alexandria and calls her the fastest battleship afloat at the time. It also presents HMS Warspite as perhaps the Royal Navy's most honoured ship and links HMS Invincible with Falklands honours from 1914 and 1982. These examples show how one ship name can carry actions separated by decades. The book's short entries provide starting points for battles, campaigns, ships, and the Royal Navy's institutional memory, although the historical context between battles remains important.
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Battles and Honours as a Royal Navy study guide
The opening introduces David A. Thomas's Battles and Honours of the Royal Navy as an unusually accessible route into familiar and overlooked naval history.