Max Horton and Western Approaches Command

Max Horton's submarine background encouraged direct orders and rapid obedience, a style less suited to consensus leadership in a larger command. Habits suited to a small submarine crew did not automatically scale to cruisers or a large shore command. He used Western Approaches Command effectively during the Battle of the Atlantic, but Percy Noble had begun much of the institutional development Horton inherited. Horton appears strongest as a tactical and decisive commander rather than as a diplomatic institution-builder.