Chapter · 1:08-1:46

Royal Navy plans and command arrangements in 1939

Royal Navy readiness in 1939 included planning and air-power awareness that a simple fleet count can miss.

Notes

Royal Navy planning and air-power awareness challenge a recurring claim that the service entered 1939 passive, unprepared, and blind to air power. Readiness here is measured through planning and command arrangements as well as visible ships. Procurement was covered in a separate lecture, leaving strategy, organization, and deployment as the focus. The later examples test the idea that the Navy had done nothing before the war.