Wartime annuals as a forum for naval theory

The 1943 contents include accounts of wartime shipping, air operations at sea, the U-boat war, submarines, coastal craft, and foreign navies. Historian and theorist Herbert Richmond provides an example of the interpretive material these annuals could include. Richmond's writing changed with his institutional setting, moving between naval professional language, a more broadly intelligible transitional style, and dense academic prose. His example shows why theoretical authority and accessibility both matter when using such work to understand sea power.