Amazon.co.uk: Standard of Power: The Royal Navy in the 20th Century: Dan Van Der Vat: Books

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Well written but badly let down by technical innaccuracy, 4 Feb 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Standard of Power: The Royal Navy in the 20th Century (Paperback)

Whilst I found the book to be an interesting read, there were numerous innaccuracies of a technical nature which make it unsatisfying: As AN example the author states that German warships of the first world war were more reliable than their British counterparts: He does not provide any evidence to back up this assertion, which is somewhat surprising, given that a) German warships of WW1 spent relatively little time at sea and were thus less taxed than their RN equivalents. b) The RN made more extensive use of the inherently more reliable steam turbine engines. Therefore I can not recommend this book to the serious student who will find it annoying, or the casual reader, who will end up misinformed.

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Well written guide to the RN from WW1 to the Falklands, 11 Nov 2006

By	Marshall Lord (Whitehaven, UK) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent guide to the history of Britain's royal navy in the last century. There is of course particular emphasis on the first and second world wars but also plenty of material about the role of the navy between the wars and accounts of other conflicts, particularly the Falklands.

The title refers to the fact that when the Britain was the most powerful nation in the world and depended on the navy to retain that status, the target which was set was initially the "Two power standard" to be able to fight on equal numerical terms the next two strongest navies in the world. The book recounts how this standard had to be relaxed to "Germany plus 60% and then after world war one with a "one power standard" that we would not allow any other single navy to be larger (which meant retaining parity with the U.S.A.)

I found that the book gave a good mix between the need to maintain a strategic overview and the need to maintain human interest by describing the human circumstances of the crewmen on navy ships and the motivations of the decision-makers who crafted the navy's role.

Another reviewer criticised the technical accuracy of this book. I don't claim to be an expert, but on the specific point queried - that the Royal navy in World War I had technical and reliabilty problems to a greater extent that the Imperial German Navy - this book is in line with what I have read elsewhere.

If as a general reader you are looking for an easy to follow introductory text about the history of the RN in the 20th century I don't think you will do better.