The best books on Warships

Thank you for selecting five of the best books on warships. What drives your personal interest in the subject?

I have had an interest in military history since I was a boy. In the past I did not specialise in any particular aspect—that is: army, navy or air force—nor era. It was during the research into my great grandfather’s naval career and the writing of my book Hearts of Steel that I began to focus intently on warships and their crews, especially the period between 1918 and 1945.

Back in 2019 when I started the research process in earnest, I owned perhaps two or three books on the subject, although this soon expanded. I now have around fifty books on the topic alone and this is growing as I begin the research for my next project.

How did you choose the books—what were your criteria?

In the first instance, readability and accessibility. Many books on the British Royal Navy or warships are quite technical and perhaps a rather dry read. The books had to be page turners and not ones that would send the reader to sleep. They also had to have the potential to create or develop a wider interest. History is all about stories, not just bland facts, dates, and statistics. In nailing down five of my best books the authors needed to be great storytellers. They would be books that motivated and enthused me to expand my knowledge—and hopefully would do the same for others.

I was especially keen to cover a wide period in history. I decided to choose one about the Napoleonic era; three books on World War II, my particular area of interest; and one from more recent times to give some indication of the role of the Royal Navy today.

The first book you’d like to recommend is Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy by Lesley & Roy Adkins, the authors of the bestselling Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle. Why do you recommend it?

Since my first visit to HMS Victory when I was eight, I have been fascinated by the Napoleonic age of warships. I have a lot of paintings of them on my walls at home—and yes, fortunately, my wife likes them too. I also love reading about the era, so naturally I have a set of Patrick O’Brien books on my shelf. But what was it really like to be a sailor in the age of Nelson? Well, you need simply to read Jack Tar.

This book draws on diaries and other first hand accounts from men who were in the British Royal Navy at that time and the result is truly fascinating. These recollections get under the skin of all aboard, from the lower decks to the captains.

“History is all about stories, not just bland facts, dates, statistics”

Jack Tar provides an insight into how people coped with adverse conditions and harsh environments. Heavy seas and storms often meant the sailors were cold and wet with little or no means of drying their clothes. Without refrigeration, food supplies soon spoilt, becoming fit only for the cockroaches and rats that often infested these ships. Despite these hardships, life was not always miserable. There was still humour and laughter, and a crew could be, in general, a happy and cohesive group. If that were not the case, a warship would not function well.

But these ships were built for a purpose. Battles and skirmishes at sea were not an everyday occurrence, but when they did happen, they were truly horrific. The injuries sustained from shot, shell and musket often led to a slow death. Injury to the limbs invariably resulted amputation, without the use of anaesthetic.

And yes, this is also a super companion to the Adkins’s earlier book on the battle of Trafalgar.

The second book on warships that you’d like to recommend is Operation Pedestal by the journalist and popular military historian Max Hastings. He’s written more than 25 books. Why do you recommend Operation Pedestal in particular?

In August 1942 the island of Malta was under siege and the inhabitants on the verge of starvation. The only way to re-supply the island was by convoy, the route of which would either take the long passage around the horn of Africa and into the Mediterranean via the Suez canal, or a more expedient route from west to east via Gibraltar. The latter, whilst quicker was far more dangerous, due to the German Luftwaffe and the Italian Regia Aeronautica.

Max Hastings normally writes about the large campaigns, such as the D-Day landings and the Battle for Normandy in Overlord, or the conflict in Vietnam between 1945 and 1975 in Vietnam. In Operation Pedestal he concentrates on a pivotal moment in World War II. The Royal Navy provided a powerful escort force that included aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers to look after fourteen merchant ships during their passage to Malta. Only a handful of the merchant ships made it, the remainder sunk by bombs or were torpedoed. The Royal Navy suffered too, losing one carrier and several cruisers.

Operation Pedestal is an epic tale of heroism, fortitude and sacrifice—and in my mind it is the most comprehensive and readable account of this operation. Hastings does not confine his narrative to the warships alone; he deals with the immense bravery of the merchant ship crews, of which some were sailing in ships laden with highly volatile fuel. The narrative does not let up from the first page to the last, capturing the intense fight over four days in August 1942.

I think your next book recommendation on warship life, Destroyer Captain by Roger Hill, expands on this theme. It’s no longer in print, but can be found second-hand online.

Yes, I picked up a copy of Roger Hill’s memoir Destroyer Captain after reading Operation Pedestal. Hill was commanding officer of the destroyer HMS Ledbury during the operation and latterly the HMS Grenville and HMS Jervis. Hill never achieved rank above Lieutenant Commander, despite winning a Distinguished Service Order during Pedestal. He was simply too outspoken. But he was a superb commander of Destroyers.

Hill describes Pedestal from his own viewpoint over three chapters and this is a great companion to Max Hastings book. As well as that, he narrates his spell operating in the English Channel before being once more posted to the Mediterranean, and finally an account of the Normandy landings in June, 1944.

What is so different about Destroyer Captain is Hill’s honesty. He does not hold back that he suffered from dreadful nerves which he took great pains to hide from his fellow crew members. At times his nerves were so bad they made him physically sick, but only once he had made it back to his cabin, alone. The stress of command, keeping that stiff upper lip eventually caused a nervous breakdown.

That’s interesting. Is it common for military memoirs to address the emotional element of war and leadership?

Most military memoirs do touch on the aspect of fear at some point. In general, it is the anticipation of action when fear manifests itself, only to dissipate once the combatant is actively involved. The officers had to demonstrate their resilience to fear as an example to the rest of the crew. For example, in Destroyer Man, former World War II destroyer captain Rear Admiral A. F. Pugsley writes:

This time, as the bombs left, I knew they must fall amongst the destroyer screen. To my intense inner fury, as I waited for them to arrive, I found it almost impossible to stop my knees knocking and I prayed that no one was noticing it.

When writing Hearts of Steel I found that the surgeon aboard HMS Nubian, my great-grandfathers ship, had written a paper on the morale of a ship’s company which circulated around the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet. An extract of this paper was included in The Anatomy of Courage, a study of the psychological effects of war by Winston Churchill‘s private physician. One instance describes the effect of bombing on Nubian’s commanding officer, which is very similar to the experience that Roger Hill endured. But there are few published memoirs that openly describe the onset of nervous exhaustion and breakdown. Hill is quite unique in being so candid in this respect.

I think that might bring us to How to Build an Aircraft Carrier by Chris Terrill. What does this book tell us about the role of warships today?

Books on the modern Royal Navy are relatively few and far between. Chris Terrill is an anthropologist and well known for his excellent television series on life in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines. This book is based on one of these series, set on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth, and it is very effective in using the crew’s conversations to deliver information about the ship, its construction and its operations in a way that is both easy to read and informative.

I have included the book within my five not only because it is a great read, but because it is very topical. The UK’s only two aircraft carriers are under constant scrutiny from their detractors and the press. The cost of their construction being one example. Terrill writes:

… the eventual bill of £6 billion for the two vessels, though nearly double the original estimate, is still modest compared to the eye watering $15 billion price tag (not including the nuclear power plant) of USS George H. W. Bush, an American supercarrier of similar proportions.

New efficiencies in design and the running of the ship are clearly described in an informative way throughout the book.

What is an aircraft carrier without aircraft? This was the case when the Queen Elizabeth was launched, neither the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) nor the Royal Air Force (RAF) had a jet aircraft capable of operating from the new carriers. The F35B Lightning aircraft is now in operation with both air arms, but not in the numbers to provide the ships with a full complement of aircraft. However, this is where the interoperability of these ships provides an international aspect to their operations. Earlier in the year, American F35’s deployed aboard the Prince of Wales, joining their British counterparts in joint exercises. Further international co-operation came recently with the Prince of Wales involved in the NATO ‘Steadfast Defender’ exercise alongside of ships of the navies of Spain, France, Germany and Norway.

International staff serve in the crews of British warships today, as they did in the days of sail described in Jack Tar. In 1803, Robert Hay joined a warship and was astonished at the number of nationalities aboard: “To the ear was addressed a hubbub little short of that which occurred at Babel. Irish, Welsh, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Swedish, Italian and all the provincial dialects between Land’s End and John O’Groats, joined their discordant notes.”

Terrill focuses on one of the cooks aboard the carrier, Leading Chef Waseel Mohamad Khan, a devout Muslim who originates from Kenya. With modern methods of preserving and preparing foods aboard it is possible to cater for the different tastes and nationalities of a crew 1,000 to 1,600 strong. There are many different dietary requirements too, such as the very high protein diet (7,000 calories per day!) of the super-fit Royal Marine Commandos. A far cry from hard biscuits and thin soups cooked on a wooden warship’s range.

Quite. Your final book recommendation is a novel: Nicholas Monsarrat’s The Cruel Sea, which follows the lives of the crew aboard a number of warships during the Battle of the Atlantic.

This is possibly the best novel of warfare at sea during World War II. Nicholas Monsarrat joined the Royal Navy as a Lieutenant and rose to the rank of Lt. Commander. He saw action in corvettes and a frigate mainly on convoy protection duties during the war. He used his experiences to write about two fictitious warships and their crews: the HMS Compass Rose, a Flower-class corvette; and HMS Saltash, a River-class frigate.

Monsarrat’s description of life aboard these cramped and uncomfortable ships is so vivid that it can only originate from someone who has experienced the same. There is a constant awareness of the threat of attack and possible sinking in a very cold and inhospitable Atlantic Ocean. And his descriptions of the crew, their interactions, and dialogue—either at home on leave, or in the ship—bring colour and depth to the story.

In 1953 the book was made into a film starring Jack Hawkins and Donald Sinden. It follows the storyline very closely and it too remains a classic in its own right. Of course, I recommend reading the book first!

Whilst this is a novel, some of its passages have been quoted in works of non-fiction to help describe life at sea during this period. I read this book in just a few days, picking it up at every opportunity.

Why do you like reading books about warships so much?

Warships are usually of beautiful designs and graceful lines that mask their deadly purpose. Their crews are microcosms of the nations they represent, close-knit and very loyal to their shipmates, and bound together by traditions and customs that have developed over years. I find the interaction between the crews and the warships themselves, which often take on a persona of their own, fascinating.

My background is in the telecommunications industry, so I have a great interest in developing technologies and understanding how things work. The transition from the age of sail to the modern era happened very quickly, requiring great leaps in technological advancement. For example: the first battleships were built with huge guns that could fire a projectile as large as a small car onto a moving target over fifteen miles distant. This was achieved using a mechanical computer designed over a hundred years ago!

Warships come in various shapes and sizes playing specific roles within the fleet. This is of course reflected in their design, most obviously in the aircraft carrier. Aviation is another of my interests; in 2019 I gained my Private Pilot’s Licence at Compton Abbas airfield, close to where I live. The role of aircraft within the Royal Navy and their deployment aboard ships blends the two interests together, something I want to write about for my next project. This means I will be reading and researching a lot more about warships over the coming months. I can’t wait.