Seapower Ashore

This is a history of the Royal Navy's operations on land from 1799 (Captain Smith, HMS Tigre, at the siege of Acre) up to 1999 (the firing of a Tomahawk missile from a submarine in the Adriatic). It is rather more than accounts of each of the land-based actions between those dates, it includes chapters which assess the scientific and physical contribution of the navy to the army in the Napoleonic Wars, all the way up to the strategic significance in modern times of naval seaborne power and its effects ashore.On the way, the book covers Nelsons time, Syria 1840, Sweaborg 1855, Lucknow 1857-9, Japan 1863-4, Sudan & China 1896-1900, South Africa 1899-01, WW1 (the RND), Norway 1940, and Walcheren 1944. Therefore, this book complements excellently Arthur Bleby's 'The Victorian Naval Brigades'.Despite being written by highly knowledgeable naval historians, the text reads very well and easily, and is supplemented by many excellent contemporaneous photos, drawings and other illustrations.One's knowledge of this country's maritime history and tradition would be incomplete without both this book and Bleby's 'Victorian Naval Brigades' (there is remarkably little overlap). Highly recommended.