Long before Emperor Peter “cut a window” into the Baltic Sea and laid the foundations of the Russian navy, the “mistress of the seas” England ruled for centuries on the waves around the globe. The prerequisites for this were both the special, island location of Great Britain, and the geopolitical need to combat the powerful European powers - Spain, France, Portugal.
Start
The first serious ships of Britain can be considered the triremes and dirimes of the Roman Empire, which approached the issue of shipbuilding as seriously as to everything else - its sailing and rowing ships were the pinnacle of technology of that time. After the departure of the Romans and the formation on the territory of the British Isles of many different kingdoms, the British ships significantly lost in all components - tonnage, manufacturability and quantity.
The incentive to the emergence of more advanced ships was the raids of the Scandinavians - ferocious Vikings in fast and maneuverable drakkaras made devastating raids on coastal churches and cities. The construction of a large guard fleet allowed the British to significantly reduce losses from intrusions.
The next stage in the formation of the British navy is the invasion of William the Conqueror and the formation of a unitary state, England. Since that time, it is worth talking about the appearance of the English fleet.
English Royal Navy
The official history of the Royal Navy of England should begin with Henry VII, who increased the British fleet from 5 to 30 ships. Until the end of the 16th century, the British did not find any special laurels at sea, but after the victory over the Spanish “Invincible Armada” and a series of other victories, the situation with the naval separation from the European flagships (Spain and France) began to level off.
Corsairs and pirates - two sides of the same coin
In the history of the British Navy, a special and controversial line is the activity of the famous English corsairs, the most famous of which were Francis Drake and Henry Morgan. Despite its frankly robbery "main activity", the first of them was knighted and defeated the Spaniards, and the second added another diamond to the English crown - the Caribbean archipelago.
UK Navy
The official history of the British Navy (there are discrepancies associated with the presence of the fleets of England and Scotland until 1707, when they merged) begins in the middle of the 17th century. Since that time, the British began to gain less and less defeat in naval battles, gradually gaining the glory of the most powerful naval power. The peak of English supremacy on the waves falls on the Napoleonic Wars. They also became a moment of glory for sailing ships, which had reached their technological ceiling by this moment.
The end of the Napoleonic Wars lifted the Royal Navy of Great Britain to the podium of the strongest fleet in the world. In the 19th century, the British were the first to change wood and sails to iron and steam. Despite the fact that the British Navy practically did not participate in major battles, service in the navy was considered very prestigious, and attention to maintaining the power and combat readiness of the naval forces was a priority. The seriousness of the British attitude toward its advantage in the oceans is evidenced by the fact that the unspoken doctrine prescribed to maintain the following balance of power: the British Navy should have been stronger than any two navies combined.
World War I: Large Fleet versus the High Seas Fleet
In the First World War, the British Navy did not show themselves as vividly as one might have expected before it began: the Large Fleet, whose main task was to defeat the German fleet of the High Sea, did not cope with its task - its losses were much greater than those of the Germans. Despite this, the shipbuilding capacities of Great Britain were so great that it retained its advantage, forcing Germany to abandon the tactics of large battles and switch to raider tactics using mobile submarine formations.
The creation of two, without exaggeration, epoch-making warships, which became the founders of entire areas in shipbuilding, dates back to the same time. The first was the HMS Dreadnought - a new type of battleship with powerful weapons and a steam turbine installation, allowing it to develop a 21-knot speed, fantastic at that time. The second was the HMS Ark Royal - an aircraft carrier that served the British Navy until 1944.
Despite all the losses of the First World War, by the end of the Great Britain had a huge fleet on its balance, hanging on a leaky budget with a heavy burden. Therefore, the 1922 Washington Agreement, limiting the crew to a certain number in each of the classes of ships, was a real salvation for the islanders.
World War II: working on bugs
The Royal Navy of Great Britain at the beginning of World War II had twenty-two large-tonnage ships (battleships and aircraft carriers), 66 cruising ships, almost two hundred destroyers and six dozen submarines, not counting those under construction. These forces exceeded the available positions of Germany and its allies by several times, which allowed the British to hope for a favorable outcome for naval battles.
The Germans, realizing perfectly the superiority of the British, did not get involved in direct clashes with the mighty squadrons of the Allies, but engaged in a guerrilla war. A special role was played by submarines, which the Third Reich riveted almost a thousand!
Karl Doenitz, an “underwater Guderian,” developed a “wolf pack” tactic involving attack on convoys and “bite-bounce” attacks. And at first the flying units of German submarines put the British in a state of shock - the debut of hostilities in the North Atlantic was marked by a staggering amount of casualties in both the merchant and navy of Great Britain.
An additional favorable factor for Germany was the fact that the British Navy bases in 1941 significantly lost in number and quality - the defeat of France, the seizure of Belgium and the Netherlands dealt a sensitive blow to the plans of the islanders. Well, Germany got the opportunity to effectively use small submarines with a short battery life.
The situation was reversed by deciphering the codes of German submariners, creating a new convoy system, building a sufficient number of specialized escort ships, as well as air support. The further successes of Great Britain at sea were connected both with huge shipbuilding capacities (the British built ships faster than the Germans drowned them), and with the successes of the Allies on land. Italy's withdrawal from the war deprived Germany of its Mediterranean military bases, and the battle for the Atlantic was won.
Falklands: Conflict of Interest
In the post-war period, ships of the British Navy seriously marked in the Falkland War with Argentina. Despite the informal nature of the conflict, the loss of the islanders amounted to several hundred people, several ships and a dozen fighters. Of course, Britain was an order of magnitude superior in naval power without much effort to regain control of the Falklands.
Cold war
The main arms race took place not with the old opponents - Japan or Germany, but with the recent bloc ally - the Soviet Union. The Cold War could become hot at any moment, and so the British Navy was still in high alert. The deployment of naval bases, the development and commissioning of new ships, including submarines with nuclear weapons - all this the British did already in the rank of second number. The main confrontation unfolded between two titans - the Soviet Union and the United States.
UK Navy today
Today it is considered the largest in the Old World and is included (on a rotational basis) in the NATO Navy. Aircraft carriers and missile cruisers with the ability to carry nuclear warheads are the main striking force of the British Navy . Its composition at present: 64 ships, of which 12 are submarines, 2 aircraft carriers, 6 destroyers, 13 frigate class ships, three landing, 16 minesweepers, and twenty guard and patrol boats. Another auxiliary ship, "Fort George", is considered a military pretty arbitrary.
The flagship is the Bulvark aircraft carrier - a multifunctional ship that performs not only the tasks of basing decked aircraft, but also landing functions (transporting up to 250 marines and landing equipment). "Bulvark" was built in 2001, and commissioned in 2005.
The main surface force is the frigates of the Norfolk series, named after the English dukes, and the submarine is the Wangard series SSBNs equipped with nuclear missiles. The fleet is based in Plymouth, Clyde and Portsmouth, with the Plymouth base Devonport acting in this role since 1588! At that time, ships hiding in it were waiting for that same Spanish “Invincible Armada”. She is the only one on which ships with nuclear engines are being repaired.
Interesting Facts
Disposal of the British Navy ships of the SSBN class (nuclear submarines) is not carried out - the islanders do not have such technological capabilities. Therefore, the submarines that have spent their operational life are simply preserved until better times.
The passage of the Russian missile cruiser near the territorial waters of Great Britain in 2013 shocked not only the townsfolk, but also the country's navy. Russian Navy off the coast of Great Britain! Despite the status of maritime power, the British found the ship with comparable class and capable of moving forward towards the Russian cruiser.
The British have the lead in the creation of two types of ships, which for many years changed the face of naval battles: the dreadnought - a powerful and fast warship, superior to its rivals both in maneuverability and in salvo power, and also the aircraft carrier - the ship, which today is the main by the force of the Navy of all major countries.
In the end
What has changed in the English fleet from the time of Roman rule to the present day? The British Navy made its way from the fragile little boats of the Saxon Jarl to reliable frigates and powerful "manovars" of the times of Drake and Morgan. And further, already at the peak of power, he was at sea the first in everything. Two world wars shook the rule of Pax Britannika, and after him his navy.
To date, the British Navy in terms of tonnage is in 6th place, behind India, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, with the Islanders losing almost 10 times to the Americans! Who would have thought that the former colony, after a couple of centuries, would indulgently glance at the former metropolis?
Nevertheless, the British navy is not only guns, aircraft carriers, missiles and submarines. This is history. The story of great victories and crushing defeats, heroic deeds and human tragedies ... "Glory to Britain, mistress of the seas!"