IN ALL RESPECTS READY-AUSTRALIA'S NAVY IN WORLD WAR ONE

摘要

A World War Ⅰ publishing boom has been a feature of the last five years as the interest in the catastrophe that overtook the world in 1914 continues to fascinate and appal present generations in equal measure. Australians have been writing about the Great War for 90 years but the majority of such historians have treated the war at sea as incidental to the land campaigns. If dealt with at all, the RAN's role has been seen as a sub-set of that of the Royal Navy. The concentration on the tragic loss of young Anzac lives in land battles has overshadowed the achievements of the Navy, both the Imperial fleet and the ships of the supporting dominions. There is little understanding of the role of sea power which cleared the seas of German surface raiders and shut down German merchant marine trade by late 1915. By 1918 the Royal Navy, with support from the Empire, had reduced the German economy to a state where it was unable to maintain a war front and a home front and was faced with civilian starvation, military collapse or seeking an armistice.