When war broke out in September 1939, the Admiralty thought it was well prepared; the Royal Navy was, after all, the largest in the world by some margin. It was only after hostilities began that the Admiralty realised the war would not be won by its huge fleet of heavily-armed aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers and battleships alone, and started to place orders for smaller craft, mostly with the seven hundred-odd British companies whose prewar business had been the building of boats for leisure purposes. At the beginning of the war, the Navy's small-boat forces amounted to about two dozen small coastal motorboats. By the end of the hostilities, these firms would have produced vast numbers of military vessels: 1500 for the Coastal Forces alone, as well as Air Sea Rescue boats, raf pinnaces, water ambulances, motor fishing vessels, minesweepers, landing craft and a myriad of other craft for specialised roles.
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