A revealing documentary account of how Britain struggled to shape a modern navy amid Cold War pressures, rapid technological change and relentless financial constraint.


The Postwar Fleet Vol 2 reproduces key documents relating to the planning of Britain's postwar Navy from the period 1950-1957, as the Government tried to reconcile worldwide requirements with severe financial constraints. It begins in June 1950 with the outbreak of the Korean War, which marks the end-point of Volume 1. This event overturned many previous planning assumptions and initiated a short-lived programme of rearmament. Succeeding years saw an almost annual cycle of what were, in effect, fresh defence reviews as the Ministry of Defence and the Admiralty tried to match resources and force levels to continuing commitments. Planners also had to respond to the increasing influence of technological change, especially nuclear weapons, computers and guided missiles.

The volume concludes with the publication of a major Defence Review in April 1957 which marked the beginning of a new, post-Suez Operation, phase in British defence policy.