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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2021.1845516

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Citation for published version (APA): W E Smith, J. (2021). New Research into the History, Theory and Practice of . Mariner's Mirror, 107 (1), 100-103. https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2021.1845516

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Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 100 The Mariner’s Mirror

New Research into the History, questions. The British seapower state saw Theory and Practice of Naval wargaming as another tool in its arsenal to Wargaming repeat and renew the naval message. That message focused on advocating why Britain It is largely overlooked today that naval war­ had a and why Britain should gaming was a major contributing factor not have a maritime strategy. It used wargaming in only to the development of British naval a wider cultural construct that brought naval thought but also to strategic theory. In glories to life in the minds of the working academia and in government, naval wargaming classes as well as in the minds of the social has often been disregarded and its importance and political elites. The Admiralty and Navy to the development of the art and theory of war League, among other organisations, connected neglected. It has been viewed purely through the with Fleet Street to advertise wargaming and eyes of a land narrative. The disparity between reach new audiences, particularly the young. At land and sea wargaming rose to prominence relatively little expense, wargaming enabled the in 2016 when the author regenerated naval public to refight naval battles, stepping into the wargaming in the War Studies Department at shoes of Lord Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, King’s College London, which was met with Greek and Roman trireme captains or even the an array of suspicious questions, often from admiral of a fleet which comprised the new ‘all historians. Projects on the history of wargaming big gun’ dreadnoughts that appeared in 1906. and its many branches have been undertaken Wargaming provided a new understanding of previously by the wargaming community, the seapower message, and increased interest but they failed to set their research in a wider in naval history. Wargaming connected distant context. They had become reliant on the same, global maritime campaigns and the complexities often secondary, sources as a cornerstone of of naval warfare more tangibly to the public their understanding of the history of naval war­ than existing cultural forms including paintings, gaming. To their consternation, these were some songs and academic scholarship. of the factors behind why wargamers continued It is no coincidence that wargaming emerged to face the same questions repeatedly on the for serious professional use soon after Prussian role and function of . They often military historian and strategist Carl von failed to demonstrate that naval wargaming was Clausewitz’s classic text, On War, was published both a practical tool and an enabling agent for in 1832.1 Although it could be argued due to the disciplines and topics that it has supported. limited evidence that wargaming existed as far Examples could have been easily shown from back as the classical age, the wider narrative of wargaming, and their developed predominantly in the nineteenth interpretation was not just dependent on the century. It is commonly believed that naval classified wargaming found in late twentieth- wargaming in Britain for naval public relations and early twenty-first-century defence and as a professional tool began in 1873 with practice. With this in mind, the Society for the appearance of Lieutenant W. Castle’s Nautical Research supported a project to fill The Game of Naval Tactics (1873).2 This was a gap in knowledge and address these issues in a direct response to The British Kreigspiel a scholarly manner. Addressing these multide (1872), an officially sanctioned British of imbalances, the research has identifed that Army and War Office evolution of a Prussian naval wargaming became an essential tool to nineteenth-century wargame to teach battlefield support not only historical discussion of naval tactics to its officers.3 British wargaming had topics and questions, but was also critical to the development of strategic theory. This report 1 Clauzewitz, Vom Kriege. The first English summarizes the initial findings. translation was complete in 1874. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth 2 Castle, ‘On the Game of Naval Tactics’, centuries, naval wargaming in theory and in 786–805. practice became an essential tool to support 3 Spenser-Wilkinson, ‘The Practical Value of the discussion of historical naval topics and the Wargame’, 69–88. Notes 101

Figure 1 A meeting of the Portsmouth Naval War Game Society in the Nelson Room at the ‘George’, Portsmouth (‘Strand Magazine’, 27:161, May 1904) become another front where advocates of best-known sets of wargame rules to this day. land-focused continental thought attempted to The development of naval wargaming often displace British maritime strategic policy. To paralleled naval thought, albeit slightly delayed. counter this, the Admiralty, with its significant It developed from being purely about naval influence in Whitehall (and considering that tactics to being about how naval power could be the Royal Navy reigned supreme) dismissed used as part of a wider maritime strategy. This British army officers’ fear of invasion, ensuring can be seen as game rules evolved from ship-on- that British naval wargamers started to develop ship action to include amphibious operations, their wargames. Captain Colomb’s The Duel: blockades and convoys. A naval wargame of 1879 and Lieutenant H. Naval wargaming earned its place as an Chamberlain’s Game of Naval Blockade of educational and theoretical development tool in 1888 are early examples.4 Naval wargaming the teaching of sophisticated maritime strategy. also gained some influential support from However, it was the Fred Jane Naval Wargame Professor Sir John Knox Laughton (1830– that popularized naval wargaming with the 1915), who recognized wargaming’s utility, public and the Admiralty between 1898 and and Sir Julian Corbett (1854–1922), who linked 1906.5 Although today Fred Jane (1865–1916) wargaming to his history and strategy lessons is better known for his All the Worlds Fighting at the Royal Naval War Course at Portsmouth Ships that he also started in 1898, it was his and Devonport (figure 1). In America naval wargames and understanding of the need to officers Admiral Stephen Luce (1827–1917) and promote the naval message that was equally Captain Alfred Mahan (1840–1914) founded significant (figure 2). His cultural impact and the US . Today the War contribution to wargaming was important. College is still actively involved in wargaming, Jane was one of the few who understood the albeit as a classified activity. An example of need to modernize advocacy for the Royal American naval wargaming is Fletcher Pratt’s Navy. Failure to modernize the message would Naval Wargame, which remains one of the leave the service vulnerable to the growing challenges to the Admiralty’s prominence in 4 Columb, ‘Broadside Fire and a Naval War Whitehall, and the loss of naval influence in Game’, 507–35; Chamberlain, ‘The Game of Naval Blockade’, 527–37. 5 The National Archives, Kew: ADM 231/44. 102 The Mariner’s Mirror

Figure 2 Fred T. Jane with his famous naval wargame government. Challenges to the Admiralty and Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) Royal Navy reached a conclusion between 1955 in Liverpool, helped to secure victory in the and 1964 with the abolition of the Admiralty Battle of Atlantic by using, designing, testing which was misconceived and ill-judged by and applying new methodologies to naval Earl Mountbatten (1900–79), leading to the wargaming. These outputs were quickly dis­ cancellation of Aircraft Carrier CVA-01 in seminated to the fleet and significantly shaped 1966. Jane’s naval wargame and Corbett’s use of the outcome of the battle. wargaming led to tactical and strategic exercises Although nuclear warfare challenged at the Royal Navy War College Portsmouth existing ideas about future warfare after the by 1914. This process culminated in the Royal Second World War, military wargaming became Navy Wargaming Rules of 1921, rules that indispensable when it was computerized during acknowledged the rise of military aviation and the Cold War. It was used to simulate avoiding aircraft carriers before they had been accepted and, in the worst case, fighting nuclear war, more widely. Based on wargaming experience, particularly with the advent of ballistic missile Jane voiced concerns that the Royal Navy had and electronic warfare amongother become obsessed with Nelson’s decisive battle technological changes. Twenty-first-century at Trafalgar. Arguably he was proven right with professional wargaming has grown in use the battle of Jutland, but unfortunately Jane and influence not just by governments but died before he could see Corbett’s analysis of also in civilian application. It can be found naval operations in the First World War. addressing a range of challenges from crisis and Naval wargaming, like all forms of war­ risk management such as pandemics, disaster gaming, has had a difficult and unsteady planning, terrorism, nuclear deterrence, cyber relation­ship with government. By the 1930s, and space warfare, through to more classic govern­ment had reservations about wargaming. military tactics and exercises. Elsewhere, war­ However, wargaming was fundamental to gaming for the hobbyists grew in the public naval operations in the Second World War. The domain in the 1970s as players engaged efforts of retired naval officer Gilbert Roberts wargaming for fun around the world in an ever- (1899–1986) and his team, predominantly increasing range of formats. Wargaming was made up of the WRNS personnel based in the no longer purely about historical scale models Notes 103 but expanded into role playing, science fiction or misunderstanding of maritime strategy often games, computer games and many other genres. due to other agendas such as those of air power Initial analysis of new materials, beyond theorists. Naval wargaming has had a key official documentation, provides a different role in the development of important fields of narrative to the one commonly accepted, namely professional activity including naval history, that naval wargaming started in 1873. Only naval policy, doctrine, professional military by searching beyond official documentation, education and strategic thought. Instead of into private collections and declassified being seen as a side story, naval wargaming records can current narratives be updated. should be considered as indispensable to the Diversifying sources expands the number of narratives of these and other topics. Today records that many wargamers have become naval wargaming continues to be of practical dependent on for their analysis. Expanding use to naval students, and to those academics the available resources has resulted in the and historians who analyse and theorize the creation of a more comprehensive scrutiny of challenges and issues. This remains entirely developments that took place. In addition to in keeping with the intention of wargaming’s the private collections of military and civilian foundation centuries ago. wargamers, records held by the US Naval War This research has been made possible by College, US Library of Congress and abolished the encouragement and support of the Society British naval establishments have expanded the for Nautical Research, a critical role that it has available evidence. The research has also led to exercised since 1910. The Society supported the examination of student records of notable a starting block of new research across a leaders and historians. Expanding the field range of topics from history to theory and of study from Jane’s era to the rise of nuclear practice within naval and maritime strategic warfare and the space race in the 1950s has wargaming. Without understanding the history revealed further insights into naval wargaming’s of wargaming, its future would have been far history and influence. more difficult to chart. This has only grown Combining evidence from American and in importance as naval wargame groups and British sources has also provided a broader society’s diminish in number. It is a timely perspective, which both challenges and adds to reminder of the enduring importance of research current narratives. This evidence indicates that to understanding the innumerable questions of naval wargaming came into being around the our past. The author remains grateful to the time that Clausewitz’s On War was published, Society for its support of this research, which nearly half a century earlier than previously remains ongoing. thought. The impact and influence of wargaming James W. E. Smith on national naval culture and maritime strategic Department of War Studies, thinking has also been reinforced. Naval King’s College London wargaming’s influence has been predominately http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2021.1845516 viewed as a contemporary tool, of use to those © The Society for Nautical Research engaged with modern defence, but ultimately rooted in the Second World War. Instead, this References new research enables a more comprehensive Castle, W. M. F., ‘On the Game of Naval narrative of the history of naval wargaming Tactics’, RUSI Journal (1873), 786–805 and its place in British national culture and Chamberlain, H., ‘The Game of Naval maritime identity. It also reaffirms that the Blockade’, RUSI Journal (1888) 527–37 roots of contemporary naval wargaming are a Clauzewitz, V., Vom Kriege (Berlin, 1832) British development. These points challenge Columb, P. H., ‘Broadside Fire and a Naval the views of some professional wargamers War Game’, RUSI Journal (1879), 507–35 that naval wargaming is just a footnote in the Spenser-Wilkinson, H., ‘The Practical Value of history of the development of wargaming or the Wargame’, RUSI Journal (1888) 69–88 that it was purely an army invention. These false claims often promulgated due to disdain