12 - The war at sea

Summary

This chapter explains why did sea power itself play such a relatively limited role in the Great War, as compared to its magnificent and undoubted importance in both the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars and the Second World War. Sea power was vital for the extension of Japanese maritime influence across the waterways of Asia and the Indian Ocean; eventually, a Japanese destroyer squadron was to operate out of the Grand Harbour, Malta. In the classic study of the US Marines and amphibious warfare in the Pacific campaigns, Jeter A. Isley and Philip Crowl begin with a very blunt comparison: Success at Okinawa and Failure at Gallipoli. The US Marine Corps studied the Gallipoli campaign throughout the interwar years. The chapter presents an example of the crimping of the influence of sea power in the new era of mines, torpedoes, entrenched coastal gunnery, motor tropedo boats and submarines.