Securing the Narrow Sea - Steve Dunn

Securing the Narrow Sea: The Dover Patrol 1914-1918 by Steve R. Dunn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book partners Dunn's own Bayly's War in commemoration of the cold, wet, dangerous and exhausting task of the small-ship sailors tasked with protecting Britain's maritime trade and enforcing the blockade on Germany in the First World War. As such it inevitably lacks the single focus of a book on a 'spectacular' such as Jutland or Zeebrugge, but takes the form of a chronological survey of many smaller actions and developments.

Dunn points out early that, in strictly maritime terms, Dover is a daft place to build a port. There is no natural harbour, the narrowing of the Channel whip wind and tide to ferocity, and the area is littered with fearsome shallows.

As for the tools the Patrol had to work with, at one end of the scale they included monitors for shore bombardment to support the army. Their slow speed and shallow draught made them unmanageable in any kind of weather - sometimes they had to be towed into position. For the rest, destroyers and their cruiser flotilla leaders were at the large end of a scale which ranged down through motor launches, trawlers, drifters and yachts to tiny motor launches.

Dunn is commendably even-handed in his assessment of the Patrol's three commanders (Hood, Bacon, Keyes) with their respective strengths and vulnerabilities; also of the various attempts to impede U-boat passage with net and mine barriers.

Given the scope of the book he covers the few major actions well, though it would have been good to see illustrative diagrams placed in the text now and then - this could be done without additional plate sections. (There is one of these, containing 37 useful illustrations, by the way).

He also comments on the irony that Jutland, which left the High Seas Fleet bottled up and the blockade intact, was perceived in Britain as a defeat whereas Zeebrugge achieved almost nothing and was hailed as a glorious victory.



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