With the Battlecruisers

This is Filson Young's unique account of life inside the Grand Fleet. Young's connections with the Liberal administration in the UK resulted in a unique and arresting portrait of Jackie Fisher, architect of British naval policy and service, beside one of its most controversial leaders, Sir David Beatty. His is thus the sole eyewitness account of the British navy at the outbreak of the First World War. The six months he was with the fleet saw the battles of Coronel and the Falklands, the sinking of the Audacious, the terrible loss to U-Boats of the armoured cruisers Aboukir, Hague and Cressy, as well as the skirmish at Heligoland Bight. Most important of all, he was with the fleet at Dogger Bank during the first great clash of the Dreadnoughts.His account combines astute analysis of grand strategy with detailed and often humorous accounts of what the life and thoughts of the men of the Grand Fleet were. It is thus an important contribution to the story of the British navy.