The ‘Hallmark of a First-Class Navy’: The Nuclear-Powered Submarine in the Royal Navy 1960–77

Abstract

This article examines the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines into the Royal Navy and the images of national power that this generated, and indeed the images the Navy sought to present. It argues that from the Second World War onwards, the British slowly began to see the submarine not as a threat to their naval power and great power status, but as a means of shoring it up in the face of huge challenges to Britain's position in the world during the 1960s and 1970s. The article concludes that the imagery that surrounded the submarine indicates how important this type of vessel was to perceptions of the British naval power.

Keywords:

• Royal Navy
• Submarine
• Sea Power
• Ships

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Paul Readman, Dr Joe Maiolo and Kate Polden who read drafts of this article, and whose advice and criticisms were extremely helpful. I should also like to thank the anonymous referees whose constructive and helpful comments did much to focus my thinking and improve this article.

Notes

 [2] Blackman, Jane's Fighting Ships 1966–67; Lewin, ‘The Royal Navy in the Next Decade’; ‘RGH’, ‘The Nuclear Attack Submarine’; McGeoch, ‘Submarine Developments’; McGeoch, ‘Submarine Matters’; ‘Moryak’, ‘Manning the Polaris Submarine Force’; Walters, ‘The Submersible Fleet of the Future’; see also The Times, 14 December 1966.

 [3] TNA/PRO, ADM 1/26756, Analysis of Operation Rum Tub; Coote, Submariner, 212; Hackmann, Seek & Strike, 355.

 [4] Works include: Dash, ‘British Submarine Policy 1853–1918’; , ‘British Submarine Development and Policy 1918–39’ and ‘British Submarine Policy, 1918–39’; Lambert, ‘The Influence of the Submarine Upon Naval Strategic Thinking 1898–1914’; Lambert, Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution; Llewellyn-Jones, ‘The Royal Navy in the Threshold of Modern Anti-Submarine Warfare 1944–9’; Marder, The Anatomy of British Sea Power; Roskill, Naval Policy Between the Wars.

 [5] Grove, Vanguard to Trident.

 [6] Rüger, The Great Naval Game.

 [7] Burke, History and Social Theory, 118.

 [8] Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, 87.

 [9] Hezlet, British and Allied Submarine Operations in World War II, I, 27.

[10] BR 1806, 66, 207.

[11] Corbett, Principles of Maritime Strategy, 87–104; Richmond, Sea Power in the Modern World, 55; Till, ‘Corbett and the Emergence of a British School?’ 79–82.

[12] BR 1806, 66–8.

[13] Richmond, The Navy as an Instrument of Policy, 102.

[14] Daily Mail, 17 March 1909.

[15] The Morning Post, 17 March 1909.

[16] TNA/PRO, ADM 205/32, A Balanced Post War Fleet.

[17] TNA/PRO, ADM 205/32, A Balanced Post War Fleet.

[18] The eight units of the Porpoise class were laid down between 1954 and 1958, with the last boat of the class being delivered in 1961. By the end of October 1962, five Oberons had been delivered and another six were under construction.

[19] Grove, Vanguard to Trident, 228.

[20] TNA/PRO, ADM 1/25252, Submarine V Submarine Trails; Grove, Vanguard to Trident, 223–4; Hackmann, Seek and Strike, 352.

[21] The relative failure of the high-test peroxide powered submarine Excalibur and Explorer, and the failure of the Mark 12 and Mark 23 torpedoes, the partial success of the T class modernisations as although having better performance they were too noisy for anti-submarine warfare, unlike the modernised A class.

[22] The Times, 20 March 1957.

[23] The Times, 11 April 1957.

[24] Birmingham Post, 16 June 1953; Daily Mail, 16 June 1953; Daily Mail, 17 June 1953; Daily Telegraph, 16 June 1953; Manchester Guardian, 16 June 1953.

[25] Daily Mail, 16 June 1953.

[26] The Times, ‘Royal Navy Supplement’, 15 June 1953; Daily Telegraph, 15 June 1953; Daily Telegraph, 16 June 1953; Manchester Guardian, 15 June 1953; The Times, 15 June 1953; Hampshire Telegraph & Post and Naval Chronicle, 19 June 1953.

[27] The Times, 1 November 1960.

[28] Manchester Guardian, 15 June 1953.

[29] The Times, 5 June 1954; see also The Times, 22 January 1952; The Times, 28 March 1952; The Times, 16 May 1952; The Times, 16 June 1952; The Times, 21 July 1952; The Times, 1 August 1952; The Times, 14 May 1953.

[30] Reynolds, Britannia Overruled, 163; TNA/PRO, ADM 1/23729, FOSM's 705/sm.068.M, 8 September 1952; TNA/PRO, ADM 1/25252, M/TASW 289/47 quoted in C-in-C Home Fleet to Admiralty, ‘Submarine War Plans’, 4 January 1951.

[31] Barnett, The Verdict of Peace, Chapter 2.

[32] Rüger, ‘The Celebration of the Fleet in Britain and Germany’, 24; see also Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 183, n. 178.

[33] The Times, 22 October 1960.

[34] Boniface, Dreadnought, 23.

[35] Guardian, 21 October 1960.

[36] TNA/PRO, ADM 1/26779, MAT 5954/57, 2 February 1957.

[37] Royal Navy Submarine Museum (RNSubM), A1950/5, letter from Capt SM1 (at Malta) to FOSM, 15 May 1958.

[38] TNA/PRO, ADM 1/26779, loose minute, 26 September 1958.

[39] TNA/PRO, ADM 1/26779, loose minute, 7 January 1960 and 16 November 1960.

[40] TNA/PRO, ADM 1/26779

[41] TNA/PRO, ADM 1/26779

[42] PRO, ADM 1/28583, loose minute, 21 November 1963.

[43] ‘Drake’, ‘The Challenge of Polaris’, 343.

[44] TNA/PRO, ADM 167/72, Memoranda 2138, 3 December 1925.

[45] Ackermann, Encyclopaedia of British Submarines, 298; College and Warlow, Ships of the Royal Navy, 223, 232, 236, 242, 247, 266; Manning and Walker, British Warship Names, 332, 339–40, 342, 363–4.

[46] RNSubM, A1950/5, letter from Capt SM1 (at Malta) to FOSM, 15 May 1958.

[47] TNA/PRO, DEFE 69/354, loose minute N/5 50218/68, 9 April 1968.

[48] RNSubM, A1950/5, letter from Capt SM1 (at Malta) to FOSM, 15 May 1958.

[49] TNA/PRO, DEFE 24/194, Future Fleet Working Party action on further studies, ‘Submarines—The State of the Art’ by DUSW(N); TNA/PRO, DEFE 48/285, para. 109–12; Broadsheet 81 , 33; TNA/PRO, DEFE 48/285, The Nuclear Submarine in Defence of Surface Forces and Interdiction of Enemy Surface Movement, November 1974; see also Freidman ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’, 128–9; for a general view on the RN thinking on tactical submarine communications see TNA/PRO, ADM 219/642, The Communication Problems for the Nuclear Submarine in the Escort Role; see also TNA/PRO, DEFE 24/194, FFWP action on further studies, ‘Submarine—The State of the Art’ by DUSW(N); TNA/PRO, DEFE 24/238, Future Fleet Working Party Report, II, annex U3; Harrap, ‘The Role of the SSN in Modern UK Defence Policy’, 86; Friedman, Submarine Design and Development, 72–4.

[50] Hansard 5th Ser., Vol. 725 (1966), col. 239, 241; Healey, The Time of My Life, 275–6; Friedman, British Carrier Aviation, 344; ‘RGH’, ‘The Nuclear Attack Submarine’, 23; Walters, ‘The Submersible Fleet of the Future’, 322.

[51] TNA/PRO, DEFE 24/238, Future Fleet Working Party Report, I, para 15, 167; II, Annex U3 para 7.

[52] ‘RGH’, ‘The Nuclear Attack Submarine’, 23.

[53] Coopey, ‘Industrial Policy in the White Heat of the Scientific Revolution’, 112; Fielding, ‘“White Heat” and White Collars: the Evolution of “Wilsonism”’, 29, 37; Horner, ‘The Road to Scarborough: Wilson, Labour and the Scientific Revolution’, 48; Morgan, Harold Wilson, 246; Pimlott, Harold Wilson, 310–5; Ziegler, Wilson, 143–6.

[54] Wiener, English Culture, 159–66.

[55] See reviews by Aldcroft, D. H. Journal of Economic History, Vol. 42 (1982), 243–4; Ashworth, W. Economic History Review, Vol. 34 (1981), 659–60; Floud, R. Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XX (1982), 592–3; Harris, J. English Historical Review, Vol. 98 (1983), 921–3; Minihan, J. O. American Historical Review, Vol. 87 (1982), 178–9; Wolfe, W. Business History Review, Vol. 57 (1983), 609–11; see also Collins, B. and Robbins, K. eds. British Culture and Economic Decline (1990); Rubinstein, Capitalism, Culture and Decline in Britain, 1750–1990; Edgerton, Science, Technology and the British Industrial ‘Decline’, 1879–1970; Mandler, ‘Against “Englishness”: English Culture and the Limits to Rural Nostalgia, 1850–1940’.

[56] Wiener, English Culture, 163–4.

[57] Wiener, English Culture, 165.

[58] Wiener, English Culture, 165; Friedman, British Carrier Aviation, 344, 346, 347; Grove, Vanguard to Trident, 252, 278, 292–3, 307, 310–2, 338, 341.

[59] Reynolds, Britannia Overruled, 160, 178–80.

[60] Barnett, The Lost Victory, 73; Reynolds, Britannia Overruled, 171, 210–2; Ziegler, Wilson, 208.

[61] Lyndon Johnson Library, PM Wilson Briefing Book, 32, Sec of State to Johnson, 27 July 1966, quoted in Ziegler, Wilson, 210.

[62] Reynolds, Britannia Overruled, 199, 201, 202, 208, 211–2.

[63] Lyndon Johnson Library, PM Wilson Briefing Book, 32, Sec of State to Johnson, 27 July 1966, quoted in Ziegler, Wilson, 210; see also Ziegler, Wilson, 208.

[64] Harrington, ‘“The Mighty Hood”: Navy, Empire, War at Sea and the British National Imagination’, 179.

[65] The News, 10 June 1977, 3 for preparations for visitors; The News, 27 June 1977; Daily Telegraph, 29 June 1977 for commentary on the lack of visitors; The News, 27 June 1977.

[66] Winton, ‘The Spithead Review’, Illustrated London News, August 1977, 37.

[67] Winton, Silver Jubilee Fleet Review Official Souvenir Programme, 6.

[68] Winton, Silver Jubilee Fleet Review Official Souvenir Programme

[69] Winton, Silver Jubilee Fleet Review Official Souvenir Programme, 14–6.

[70] The News—Fleet Review Souvenir, 28 June 1977.

[71] Daily Mail, 29 June 1977; The Times, 29 June 1977.

[72] Daily Express, 27 June 1977; Guardian, 28 June 1977; Sunday Telegraph Magazine, 26 June 1977.

[73] Daily Express, 27 June 1977; Guardian, 29 June 1977.

[74] Guardian, 28 June 1977.

[75] Guardian, 28. Jun. 1977

[76] Guardian, 28. Jun. 1977

[77] Daily Express, 28 June 1977.

[78] Guardian, 28 June 1977.

[78] Daily Express, 27 June 1977.

[80] ‘RGH’, ‘The Nuclear Attack Submarine’, 23.

Additional information

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Duncan Redford

Duncan Redford joined the Royal Navy in 1991 and served as a submarine navigating officer until 2001. Upon leaving the Navy, he undertook an MA in War Studies at King's College London (2001–2), followed by a PhD at King's. He was awarded his doctorate in September 2006 for the thesis ‘The Cultural Impact of Submarines on Britain 1900–77. ’ He is the Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Center for Maritime Historical Studies, University of Exeter.