The initiative in battle was believed to lie with the attacker and though schemes varied in detail must nations concurred that successful actions consisted of a series of phases including an advance to contact; fire fight; and conclusive finish, most likely involving the deployment of a strategic reserve and a charge to take the enemy position. The German Drill Regulations of 1906, and Field Service Regulation of 1908, outlined an ideal plan in which the infantry manoeuvred in columns until within about 1,000 metres of the enemy. Relatively close formation would allow personal voice command by the company commanders and NCOs. With the enemy position under direct observation, the artillery attached lo the Gentian brigade would open fire. If the shelling shook the enemy sufficiently the columns could continue to advance; if the enemy remained steady, the attackers would deploy into loose linear formations of smaller units, and bring the enemy under effective fire from about 500 metres. A reserve would be prepared for the final attack on a flank or weak point. Once superiority of fire had been achieved the German force could close with the bayonet.

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U-Boat activity was drastically curtailed by 1944, though in the Mediterranean, U-Boats saw action against the Allied invasion fleet at Anzio. The installation of snorkel equipment in U-Boats allowed them to recharge their batteries while still under water, thus improving their chance of avoiding detection by Allied ships or aircraft. How-ever, it was a case of too little, too late. A far more important development was the launching of the first Type XXI U-Boat, in April. This new vessel was much larger than the Type VII or Type IX and featured such luxuries as refrigerated food storage and automatic loading devices for the torpedo tubes. Unfortunately the need to retrain crews for service in these technically advanced vessels delayed their introduction into combat service until it was too late. The Allied invasion of Normandy, in June 1944, heralded the end of the U-Boat bases in France. By-August all U-Boats in France had been withdrawn to bases in Norway. In September U-Boats were withdrawn from the Mediterranean, and those based in the Black Sea were scuttled. For the first time U-Boat losses exceeded new branchings, with 264 being sunk and only 230 commissioned. Only 131 Allied ships, totalling some 701,900 tons, had been sunk.

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Three battleships came back into limited service within months of the losses at Pearl Harbor. In 1942/43 two new North Carolina and five South Dakota Class BBs came into commission; and battleships were divided between fast (28 knots-plus) and slow groups. The fast ships, with heavy AA protection, escorted carriers in Fast Attack Carrier groups and provided gunfire support for island raids; the slower, older ships mounting 14in. or 16in. guns were attached to invasion groups for shore bombardment. As the war progressed, ever more AA guns would be mounted on battleships, destroyers and cruisers in the fast attack groups. The 33,000-ton USS California (BB-44) was typical of the older ships, with 2,300 crew and main armament of 12x 14in. guns. Refloated a year alter Pearl Harbor, she participated in the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa landings. The premier battleships of the war were the four 48,000-ton Iowa (Mass ships, with crews of 2,800 and a top speed of 33 knots. Their complete armament was 9x 16in., 20x 5in., 19x quad 40mm and 50x 20mm guns. Ironically, none ever fought a ship-to-ship action.

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Britain, as an island nation, has always placed a great deal of faith in the Royal Navy as its protector against invasion. By the outbreak of the First World War. the 'Senior Service' had built up an unparalleled history and tradition, and appeared to be the largest and strongest navy in the world. After 1914, however, events combined to reveal serious problems, and flaws in ship design became disastrously evident in action against the German High Seas Fleet. Yet, for much of the succeeding inter-war period, the Government was unwilling to lake action to rectify the situation. This was partly a matter of economics, and the move to a peacetime economy. However, as the 1920s progressed, Britain committed herself to a number of diplomatic initiatives (the Washington Naval Treaty of 1921, the First London Naval Treaty of 1930, and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935) which limited the strength of the Royal Navy, both in terms of the total number of vessels in the Fleet by comparison with the other Great Powers, and in the size and power of individual new ship designs. These treaties meant that smaller navies were able to become almost as advanced as the Royal Navy and, in terms of the most modern ships, achieve parity with it. When these agreements were finally abandoned in 1936, and Britain was once again free to build new ships without restrictions, not even an extensive rebuilding programme could make up for lost lime. When war broke out in September 1939, the Royal Navy found itself with a large number of ships of weak or obsolescent design.

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These duties, so carefully set out by Francis Markham in 1662, changed little over the next hundred years or so, a period when mutiny and desertion were commonplace. (That of the Royal Regiment of Foot leading directly to the passing of the first Mutiny Act.) In 1739, for example, several independent companies of Scottish Highlanders were formed into the regiment that later became known as the Black Watch. Their duties had been to patrol their native highlands as a form of gendarmerie, but in 1743 the regiment was ordered to London. When they were put on standby for overseas service, 112 men deserted and set out for Scotland, but were captured and tried for mutiny. The trials were arranged by Provost Marshal Dodd of the Savoy military prison in London (one of the earliest references to the use by Provost Marshals of a military prison). Of the death sentences meted out by the courts, three were executed by firing squad at the Tower of London, and the remainder commuted to transportation of one kind or another.

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