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The Rules of the Game is a fascinating book because it starts with the lead-up Jutland, goes back in time to explain how the culture and personalities of the Ro
by ltratt 9y ago
The Rules of the Game is a fascinating book because it starts with the lead-up Jutland, goes back in time to explain how the culture and personalities of the Royal Navy came to be, before going back to Jutland. It made my head hurt the first time I read it, because so much was unfamiliar, but a second read really brought things to life.
The synopsis / review this book offers is a good one but it could, perhaps, be generalised. Though Gordon doesn't make it explicit as such, the lesson I ended up taking away from the book is that cultures tend to go through alternating periods of encouraging initiative or obedience. You can see this in armies (perhaps the classic example is the Prussian / German army: it started off with Frederick the Great as an army of obedience; became (at the top levels at least) an army of initiative under von Moltke the Elder; and (in the West, at least) went back to an army of obedience for most of WWI), technology (look at any well known company's research lab culture), and even wider society. If I had to briefly summarise the consequences of this, it tends to come down to when two broadly equal organisations square up against each other: if one uses obedience as its model, and the other initiative, the latter will tend to win; if the two both use the same system, the outcome seems to be mostly random.
[That said, Jutland isn't a great example of this in my opinion, as it was so protracted and its outcome so muddy. Poor ship design and some sloppy practises with explosives meant the British came off worse in terms of casualties, so arguably the Germans won the day. However, the (smaller) German Navy realised that it had only survived through luck, and basically stayed in port for the rest of the war, whereas the British were out sailing in force less than a week later and continuing the blockade of Germany. The Germans eventually thought the only way to win at sea was unrestricted submarine warfare, which turned out to be perhaps the biggest PR disaster in history. I was astonished to realise that the German Navy's inferiority complex from Jutland persisted into WWII: the German Navy stalled shamelessly when asked to help invade Britain, as the lesson they learnt from Jutland was that the British Navy could never be defeated, so what was the point of trying? So Jutland had complex long-term effects that defy easy classification. Which is, perhaps, why it's so fascinating.]
- mcguire 9y agoExcellent points. To me, the only question is whether Beatty misused his battlecruisers or whether they were fatally flawed to begin with: whether their speed advantage was really worth anything. And whether the result would be a total British victory rather that just a strategic one. As for the overall point, success breeds overconfidence, which breeds failure, and so on.
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- cmdkeen 9y agoThere's a separate, fascinating, historical incident that shaped the Royal Navy and by extension world affairs for centuries. The execution of Admiral Byng for "failing to do his utmost" lead to a culture of aggression in the RN. This resulted over the years in many impressive, against the odds, victories such as Pellew's two frigates taking the 74 Droits de l'Homme. It also led to sacrifices such as HMS Glowworm's attack on the Hipper during the Norway campaign in 1940. The Royal Navy differs from the British Army in taking a more holistic view of traditions and history. Trafalgar is celebrated by all every year, Taranto is celebrated by all aviators every year - rather than only those descended from units involved. This combined with the length of time to draw lessons from has led to the saying "The Navy has traditions, the Army history and the Air Force has habits. And nasty, dirty habits they are too".
- arethuza 9y agoI can strongly recommend "The Silent Deep" about the Royal Navy submarine service. The parts describing the Perisher course are fascinating (the author, perhaps because he is a Peer, actually got to go on subs during the course) - imagine a training course where if you deemed to have failed you are immediately removed from the training area (by helicopter) and never allowed to work in that area of the Navy again! Mind you, apparently you do get a bottle of whisky to make up for your career being in shreds. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/183977/the-silent-deep/ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/183977/the-silent-deep/
- GrumpSlverBear 9y agoThere has been a couple of programs on the UK channels (I think mostly Channel4/Five) that dealt with with Perisher course. It is brutal, hard, and exhausting. And yeah, bottle of whisky on your leave and you can't work on subs anymore (though you do get to keep the Dolphin pin apparently).
- hardlianotion 9y agoThanks for that. A very interesting story it is as well, with a strong element of judicial murder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng
- nickik 9y agoThis initiative vs obedience seems a little wishywashy to me. When do these shifts happen, is is cultural or only a matter of the who is in charge that day? Specially when applied in practice to the German army. Even if the pattern is true, there seem to be many, many far more relevant reasons for victory or defeat.