When did the Royal Navy (UK) become irrelevant?

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I was reading a book of Winston Churchill speeches as compiled by his grandson. Despite serving in the Army himself (Sudan, Boer War, WW1), Churchill in the early years of the 20th century was urging a continuation of the long British tradition of spending more money on the Navy rather than the Army. In fact he once advocated for a small regular army dedicated to colonial warfare and a system of part time militia at home.

Up through, I think, WW1 the British Royal Navy was the largest in the world. It was still large at the start of WW2.

Today it is about 10 percent the size of the United States Navy. Under Tony Blair, the British submarine fleet changed procedures and became able to use their nuclear option ONLY with U.S. permission. I do not know if that has changed, but while in effect the British subs became essentially....auxillary ships...to the USN. In fact the United States Coast Guard now seems to be larger than the British Navy.

When did the British give up their Navy and the tradition of sea power?
 
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WW1, and then the great depression hurt England. WWll, and the end of large scale "Colonialism" pretty much sounded the death knell of the British Navy. England never bounced back from WWll the way we did economically, or militarily. My simple answer, anyway...

Larry
 
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Not surprising really. At one point the Cleveland Police Department had more serviceable rifles on hand than the British Army, since ALL of the L85s were considered hors de combat until the H&K rework.
 
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Fishinfool said:
WW1, and then the great depression hurt England. WWll, and the end of large scale "Colonialism" pretty much sounded the death knell of the British Navy. England never bounced back from WWll the way we did economically, or militarily. My simple answer, anyway...

Larry
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Fishinfool makes some very valid points, in 50 words or less! Britain at one time had the largest empire in the world. Empires run on the free flow of trade. The Royal Navy was built with that aim in mind, to keep the trade routes open. We read of the battleships of the British Grand Fleet, but also important were the very many cruisers, both light and armored, that carried the flag across the world and ensured that flow of trade.

The Royal Navy was still huge in WWII and did much to help win the war. After the war, Britain was close to bankruptcy. Left-leaning governments were elected, for whom, according to one writer: "A penny spent on defense is a penny too much." Peter C. Smith, IIRC. These policies helped to diminish the Royal Navy, but they cannot diminish it's centuries of tradition and service.

Kaaskop49
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The Royal Navy always had two principal functions: protect the British Isles from invasion from France (and occasionally elsewhere, like Spain in 1588), and control and protect the British Empire.

Both functions are pretty much history nowadays. Threats from abroad don't land by boat on the beaches, but at airports with a fake passport. And stirring memories like the Falklands campaign nonwithstanding, you can not sell the taxpayer on the cost of a world-capable surface fleet just because of a few remote enclaves like that.
 
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Post 1982, the Royal Navy, Marines, Special Boat Service etc have been a part of the Global War on Terror. I am not sure what assets were deployed, but British forces did see action in Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember seeing Royal Marines at the base exchange at Quantico.

I know they had battleships and carriers as late as 1945, and either sent, or were going to send, large Royal Navy forces to assist in the invasion of Japan.

Up through the Reagan era it seems like the Royal Navy was still an important partner in NATO drills? Or were they a shadow then too?

I remember Cold War era wargames showing a large British armor force in Germany. A cursory search today shows that Britain has only 227 tanks now. A force outnumbered almost 2 to 1 by...Switzerland.

I guess this explains all the surplus British gear for sale. They apparently had a going out of business sale.
 
The decline started after WW II with the start of the "Social Contract". At the same time, Britain was decolonizing and so didn't need a world wide naval capacity.

At about the same time, the US Navy was contracting, but not nearly as much. After the Korean War and the heating up of the Cold War, the US Navy started to expand. That of course contracted during the Carter Administration, but since then (up until recently) the US had the only real two ocean navy.

The British still seem to have dedicated soldiers, marines, naval, and air force personnel. It's just that they aren't funded enough to do their jobs.

At least that's my non military observation.
 
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Marshwheeling said:
Not to quibble, but I always heard it: "Rum, the lash and buggery."
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"CHURCHILL'S description of the Royal Navy is included in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations as having appeared in the book, Former Navy Person, by Sir Peter Gretton. The Oxford Dictionary suggests that Churchill's phrase should be compared with naval phrases dating from the 19th century - 'Rum, bum and bacca' and 'Ashore, it's wine, women and song, aboard it's rum, bum and concertina'.

It looks as though here, as elsewhere, Churchill took an earlier quotation and improved upon it. In The Irrepressible Churchill, compiled by Kay Halle (Robson Books, 1985), Churchill is said to have used the phrase in 1913, when he was First Lord of the Admiralty. According to 'an ear-witness', he was having trouble with some of his admirals at a strategy meeting. One of them accused him of having impugned the traditions of the Royal Navy, provoking the reply: 'And what are they? They are rum, sodomy and the lash'. "
 
Two books if you're really interested in this subject.
To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, by Aurthur Herman. And The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire by Peter Clarke. Both available from Amazon and both relevant to this subject and a good read. :)
 
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