Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Royal Navy Wargaming 1929 to 1945 and the Western Approaches Tactical Unit

Royal Navy Wargaming 1929 to 1945 and the Western Approaches Tactical Unit

Curry, John
Radigales, Alvaro

Paperback

Series: History Wargaming Project: Naval, Book 12

Weaponry & Vehicles

ISBN13: 9798305645378
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 3 2025
Pages: 206
Weight: 1.08
Height: 0.44 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
The technique of wargaming was just another item in the mental toolbox of Royal Navy officers of the early to mid-twentieth century. When they put their ship in harms way, a captain would have an idea of the probabilities of success and failure based on the operational analysis encapsulated in the wargaming rules. They would have practised the doctrine of the Royal Navy, summarised in the Fighting Instructions, in fleet exercises and on the wargames table.

In the period covered by this book, 1929-1945, the Royal Navy used a number of naval wargames for education, training and operational analysis. This meant when the demand for training escort commanders was drastically increased in the face of the U-Boat threat, wargames were inevitably seen as part of the answer. This book includes the rules for the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU), and places the game in the wider context of a wargaming culture.

There is a wealth of material in the archives about the wargames of this period. This selection for this book includes:

The 1929 Royal Navy Rules.

The Atlantic Trade Defence Wargame run by the Admiralty in 1938.

The WATU rules and combat tables for 1944/45.

Find, Fix and Strike- a training game for operation officers on aircraft carriers.

Supporting this volume is an appendix with extracts of the doctrine for the Royal Navy, The Fighting Instructions (1939).

Also included is all the material found to date on naval weapon effectiveness in the national archives for this period.

This book is a source book for the Royal Navy's understanding of 'big gun' naval warfare.

This book is published by the History of Wargaming Project as part of its research into the development of wargaming.

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