The Ship Model Forum

Hi Guys,

as I'm filling my shelves with books about different navies during WW1, I'd like to know if there is a good book about the Dover Patrol.

I already have the book from Vice-Admiral Usborne dealing with WW1 in the Mediterranean sea ("Smoke on the Horizon", 1935 edition), the book written by Claude Woollard about the Harwich patrol (1932 edition) and the book written by Captain A.F.B. Carpenter about the Zeebrugge event in 1918 (1925 edition).

Those three books are translation in french & are wonderful reads...

many thanks for your eventual anwers!

Regards,

Laurent

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Scared of Nothing , Always Thirsty

Just call me the "Cereals Box Killer" , I guess

Searching "Dover Patrol - World War 1, I found reference to Bacon's "Dover Patrol" which came in a very detailed two volume version and a less detailed single volume version.

There is also "Dover Patrol" byJJ Bennett Navy/Channel/Zeebrugge in WW1

Dover Patrol 1914-1918 [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover) is available on Amazon

Also:
Humphreys, Roy - The Dover Patrol 1914-18 published by Sutton Publishing Ltd.
A potted history of the Dover Patrol.

Titanic and Other Ships
by - Lightoller, Charles Herbert
1935, Ivor Nicholson & Watson
Hardcover, 344 pages
book is in English language
This book details the wildly adventurous career of Titanic officer Charles Herbert Lightoller. After surviving the Titanic disaster, Lightoller went on to command a torpedo boat in the Nore Defence Flotilla, and two destroyers of the Dover Patrol. A first-hand account, giving a vivid picture of how the "gentlemen of the other firm" felt towards the U-boats. Lightoller sank Werner Fürbringer's UB-110, and it is interesting to compare his account of their encounter with the one in Fips. The hardcover edition is a rarity, there is also a paperback edition, published by Bay Tree Press, which is more readily obtained. There is a hypertext at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301011h.html

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Russ

"The Dover Patrol 1914-18" by Roy Humphreys is a good modern and well illustrated general history. A real good starting point for the history of the Dover Patrol.

Admiral Bacon's "The Dover Patrol 1915-17" in two volumes is very detailed, though not covering the whole war and maybe a bit biased to his point of view. Naturally.

The big issue for the Dover Patrol was the attempt to close the channel to U-Boats in passage. So all the better known books on the U-Boat war will talk a lot about the Dover Patrol and the mine and net barrages used to attempt to limit U-Boats easy passage to the Western Approaches.

Bob B.

Hi Russ & Bob,

thanks for the links, I already took a look at the Lightoller book, wonderful reading!

I've found here that the Roy Humphrey wasn't such a good book, can someone confirm this? :
http://www.uboat.net/books/reviews.html/title/1897

BTW, I found the JJ Bennett book on the net, under "txt" format:
http://www.archive.org/stream/doverpatr ... t_djvu.txt

Thanks to both of you!

Laurent

_________________
Scared of Nothing , Always Thirsty

Just call me the "Cereals Box Killer" , I guess

Yes, on reading the review of Humphrey's book I'de have to agree that it is by no means a definitive history of the Dover Patrol. It is aimed at a UK readership wanting to know about what the Royal Navy was up to in the Channel during the war.
It doesn't come close to being a history of Naval Operations in teh Channel, not by a long shot. It's one of those lighter books for people with an interest in the Royal Navy. Serious students of Naval History would want to look to other works.
The books on German U-Boat operations tell the other side of the story, which is the use of the straights as a short way into the Western Approaches U-Boat operating areas.

Bob B.