During the First World War German use of unrestricted submarine warfare, supported by extensive mining and surface raids, very nearly forced Britain out of the war in 1917. The island's heavy dependence on seaborne supplies was gravely threatened again in 1939, supplemented this time by air attacks on shipping. After the war Commanders Waters and Barley wrote a Naval Staff History which has long been recognised as an authoritative study of the impact of the German campaign and its ultimate defeat by Britain and her allies. It remains an indispensable basis for any serious study of the Battle of the Atlantic and has here been updated and revised by Dr Grove, who also contributes a perceptive introduction outlining its significance.
About the Author:

Eric Grove was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1948. He gained an MA in War Studies at King's College London in 1971, and a further MA in History from Aberdeen University and was appointed in 1971 as a civilian lecturer at Britannia Royal Naval Collage, Dartmouth. During the 1970s he wrote books on tanks and armoured warfare. He was the first Dartmouth academic to exchange for a year with the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, 1980-81. He left Dartmouth as Deputy Head of Strategic Studies and International Affairs in 1984, worked briefly for the Council for Arms Control before becoming a freelance academic and defence consultant. He worked mainly for the Foundation for International Security's Common Security Programme, and then its project on Maritime Power and European Security, involving dialogue between the Soviet, US and Royal Navies. He also taught at RNC Greenwich and the University of Cambridge.

In 1993 he accepted a position with the Department of Politics at Hull University and its Centre for Security Studies, and obtained a PhD, on the basis of his published work in 1996. He left Hull in 2005 where he had become Reader in Politics and International Studies and Director of the Centre, having founded a new undergraduate course in War and Security Studies. He had also acted as consultant and joint author of the Royal Navy's The Fundamentals of British Maritime Doctrine. He was involved in the first iteration of British Defence Doctrine. In 1997 he was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Maritime Policy at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales. In 2005 he moved to the University of Salford, where he was Professor of Naval History and Director of the Centre for International Security and War Studies. In 2012 he moved to Liverpool Hope University, as Professor of Naval History and Fellow in Security Studies.

He has made contributions to BBC2's Timewatch series, Deep Wreck Mysteries. Channel 4's The Hunt for the Hood and the Bismarck, and the series The Battleships and The Airships.