Anti-Submarine Warfare in World War I: British Naval Aviation and the Defeat of the U-Boats (review)

John Abbatiello's work deals with the role of British aircraft in defeating Germany's submarine campaign against British commerce in Britain's home waters during World War I. While only one German submarine was confirmed destroyed during the war by British aircraft, he contends that the country's naval aviation was a useful deterrent to German operations. Abbatiello asserts the need for a detailed study of the role of naval aviation due to the fact that official histories and the work of some historians contain inaccuracies that detract from an understanding of the organization and its importance to Britain's war effort.

The work, comprising eight chapters with the last being a conclusion, is thematically structured to accomplish the author's stated goal. The first of these deals with technology, where Abbatiello highlights the challenges that faced the British in deploying the new weapons system of the airplane against the submarine. The author shows that, despite technological advances during the war, the airplane was still not very effective at war's end in single-handedly destroying a U-boat. Rather, the author asserts that the potential for success lay in the use of these planes in a well-organized effort where the threat of attack hampered German submarine operations. In his mind, this effort was oftentimes thwarted by changes in British administration overseeing air forces. The second chapter complements the first through highlighting the challenges facing aircrews in training and the issue of production of planes in sufficient numbers.

These first two chapters lead into the next three, each of which deals with methods of deployment in an age when there was no established maritime air doctrine. These roles comprised attacking German submarine bases, air patrols to hunt enemy vessels, and providing air cover to convoy escorts. Abbatiello contends that the first of these had the least effect while the last produced the best results. Even so, he asserts that, contrary to official histories, the effort in the latter role was not universally successful because local commands were free to decide how best to deploy their aircraft.

The last two chapters consist of an examination of British and German official studies of the impact of British aircraft on Germany's submarine campaign. In the author's view, the examinations of the former concluded that aircraft served a valuable role, but downplayed the problem of organization that detracted from overall success, while the latter appreciated the danger of aircraft to submarines, but believed the threat to be muted due to technological limitations of aircraft.

Abbatiello's work has numerous strengths that commend it to historians and students of World War I alike. Historians will appreciate the detailed research and analysis as well as coverage of historiography. General readers will appreciate these same attributes as well as its meticulous organization, which clearly reveals the role of aircraft versus submarines in the Great War.