Arising without warning during the First World War, the threat posed to Australian shipping by submarinesmarked the first time the RAN had to seriously consider the relative proportion of assets devoted to local defence as opposed to out of area operations.
Maritime War 21 examined all these issues and more in a lively two days of presentation and debate.
Iam delighted to provide the foreord to this collection of essays. It marks the maturing of a joint initiative of the Royal Australian Navy and the School of History of the University of the New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy to remedy the lack of naval