The Rules of the Game

If the Age of the Dreadnoughts fires your imagination, this book certainly fired mine. It is the most authoritative book written on the Battle of Jutland and the British Naval Command in WWI.

Beyond a mere recounting of who commanded and what ships were involved, this book takes a deep dive into the naval strategy of the time, how and why ships were built, and how they were sailed and fought, down to tactical details that end up determining decisive battle outcomes that changed the naval history of WWI.

Learn everything from orders of battle, ship handling, and turn by… show more.

Gordon’s book delights and displeases in turn.

He shows how the baked in traditions of blind obedience to orders, together with the class-based culture and selection for command, hindered the actions of the Royal Navy during WW1. Not all of his statements are correct and sometimes his naval history is shaky but the tale is well told and it is an absorbing read.

Gordon brings a wealth of higher education in Britain as well as service in the Royal Navy to this book, published by the prestigious Naval Institute Press (Annapolis MD) and winner of the coveted Westminster Medal for Military Literature. He focuses on the command and control difficulties that nearly turned victory to defeat for the Royal Navy at Jutland, but buttresses his battle arguments with a lengthy analytic digression – two-fifths of the book – on the traditions and practices of the British navy dating back centuries. This is the beauty of the book, in fact, a discussion so pertinent… show more.