The end of World War I began a period of demobilization for U.S. forces, but the Navy remained heavily engaged in post-war activity for another six years in Europe. The author describes in this hefty volume the operations and diplomacy of the naval units in the Barents, Baltic, Adriatic, Aegean and Black Seas, where ships were engaged in treaty protection of U.S. citizens, providing support for Herbert Hoover's American Relief Administration in rushing aid to Europe, including Russia and Turkey, where Armenians were evacuated. The ships also supported in combat a coalition intervening in the Russian Civil War. The period set a precedent for the U.S. Navy in humanitarian relief operations and showed the value of forward presence.
Seapower [A] masterly and absorbing telling of the US Navy operating in the European seas for close on 60 years.
Warships: International Fleet Review This is an good book that describes an era of naval history that still affects us in many different ways today but which has received surprisingly little attention from historians. It reminds us that armed conflict is only one element of the much wider naval mission and if we are to be on top of our game we must understand every aspect of sea power. I thoroughly recommend it.
The Australian Military Institute This very detailed book describes the naval activities that arose from America's responsibility for executing the naval terms of the Armistice. It shows clearly how those activities were constrained by the parsimony of Congress but how they were generally very effectively completed nevertheless.
Workboat World I highly recommend this outstanding account of the U.S. Navy's diplomatic and peacekeeping operations in northern European waters and the Near East during the immediate post World War I era. William Still skillfully relates how the U.S. Navy's European commanders protected American citizens and property and assisted refugees in the Baltic, Adriatic, Black, and Aegean Seas, and particularly at Smyrna, during the 1920s.
William S. Dudley, Ph.D., Director of Naval History, 1995-2004 Victory without Peace concludes Bill Still's majestic trilogy analysing the ebb and flow of American naval activity in European waters from 1867 to inter-war isolationism, as the nation grappled with the realities of becoming a great power, using naval presence to support diplomacy, economic growth and humanitarian missions. While the First World war ended in 1918 the naval effort endured, across a broken continent of collapsed regimes and displaced people, reminding us that armed conflict is only one element of the wider naval mission.
Andrew Lambert, author 21st Century Corbett, Laughton Professor Naval History, Kings College, London After Armistice Day in 1918, though most of the U.S. Navy's warships went home, others remained in European waters and engaged in a variety of missions in the Baltic, the Adriatic, the Black Sea, and elsewhere. William N. Still rescues this too often overlooked story in the final volume of his important trilogy on the U.S. Navy in the era of the Great War. In doing so, he also illuminates the broader issues of demobilization, humanitarian aid, and American foreign policy.
Craig L. Symonds, The Ernest J. King Professor of Naval History, U.S. Naval War College and author of World War II at Sea: A Global History