This is an invaluable book about a neglected but important branch of the UK’s military capability. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) occupies a position somewhere between the Royal and the Merchant Navies, and chronicling its unique status requires historians with an understanding of both services. Tom Adams and James Smith have done their work well, and although The Royal Fleet Auxiliary: A Century of Service is not the first book on the RFA (Sigwart’s The Royal Fleet Auxiliary was published in the 1960s) it is likely to become the definitive work on the nuts and bolts of the organization during its first 100 years. A remarkable volume and depth of information plus a good selection of halftone and colour photographs have been successfully shoe-horned into the relatively small compass of a 192-page quarto publication.

The introduction begins by describing how the concept of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary developed for vessels which were owned by the Admiralty yet manned by mercantile crews. The advantages of such an arrangement to the Admiralty were that vessels could be built to relatively cheap mercantile standards and that these vessels, registered as merchant ships under the various merchant shipping acts, were free of restrictions placed on warships when entering foreign ports.

Perhaps the greatest fillip to the growth of the fledgling RFA was the need to supply the increasing number of major warships which burnt oil, and the Burma of 1911 began a long line of Admiralty-designed tankers. The original role of these oilers was to fuel ships alongside in harbour: it was to be some years before underway replenishment was perfected, a vital role of the modern RFA. During the First World War the RFA was enormously expanded from the seven vessels and 161 personnel it comprised in 1914. A total of 67 tankers of various sizes were constructed, in addition to the colliers, distilling ships, repair ships and hospital ships acquired or built. Despite this large fleet, there was virtually no centralised management of RFA vessels during the First World War, and only in the years between the wars were coherent managing and manning strategies evolved.

One of the strengths of this book is that, although the ships are central to its story, there is ample material on the human side, including management, recruitment, conditions of employment, ranks, awards for gallantry and even pensions.

The Second World War saw the concept of a fleet train develop to serve the British Pacific and Indian Ocean fleets, and this focused attention on the need for tankers to be equipped for underway replenishment and to have the speed to keep pace with the warships they were servicing. Although after the Second World War the RFA contracted, along with the Royal Navy, it has actually grown in importance over the half century since 1945. Alongside its sophisticated oilers, replenishment and repair ships, the RFA provides the UK’s amphibious capability (now into their second generation, with the ‘Bay’ class vessels replacing the ‘Knights’), and operates the so-called aviation support ship Argus, basically a helicopter carrier.

The second and larger section of The Royal Fleet Auxiliary: A Century of Service comprises a year-by-year history of the RFA. This covers vessels and operations, and is supplemented with illustrated data panels on typical ships or classes. At appropriate points additional information is presented on a wide range of relevant topics, varying from ship deployments to uniforms, and from fitting of radios to allocation of wartime prizes. From the chronology, it is possible to follow the career of each RFA vessel from acquisition to disposal or loss, although no details are given of any subsequent mercantile careers.

There is an alphabetical fleet list with one-line entries for each vessel considered an RFA although, as the authors point out, not all Admiralty-owned merchant ships were so described, and a number known to have been registered in the ownership of Their Lordships during the First World War are omitted. Six appendices cover major casualties, medals and battle honours, flags, colour schemes, badges and pennant numbers. Given how authors and publisher have worked to incorporate so much into the book’s 192 pages, it is surprising that three pages are taken up with forewords, prefaces and dedications by the great and the good, including Prince Andrew. One would not expect a royal foreword to have been necessary to ensure the success of this book.

The impression is that this work contains all the information one could want about the RFA, well presented and accessible. However, the book inevitably raises questions which the authors do not attempt to answer, either through lack of space or because they see their role as presenting facts rather than analysis. For instance, has the policy of supporting military activity with a force manned by mercantile (and therefore essentially civilian) crew been entirely successful? Answering this would involve addressing issues such as whether the less rigorous discipline on a merchant ship and the need for voluntary recruitment in wartime has affected the RFA’s capabilities.

It also needs to be questioned whether the cost benefits of using simple, cheaply constructed merchant ships outweighed their drawbacks of limited speed and poor resistance to battle damage. The evolution of RFA ships since the Second World War, with highly-specialised, purpose-built vessels carrying a limited offensive capability is a reversal of earlier practice. It would be interesting to have had the author’s views on this: have lessons from two world wars been forgotten, or has the world changed?

It is perhaps unfair to expect the authors to have considered these matters in what is basically a factual account of the RFA, and one which represents an immense labour of research and distillation of the information gathered. While such answered questions suggest that this is not the last word on the RFA, they certainly do not detract from the importance and value of the book.