THE ARMY'S NAVY - British Military Vessels and their History since Henry VIII by Habesch, David

London 2001, Chatham, UK first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6x9, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 240 pages, illus, appendices, bibliog, index.----------------------------------------Begining with the artillery transport barges operated by Henry VIII's Board of Ordnance in the 16th century, for the past 500 years the British Army has been responsible for a large and varied fleet of ships, but a fleet whose history has been overshadowed by that of the Royal Navy. This book gives a complete history of the ships and other maritime forces operated by the Army, including the Submarine Mining Service of the late 19th century, where the Royal Engineers defended harbours with mines and torpedoes, through the First and Second World Wars, and into the post-war period, when the Army's Navy had the perilous job of disposing of thousands of tons of unstable surplus ammunition by dumping it at sea.