Plans Division
United Kingdom
Division overview
Formed1917
Preceding Division
Dissolved1964
Superseding agency
  • Plans and Resources Division
JurisdictionGovernment of the United Kingdom
HeadquartersAdmiralty Building
Whitehall
London
Division executive
  • Director Plans
  • Deputy Director of Plans
Parent DivisionAdmiralty War Staff, Admiralty Naval Staff

The Plans Division [1] was the former war preparation and wartime strategic planning arm of the Admiralty Department from 1917 to 1964, The division originally became the main policy advisory and formulating body to the Chief of the Naval Staff.[2] It later came under the supervision of the Assistant-Chief of the Naval staff (Policy).

When it transferred to the Navy Department (Ministry of Defence) it was renamed the Plans and Resources Division until 1971 it then became the Directorate of Naval Plans.

History

The Plans Division was established on 28 September 1917 it evolved out of the earlier Plans Section (Section 16) [3] of the Operations Division of the Naval Staff. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff whose view was that plans and operations as functions should be separate and distinct.[4] The division existed until 1964 when the Admiralty department was abolished and its functions merged within a new Ministry of Defence and re-emerged as the Plans and Resources Division that was headed by the Director of Plans and Resources.

Responsibilities

The Plans Division would cover a far wider remit than devising the making of operational plans. Long-term policy in regards to the composition of all commands, fleets and squadrons were within its responsibility, continual projecting of naval construction programs were also another duty, however the procedures for planning was always in a constant state of modification due to the significance of changes from one aspect of the war at sea to another.

The business of the plans division was also closely coordinated with that of the Intelligence Division[5] as vital information about the enemy's perceived intentions or actions adversely affected both the preparation of and execution of all plans. This usually consisted of the day-to-day, even hour-to-hour communiques, reports and assessments regarding the actions and movements of every one of the enemy's assets. The scale and complexity was enormous in that it had to cover all the oceans and seas of the world, and that it might affect every British and Allied warships and merchantmen at sea this information in turn passed to the division who had to anticipate and plan contingencies for these types of changes.

Although the division prepared all naval plans the director was also a member of the (Joint Planning Committee) that included the directors of plans from the Army and Air force,[6] they collectively advised the Chiefs of Staff on all inter-Service planning problems. Only a low percentage of plans created received, for one reason or another, the Board of Admiralty's and First Sea Lord's approval; however strategic planning to anticipate every conceivable outcome had to be conducted, because a sudden requirement for an emergency plan might arise, this was particularly the case during both world wars.

Directors duties

As of 1917:[7]

Directors of Plans

Included:[8]

Deputy Directors of Plans

Included:[8]

Assistant Directors of Plans

Notes:Incomplete list, the division always had two assistant directors this is indicated where appointment dates overlap below they included:[9]

Subordinate staff sections

A more detailed breakdown of the distribution of work allocated within the division to the various staff sections can be seen below.

As of 1917:[12]

References

  1. ^ Bond, Brian; Roy, Ian (5 October 2015). War and Society Volume 2: A Yearbook of Military History. Routledge. p. 87. ISBN 9781317414476.
  2. ^ The Royal Navy Today. Odhams Press Limited, London. 1942. p. 64.
  3. ^ Grimes, Shawn T. (2012). Strategy and War Planning in the British Navy, 1887-1918. Boydell Press. p. 216. ISBN 9781843836988.
  4. ^ Hamilton, C. I. (3 February 2011). The Making of the Modern Admiralty: British Naval Policy-Making, 1805–1927. Cambridge University Press. pp. 268–269. ISBN 9781139496544.
  5. ^ Pope, Dudley (1956). Graf Spee: The Life and Death of a Raider. Lippincott. p. 71.
  6. ^ Franklin, George (2 August 2004). Britain's Anti-submarine Capability 1919-1939. Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 9781135774295.
  7. ^ Jellicoe, Earl John Rushworth Jellicoe (1 January 1921). The Crisis of the Naval War. Volume 1, Chapter 3, of Library of Alexandria. ISBN 9781465507914. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  8. ^ a b Mackie, Colin. "Senior Royal Navy Appointments from 1865" (PDF). gulabin.com. Gulabin, pp.27 to 29, January 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  9. ^ Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "World War II unit histories & officers, Royal Navy". www.unithistories.com. Houterman and Koppes, 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  10. ^ a b Houterman, J.N. "Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939-1945 -- C". www.unithistories.com. J N Houterman. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  11. ^ Houterman, J.N. "Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939-1945 -- C". unithistories.com. J.N. Houterman. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  12. ^ Marder, Arthur J. (31 March 2014). From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: Volume IV 1917, Year of Crisis. Seaforth Publishing. p. 222. ISBN 9781848322011.

Sources

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