ABSTRACT
Lamberts contention is that Britains Great Armament intended to crush the combined defences of Cronstadt, guarding the approaches to St Petersburg, would have won the war in 1856, never mind the role played by negotiations with the fall of Sevastopol in the Crimea. The Russians knew this as well, and so there was peace. The Royal Navys triumph in the Falklands War of 1982 was for Hill a perfect response to the arrogance of civilian academics such as Paul Kennedy and especially Correlli Barnett. The twentieth century American and Russian conception of strategic deterrence through high-tech weapons of mass destruction applied backwards to help explain the essence of British naval dominance in the nineteenth century was perhaps to be expected, however improper. The Royal Navy had long anticipated. This conception of the mid-Victorian Royal Navy as a sort of comprehensive weapons system in its own right which could decisively inflict unlimited war rather easily against any enemy had indefinite applications.
