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]
Preparation of naval plans at home and abroad.
Consideration of and proposals for the use of new weapons and material.
Building programmes to cut out approved policy
Liaise with Director Operations Division before submission of proposals to (C.N.S.) and (D.C.N.S.).
Captain Arthur Philip Culmer, 9 May 1955 - January 1957 (Section A)[10]
Captain John Cecil Cartwright, 9 September 1956 – 1 January 1957 (Section B) [11]
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]
Section
Admiralty Room
Responsibility
(A)
(A.D.P.D)
Devise and prepare (all plans of operation both defensive and offensive)
(B)
(A.D.P.D)
Determine (quantity and arrange for the provision of material to carry out plans.)
References
^Bond, Brian; Roy, Ian (5 October 2015). War and Society Volume 2: A Yearbook of Military History. Routledge. p. 87. ISBN9781317414476.
^The Royal Navy Today. Odhams Press Limited, London. 1942. p. 64.
^Grimes, Shawn T. (2012). Strategy and War Planning in the British Navy, 1887-1918. Boydell Press. p. 216. ISBN9781843836988.
^Hamilton, C. I. (3 February 2011). The Making of the Modern Admiralty: British Naval Policy-Making, 1805–1927. Cambridge University Press. pp. 268–269. ISBN9781139496544.
^Pope, Dudley (1956). Graf Spee: The Life and Death of a Raider. Lippincott. p. 71.
^Franklin, George (2 August 2004). Britain's Anti-submarine Capability 1919-1939. Routledge. p. 30. ISBN9781135774295.
^Jellicoe, Earl John Rushworth Jellicoe (1 January 1921). The Crisis of the Naval War. Volume 1, Chapter 3, of Library of Alexandria. ISBN9781465507914. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
^ a bMackie, Colin. "Senior Royal Navy Appointments from 1865" (PDF). gulabin.com. Gulabin, pp.27 to 29, January 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
^Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "World War II unit histories & officers, Royal Navy". www.unithistories.com. Houterman and Koppes, 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
^ a bHouterman, 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.
^Houterman, J.N. "Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939-1945 -- C". unithistories.com. J.N. Houterman. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
^Marder, Arthur J. (31 March 2014). From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: Volume IV 1917, Year of Crisis. Seaforth Publishing. p. 222. ISBN9781848322011.
Sources
Archives, The National. "Records of Naval Staff Departments", discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. National Archives, 1912-1964.
Black, Nicholas (2009). The British Naval Staff in the First World War. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN9781843834427.
Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "World War II unit histories & officers, Royal Navy". www.unithistories.com. Houterman and Koppes, 2016.
Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division (1929). The Naval Staff of the Admiralty. Its Work and Development. B.R. 1845 (late C.B. 3013). Copy at The National Archives. ADM 234/434
Mackie, Colin, (2010-2014), British Armed Services between 1860 and the present day — Royal Navy - Senior Appointments, http://www.gulabin.com/.