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 The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore the Senior Service). From the early 18th century to the middle of the 20th century, it was the largest and most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant power of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In WWII, the Royal Navy operated almost 600 ships. During the Cold War, it was transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the North Atlantic Ocean. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, its role for the 21st century has returned to focus on global expeditionary (blue water) operations. The Royal Navy is the second-largest navy in NATO in terms of the combined tonnage of its fleet. Its global power projection capabilities are deemed second only to the United States Navy. There are currently 91 commissioned ships in the Royal Navy, including aircraft carriers, submarines, mine counter-measures and patrol vessels. There are also the support vessels of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The Royal Navy is a constituent component of the Naval Service, which also comprises the Royal Marines, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and associated reserve forces under command. The Naval Service had 38,710 regular personnel as of November 2006.  The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht (Battle of the Skagerrak); Danish: Søslaget ved Jylland / Søslaget om Skagerrak) was the largest naval battle of World War I, and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war. It was fought on May 31–June 1, 1916, in the North Sea near Jutland, the mainland of Denmark. The combatants were the Kaiserliche Marine’s High Seas Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer and the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet commanded by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The intention of the German fleet was to lure out, trap and destroy a section of the Grand fleet, part of their larger strategy of breaking the British naval blockade of the North Sea and allowing German mercantile shipping to operate again. The Royal Navy, on the other hand, was seeking to engage and cripple the High Seas Fleet with a single engagement. On the afternoon of 31 May, Beatty and Hipper encountered each other, and in a running battle to the south Hipper drew the British into the path of the High Seas Fleet. Beatty turned and fled towards the Grand Fleet and from 18:30 until nightfall at about 20:30 the two huge fleets — totaling 250 ships between them — were heavily engaged. Fourteen British and eleven German ships were sunk with great loss of life. Jellicoe tried to cut the Germans off from their base in the hope of continuing the battle in the morning, but under cover of darkness Scheer crossed the wake of the British fleet and returned to port. Both sides claimed victory. The British had lost more ships and many more sailors, and the British press criticized the Royal Fleet's actions, but Scheer’s plan of destroying Beatty’s squadrons had failed. The Germans continued to pose a threat that required the British to keep their battleships concentrated in the North Sea, but they never again contested control of the seas. Instead, the German Navy turned its efforts and resources to unrestricted submarine warfare.  The sixth HMS Ocean of the Royal Navy is a Landing Platform, Helicopter carrier, the only one in its class. It was built during the early part of the 1990s by Kvaerner Govan on the Clyde, taking advantage of commercial build methods and facilities, before sailing to Barrow-in-Furness for fitting out prior to acceptance into service with the Royal Navy. She is based on the Invincible class aircraft carrier design. Ocean was designed to provide the amphibious assault capabilities last offered by HMS Albion and Bulwark, carrying an Embarked Military Force (EMF) supported by 12 Sea King HC-4 medium-lift helicopters, six Lynx AH-7 light-lift/anti-Tank helicopters, and four Mk5 landing craft, operated by the permanently-embarked 9 Assault Squadron Royal Marines. Her secondary roles included afloat training, limited anti-submarine warfare, and providing a base for anti-terrorist operations.
 Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, KT, GCB, OM, DSO** (7 January 1883 – 12 June 1963), older brother of General Sir Alan Cunningham, was a British admiral of the Second World War. He is often referred to by his initials "ABC." Cunningham was born in Dublin on 7 January 1883 and was schooled at several institutions before he was enrolled at a Naval Academy at the age of 10 where his association with the Navy started. After passing out of Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1898 he progressed rapidly in rank. He commanded a destroyer during World War I (WW1) and through most of the interwar period. For his performance during this time he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Two Bars for action in the Dardanelles and in the Baltic. In World War II, as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet Cunningham led British naval forces in several Mediterranean naval battles such as the Attack on Taranto in 1940, the first carrier based air attack in history, and the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941. In 1943 Cunningham was promoted to First Sea Lord, a position he held until his retirement in 1946. After his retirement Cunningham enjoyed several ceremonial positions including Lord High Steward at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He died on 12 June 1963.
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