Ready For Anything: The Royal Fleet Auxiliary 1905-1950
The book describes the origins and creation of the service, through the Great War, the interwar years, the Second World War (seven chapters), and the years up to 1950. In the two chapters devoted to the First World War there are passing references to the primary functions undertaken by these auxiliaries, namely the fuel and store freighting tasks, while a further short section describes the over complex management structure under which the vessels were operated. There is also a lengthy digest of four years of war on all fronts, together with a detour to examine the development of refuelling at sea methods in the US Navy. Ready for Anything is an attempt to condense the history of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary over the first forty  -  five years of its existence into a single, fairly slim volume. (Warship - Naval Books of the Year)