World War II was an air war. That is not to say that other arms were not important, they certainly were, but as the war progressed, victory at sea or on the ground grew to be difficult, if not impossible, without at least local air superiority. Underscoring the importance of air power at sea, Thomas
For many years after WWII, discussion of the Japanese wartime submarine force focused on its apparent failure – certainly its failure to achieve anything like the US and German submarine campaigns. Writing in the USNI Proceedings in 1961, Japanese submarine officer and historian Kennosuke Torisu notes that Japanese subs sank only a total of 171
Despite the vast numbers of books written on World War II in the last seventy years, there is still much we do not yet fully understand or appreciate. Prominent Naval Historian Norman Friedman fills yet another of these gaps in our knowledge with his book Winning a Future War. More specifically, Friedman helps us to
For more than two hundred years, from Louis XIV to the twentieth century, France had the second-greatest navy in the world. It was built to challenge England’s control of the seas and enabled the building of the world’s second-largest overseas colonial empire – and American independence into the bargain. France’s navy always built ships of
World War II histories that focus on numbers of planes lost, bombs dropped, ships sunk, and tons of supplies delivered are superb at getting to the operations analysis of what turned the war in the Allies favor—but suffer from an objective dullness. The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War is quite
All at Sea in Arctic Waters: What Life Was Really Like On Naval Ships in WW2 by Dennis McDonald, “Telegraphist (S), Bletchley U-Boat Interceptor,” is both a memoir and autobiography of a young man who volunteered for the Royal Navy during World War II and chose telegraphy as his duty. During this war, the British
Using his own phrase, John L. McCrea was a fly on the wall at the White House during the first months of the War in the Pacific when naval affairs dominated Franklin Roosevelt’s interest. Working under Admiral Harold “Betty” Stark in the office of Chief of Naval Operations, McCrea had a front row seat as
Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs sent the telegram at 6:49 PM, 3 January 1944, informing Mr. and Mrs. Olaf Larson Hanks that their son William was missing “in the performance of his duties” in the Pacific. The Chief of Personnel expressed his “sincere sympathy” for their “great anxiety.” He told them, from the reports, that it
This is a paperback edition of a book first published in 2005. The book has stood the test of time and is still the finest book covering the Washington Navy Treaty Cruisers. These cruisers, built during the 1920s and 1930s by the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Italy, and Germany, were the ships that fought
As someone interested for nearly seven decades on the Pearl Harbor attack, I am always interested in books that describe the social, political, and economic history of the 1930s and 1940s focusing on the United States and our soon-to-be Allies as well as the Axis powers. Hence, I elected to review Marc Wortman’s 1941: Fighting
The author is the president of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico which may explain why his next to last chapter, discussing Operation Crossroads, may have been his finest for his overview of the detonation of two atomic bombs and their impact on the subject of this book – the USS Nevada. That Nevada
Many histories of World War II have given short shrift to the U.S. Merchant Marine, and Herman Melton’s memoir Liberty’s War helps address this gap in history. The purpose of the book was to “recall the wartime experience of a youngster who served in four different Liberty ships.” Edited by his son, Melton’s book tells
Target America – Hitler’s Plan to Attack the United States By James P. Duffy, The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT, (2012) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. Over the past quarter century, James P. Duffy has written nearly two dozen books, mostly about military history with the majority of these focusing on the European Theater
Graf Zeppelin: The Only German Aircraft Carrier By Jürgen Prommersberger, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, (2017) Reviewed by Robert P. Largess “Graf Zeppelin” is a name to conjure with. Most people know it as the name of the pioneering passenger dirigible which made 143 Atlantic crossings, most on commercial service. Less know of her successor,
By Matthew T. Eng The Naval Historical Foundation is gearing up for our annual meeting on Saturday, 3 June. This year’s focus will be the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Our guest speaker this year will be Dr. Timothy Orr, co-author of Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers
